Lifestyle changes
Another important factor in the fight against systemic Candida is a changed lifestyle, because your lifestyle both can worsen your infection and weaken your immune system. In this mather, you must pay close attention to:
- Avoid stress
- Make moderate exercise
- Get a lot of sleep
- Avoid allergens and immunweakening products
Stress and exercise
Physical and mental stress aggravates your systemic Candida by raising the blood cortisollevel. A raised cortisollevel in the blood means that the body's storage of glucose, which is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen, is released into the blood. There will also be an increased turnover of food in the intestine and thus increased uptake of sugar from here to the blood. Your heart rate increases and the released sugar is carried around in the body with the bloodstream and the Candida will be fed with sugar. Even a short time with high pulse can have this effect and thus cause a relapse in the systemic Candida infection. The stressstate and thus the increasing heart rate and elevated levels of blood sugar is caused by both physical and psychological factors. Physical factors such as hard physical training and hard physical work. Short-term physical activity is of course no problem, but prolonged high pulse is very problematic. Besides it can worsen your systemic fungal infection, prolonged strenuous exercise will also drain the body's nutrient stores, which can weaken the immune system. Moderet exercise however, does not elevate the stresslevel and heart rate so much and in addition it will strengthen your immune system. Moderate strength training and moderate fitness are fine. A walk after eating is ideal, as it helps to boost digestion and your bowel movements. Yoga etc is ideal for relaxation and stress relief. Some use meditation and acupuncture.
Psychological stress has virtually the same effect on the body as physical stress, so it should also be avoided. Psychological stress can come from work, worries, grief, love, trauma, etc. The signs includes elevated heart rate, poor sleep and poor digestion. If you begin to feel some of the symptoms of stress, it is a signal that you immediately should change direction and slow down. Do something else instead, that can distract your thoughts or talk to someone about the problems that stresses you.
Good sleep
A good night's sleep and generally plenty of rest are essential elements in your fight against systemic Candida, because it has the complete opposite effect on the body than stress. A good night's sleep lowers stress levels, heart rate and blood glucose levels. Hereby the release of sugar from the body's own stores in the muscles and liver is avoided. Sleep is also essential for digestion, because your gut gets the rest it needs, for efficient digestion of food during a long stable sleep. This is reflected in your stools, that become more solid from good sleeping habits. The most important, positive factor in the good, long sleep and rest is that this state starves Candida better than at any other time. During sleep the body's energy consumption is on a minimal level and therefore the digestion in the gut and the bodys nutrient turnover is reduced to a minimum. The supply of sugar from the food to fungal infected tissue around the body via the blood is therefore lowered to a minimum. During sleep you will experience the largest Die-Off effect and starvation of the fungus. Good sleep also strengthen the immune system, in contrast to stress. Good sleep and rest can not be underestimated in your fight against Candida. Be sure to get at least 8 hours of sleep.
Allergens and immunweakening substances
You expose yourself daily to a wide range of substances and products from your surroundings. Some of these substances both aggravate your systemic Candida and weaken your immune system. Some of them you put on your skin, while others are some you breathe in through the air (airborne). Especially the airborne substances can make your life difficult, because you are often not able to control what you are exposed to. The airborne substances are inhaled and afterwards absorbed through the lungs and then into the bloodstream. In addition there are a number of substances that you consume and some that you put on your skin and absorb through the skin and into the bloodstream. Some substances act as allergens, while others weaken your immune system and thereby favor and aggravate your systemic fungal infection. Among the problematic products and substances are:
Haircareproducts
Creams
Mascara
Deodorant
Certain toothpastes and mouthwashproducts
Supplements
Nasal spray, inhalers etc.
Chewing gum
Narcotics
Airborne:
Cigarette smoke
Alcohol vapors (also air from breath, for instance at pubs)
Cleaning products (such as citric acid or chlor containing products)
Some do not respond to these products, while others react to almost everything. The airborne can be a great hindrance in daily life, it can for instance make it difficult to be in the same room as smokers. Alcohol vapors can for some hypersensitive patients make it difficult to go out, because they even respond to the very small amounts of alcohol, that can be found in the breath of people drinking alcoholcontaining beverages.
We have in our store a series of bodycare products, that should be tolerated by most patients. The series is characterized by being without allergens, alcohol and there is no absorption of chemicals through the skin and into the bloodstream, making it safe and secure to use even for the most hypersensitive Candidapatients. You can easily find better conventional bodycare products, but our products are a great alternative for those who do not tolerate conventional products.