3 days ago I started taking an antifungal supplement to treat accidental ingestion of mold (and possibly bacteria) on hummus. After discovering I had eaten moldy hummus and experienced bloating, cramping pain, headaches and nausea, I emailed my doctor about the mold ingestion incident. I also told him I still had some caprylic acid (antifungal supplement) and some Nystatin (antifungal drug), as well as a some Phytofuge (a general purpose antibacterial, antifungal supplement which has horrible side effects). He told me I could take what remained of the caprylic acid and the Nystatin, because they both did the same thing (kill fungus/mold) in my gut, and continue for 7 days (2 capsules 2x daily).
I started taking the caprylic acid (CA), because I had forgotten what side effects I experienced with that supplement. I soon realized (and verified online) that the CA side effects were very similar to my mold reaction symptoms, i.e., bloating, pain, nausea, headaches. So I initially wasn't sure the CA was still effective. My doc reassured me the CA should still work. After one day of CA I noticed one beneficial side effect (diarrhea for most people), which just made me more 'regular'. That was similar to my experience with Nystatin.
I only have enough CA for 3-1/2 days of treatment. Then I take the remaining Nystatin for 3-1/2 days to complete a week of treatment. So I probably won't adjust to the CA in that short of time, which means I'll suffer uncomfortable side effects during the time I take CA. Then I get to start Nystatin, which I KNOW causes initial nausea and headaches, but also ongoing bloating and eventually improvement in 'regularity' (because it has the same diarrhea side effect).
My doctor thinks that 1 week is adequate treatment for 'acute ingestion'. However, he also suggested that I could continue CA, which I told him I preferred over Nystatin (before I experienced side effects), if CA 'made me feel better'. Surely he was joking. LOL I don't think ongoing bloating and gas, despite improvement in regularity, is 'feeling better'.
This is NOT my first experience with CA. I took it for a month TWICE previously: once to treat a Klebsiella bacterial infection and another time to treat an Enterobacter Cloacae bacterial infection. I remember I believed that after I finished the treatment I would feel wonderful, be 'regular' and never again suffer from bloating, cramping pain and nausea. Actually both CA treatments gave me a couple of months' freedom from irregularity and other symptoms. I recall I went to Maui after both treatments. I felt GREAT for almost 3 months. Then all my gut symptoms returned.
I wasn't so lucky with my Nystatin experience. That drug, which I took for low levels of candida albicans, made me VERY nauseas and headachey initially. Then I experienced progressively more bloating and gas. The good news was that drug also made me more 'regular'. When I checked online sources for Nystatin side effects, diarrhea, nausea, headaches and bloating were included in every report. When I told my doc about the symptoms, he told me that was not 'side effects', but the result of candida 'DIE OFF'. I really didn't believe that after reading numerous reports about Nystatin's side effects. If my symptoms were due to 'die off', I wouldn't experience less effect on regularity as time passed. I would think that the effect would be greater as the Nystatin killed off more candida fungus. When I tapered off Nystatin, I also experienced less side effects. When I went back on Nystatin, I got all the side effects again.
So I'm not looking forward to starting the Nystatin tomorrow night. The Nystatin side effects of nausea, headaches and bloating are very severe intially. After a few days, the nausea disappears, but the bloating never does. Of course, I won't take Nystatin long enough this time to notice relief from nausea. I'll just take it, feel crappy and wonder if it does any good. My previous treatment with Nystatin for candida lasted over 3 months. Initially that drug also improved regularity (with its 'diarrhea' side effect). However, as my body adjusted to the drug that beneficial side effect disappeared. I did NOT feel wonderful after stoping Nystatin, just relieved that I no longer had to suffer constant bloating and gas.
As far as treating gut symptoms with either drug or supplement, I really think I'm d****d if I do and d****d if I don't. When I take antifungal meds, I feel horrible, but I'm more 'regular'. A few weeks after I stop taking those, the cramping, bloating and gas disappears but the irregularity returns. If I had to choose to continue one of those treatments, I'd choose CA, because I had positive results after ending treatment, unlike Nystatin which gave me no ongoing benefits. Nevertheless, I feel rather hopeless, because I have endured treatments for 2 bacteria, candida and one parasite during the past 3 years. Before that I eliminated 7 different food allergies. Now I STILL have some symptoms I had before I began that recovery journey. This experience feels like: 'Life is hard and then you die'.
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7 comments:
Ouch! I am sorry to hear about the reaction to mold. I have to read the rest of your other entry. I hope you found a solution that can help you the most. It sounds like a tough decision on which drugs to take for feeling the best or having lasting benefits, and I've never been through that so don't have any real words to offer other than that I will be praying for you this week. I hope you had a better day today and that this will pass sooner than you expect. ((((Sue))))
THANKS, Lisa. As I briefly mentioned in this post, I've gone through 2 other treatments with Caprylic acid (2 months of bloating, gas, nausea, etc.) and another total 5 months treatment with Nystatin (nausea, headaches, bloating, etc.). So all those symptoms are familiar to me. However, the first times I used them, I believed the treatment would end all my previous symptoms. So I optimistically endured the side effects. Fortunately Caprylic acid DID kill off the bacteria which caused my initial symptoms and I had several symptom free months after that. Then I got another bacteria, diagnosed by another stool test, and had to endure Caprylic acid again for the new bacteria.
