Diarrhea in midlife is a common thing and you likely don’t have Cyclospora.
But if you do somehow get it my podcast guest this week has some great insights into what you can do.
Scrubbing your veggies seems to be the most cost effective way to avoid the bug.
Go figure, since most folks end up having rotting veggies in their fridge because someone didn’t design them to wash and cut themselves.
Should you suspect that you have Cyclospora you can get your stool tested for it.
Oddly enough the antibiotic Bactrim, likely due to it’s sulfur content (it’s a sulfa drug) has the ability to kill this bug.
Sadly, many folks are allergic to sulfa drugs or not interested in taking an antibiotic, so what do you do?
Dr. Michael Biamonte poses that nano (very small particle) types of natural medicines can help like nano – cur cumin, silver and copper.
This same protocol applies to what actually causes a lot of mid-life diarrhea, candida aka yeast overgrowth.
Why?
Estrogen spikes feed candida and when you’re going through perimenopause this is common.
Add in some estrogen using hormone replacement therapy and you’ll also have estrogen spikes.
Live in a world with xenoestrogens (toxic estrogens often from heated plastic), hormone disruptors in your perfumes, shampoos, and other hygiene products as well as in your water sources and air.
Because you can’t avoid random exposure to hormone disruptors it does benefit you to work on your gut at least twice a year.
Especially if you’re one of those people who gets constipated more of then than not then has random bouts of diarrhea.
This is why I talk about the Standard Process 21 day cleanse in the spring and fall annually.
It helps kick out junk and the diet that goes with the cleanse helps reset the gut microbiome.
I’d venture to say that most midlife folks have some level of yeast in their gut.
Even more if they drink alcohol.
Candida aka yeast is so common that I stopped focusing on it like I once did back in my early days of practice when it was all the rage to do “candida diets” and kill off the candida.
This podcast with Dr. Biamonte reinforced what I was already thinking as of late.
It’s time to revisit the candida conversation when it comes to the gut microbiome.
Dr. Biamonte reminded me of the patterns that show up even when candida overgrowth doesn’t show in stool tests.
I suppose I put that in the back of my mind like a trauma response from all the tried and failed candida protocols of the early days of my practice.
Now with more time under my belt I’m seeing how common candida is and that it could be impeding some of the tolerance of hormone replacement therapy and other protocols.
How do you know if you have candida overgrowth?
Some lifestyle habits that contribute are drinking alcohol, eating breads or pastries that have yeast in them, daily sugar consumption and a diet with increased processed foods, chips and snacks.
Here are the symptoms per Dr. Michael Biamonte:
- Intolerance of perfumes, odors, fumes, fabric shop odors and tobacco smoke.
- Complaints that worsen in damp, muggy or moldy places.
- Fatigue.
- Feeling drained.
- Memory loss.
- Feeling spaced out.
- Flu-like symptoms.
- Drowsiness.
- Irritability or jitteriness.
- Mood swings.
- Depression.
- Suicidal feelings.
- Hypoglycemia.
- General allergies.
For a lot of people these are quite common midlife symptoms.
The symptoms overlap with mold toxicity as candida is a type of fungus and they also look at lot like multiple chemical sensitivity symptoms as well as candida kicks off a lot of histamines in the body.
Organic acids testing is the best way to know if this is truly a factor for you or not.
Genova’s Metabolomix, NutrEval, Mosaic’s or USBiotek’s Organic Acids Test (OAT) has markers to rule this out as stool tests are not as reliable for finding candida.
My podcast with Dr. Biamonte is out this week and it’s a fascinating one so I hope you’ll listen in.
If you’re now wondering if you have candida overgrowth I’m happy to help you tease it out and create your own protocols to help you put the candida in check.
Click HERE to schedule a visit with me.
Here’s to putting your gut microbiome in check,
Dr. J
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