I eventually learned that hypochloridia (low stomach acid caused by too many years of acid blockers) allowed those food born bacteria to get into my gut, rather than being killed off by normal levels of stomach acid. I've been taking HCl to replenish that stomach acid. So I hope I won't get more bacteria.
Nystatin wasn't as effective. I took that for a total of 5 months and only had side effects. Once I stopped the drug, my original symptoms returned. I just finished 3+ days of Nystatin for the recent mold infestation. After finishing the Nystatin I went through a day of withdrawal headaches, which tylenol wouldn't touch. (I originally posted about that and then deleted that horrible sounding post.) The whole process lasted about 9 days (of horrible symptoms).
THE GOOD NEWS is I feel WONDERFUL today ... almost no pain. Normal regularity. Of course I had to begin some high dose probiotics to follow the treatment. So tonight I start a week of more bloating and gas, but no headaches or nausea. I could alternate days with high dose probiotics and low dose probiotics. The goal is to repopulate my gut with good bacteria to replenish the area originally inhabited by all the bad mold and bacteria which the recent treatment killed off.
Maybe I'll post a future entry about treatment side and after effects. Right now I'm taking advantage of feeling well enough to catch up on household chores, etc. Nice to not feel nauseas and headachey all day long.
I am so glad you had a good day yesterday! hope it carried over today, too.
Thamks, Lisa. Last night I started those heavy duty probiotics, which caused MUCHO bloating and gas during the night, but I felt fine again today. I planned to post about how I'm doing. However, I'm almost afraid to write anything, because I fear 'jinxing' this. I've been through so many brief 'recoveries' before, that I want to wait and see whether my symptoms return or I'm really better. I guess I'm still rather 'hopeless' about recovering from gut symptoms. SIGH
I'm amazed by what I posted over 4 years ago. Back then I developed multiple (8) gut infections over a 4 year period. After every diagnosis and treatment (which wiped out my good gut microbia), I took what I thought were high dose probiotics for a week or so. However a few years ago I learned about a really high dose probiotic and have taken that ever since (and haven't developed any new gut infections).
Above all, the continual irregularity (which caused lots of cramping and bloating even when I didn't have gut infections) was really caused by slow gut motility caused by slow metabolism caused by Hashimoto's thyroiditis (hypothyroidism) caused by long undiagnosed celiac disease. I had hypothyroid symptoms all my life (since before grade school) and was finally diagnosed at age 63? by a naturopath who considered why I kept getting those gut infections.
One of the reasons was hypothyroidism. Other reasons included low vitamin D levels, low stomach acid production and low white blood cells. I later learned I had super low DHEA (an adrenal hormone). All those years I struggled with constipation and low body temperature (and other hypothyroid symptoms), I listened to others tell me that I needed to eat more fruit, drink more water, etc. for constipation. (I did all the constipation cures with no real, longterm results.) They told me that if I just gained more weight, I wouldn't be cold all the time. (I'm thinner than ever and warmer than ever before, thanks to adequate thyroid hormone supplements.)
I added this comment for anyone who feels 'hopeless resignation' about their health problems. I want to say to you: Don't ever give up looking for solutions. Don't believe that there are no 'cures' for your condition. Your doctor may only know what he learned in med school years ago, or what the drug reps tell him about treating symptoms, but never curing anything.
Try another doctor. Try alternative medicine. If you have any digestive symptoms, see a naturopath. If you have other kinds of symptoms, consider other alternative docs. Just because your doc gave up on you, doesn't mean you have to give up on yourself. Keep looking for the cause of your symptoms. Don't settle for numbing the symptoms with drugs while the cause makes you sicker.
Yeah nystatin is kicking my behind I'm on it for oral thrush. Geese I was just on antibiotics which made me sick now the nystatin is doing it. So far today I've ran to the bathroom 5 Times in just the couple hours I've been awake. I'm also on omepersol for gastertis so also feel sick from that. I've lost 40 pounds because everything I eat makes me sick and causes diareaa. It's frustrating and causes me severe anxiety I just want to feel ok again
Lindsey: Please read my previous comments. Omeprazole (aka Prilosec) will wipe out your stomach acid, but you need stomach acid to keep a normal balance of gut bacteria. Prilosec will kill off the good bacteria and allow candida (yeast) to flourish in your mouth (thrush) or intestines (candida). Imblanced intestinal baceria can cause diarrhea. Reflux is not caused by too much stomach acid, but rather is caused by relaxing the esophageal valve with certain foods (onions, chocolate, caffeine, etc.) or food allergies. You need to find the cause of your reflux, rather than treating the symptoms by killing off your stomach acid. If you've been prescribed prilosec by mainstream docs, you might want to find a naturopath who knows about the Heidelberg capsule test, which assesses your stomach acid production. Low stomach acid can also cause reflux. I had reflux for years and had very low stomach acid production. I also endured 8 different gut infections (including c-diff) over a 4 yr period after taking zantac, which killed my normal gut bacteria and allowed dangerous gut bugs to flourish. Get off the omeprazole asap and start taking high dose probiotics (like 50 billion live cells per capsule) to restore your gut balance. That will resolve diarrhea or any other gut symptoms, unless you have a bad gut infection. Only a stool sample test (Metametrix) can diagnose that. Good luck!
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