How it all started

Here is a kind of chronological order of the symptoms I had as I had them, as I figure this will be the easiest way for you to see if your own situation relates to mine.

Beginning: Have had “tummy troubles” since I was a kid. Was fed a largely processed diet of easy quick foods like chicken nuggets, corn dogs, etc. And a lot of sugary foods: white flour, sugary breakfast cereals.

- Watched mom suffer panic attacks and also started having panic attacks myself.

- Mom and mom’s dad had stomach ulcers. And therefore, most likely, h. pylori. Probably inherited h. pylori from mom and candida overgrew from feeding on the sugary white-flour based diet as well as the anxiety.

-  Anxiety attacks got worse. Phobias got worse. Was on Paxil for 3 years until it had to continually be increased in dosage in order to work and I decided to get off it because I started developing bad night sweats and loss of feeling.

- In my late teens I developed a symptom where when I ate a single bite of food I would feel full like I couldn’t take another bite or it would make me sick.

- would be constipated for several days.

- Started taking cleansing products (Colonix brand) and starting having colon hydrotherapy. This only helped somewhat. (I recommend if you get go have a colonic done that you do it in conjunction with taking a colon cleansing product like Colonix or another product that helps move things along. Otherwise the colonic on it’s own may not do much.)

- Was finally diagnosed by stool test to be gluten intolerant.

- Went on a carefully watched, strict gluten free diet and was able to eat again. Symptoms improved almost right away.

- Started suffering other stomach problems. Was “diagnosed” by muscle testing to have some kind of bacterial infection.

- took a round of several bottles of homeopathic remedies. Saw no improvement. Went to another chiropractor-kinesiologist and was muscle tested and found to have a bacterial infection. Second person to say that. Took a product called Berbercap with Berberine and it seemed to improve my gut symptoms for a while. Was told to eliminate sugar from diet.

- started suspecting that I had candida from all the research I did. But never adhered to a strict anti-candida diet because it just seemed too difficult.

-After 3 years of going gluten-free, I came across a technique called NAET which claimed to treat food allergies. Started NAET and after several treatments was able to eat gluten again without the symptoms I had before. My overall immune system also improved. Stopped losing so much hair and smells didn’t bother me as much. Overall felt a positive difference. Was eating gluten again.

- Also started on a vegetarian diet for about a year. Which basically means a high-carb diet which candida feeds on. Heavy on Grains, Beans, Soy, Fruit, Veggies, and Cheese. All healthy foods in and of themselves, but still, high carb, lower protein and lower fat.

- Started having hypoglycemia and increased anxiety along with it. Started feeling like I had to eat every 2 or 3 hours or would feel ill.

- Started waking up in the night around 3am-5am every single night feeling hungry and hypoglycemic. Had to eat or couldn’t go back to sleep. Would eat oatmeal (carbs) as my middle of the night snack.

- The waking up in the night continued for over a year. To this day that has not stopped. Cannot sleep even on Clonazepam and other medicines that cause drowsiness.

- Started having nausea at night, this would start around 3pm sometimes, sometimes 5pm. And just get worse. Had bad anxiety attacks and nausea all night long.

- Went to the ER and was given Ativan and an antacid. Even though I never experienced acid stomach, only nausea. Started taking Ativan and quickly got addicted. Then had the worst anxiety attacks ever as Ativan isn’t meant to be on for multiple days in a row. You can wikipedia it. It has a very short half-life and can stop being effective after just 7 days. You basically start having withdrawals after being on it for just a short time. The bad anxiety was from the withdrawals. I was able to taper off it by starting on clonazepam which I’m still on. Clonazepam has a longer life. (But I still want to taper off it as soon as I’m ready.)

-Chronic nausea continued and I suffered a great deal over it. Finally was given a prescription called Promethazine (Phenergan) and it gave me much needed relief. Have been taking it almost every day since.

- Was diagnosed by blood test in Aug ’08 to have systemic candida. My suspicions were confirmed. (However, this same blood test showed negative for h.pylori antibodies.  Later learned that the blood test for h.pylori isn’t the most accurate way of testing it. Turned out I just didn’t have the antibodies…) Started following an anti-candida diet as closely as I could which included eating meat again, raising the amount of good fats, and good organic eggs, and veggies. (will post on anti-candida diet later). This helped and gave me some better days and nights for a while.

- Still had nausea off and on and still not able to sleep a full night.

- In June ’09 (almost a year later of having chronic nausea) by stool test (Metametrix DNA based) I was diagnosed as having a high amount of H.pylori. Bullseye. This explained the “morning sickness” a common symptom of h.pylori. The anti-candida diet alone was not going to take care of the h.pylori problem. Though I’m sure it was better than continuing the high carb (sugary) vegetarian diet which only fed candida and bacteria. And after a year of the anti-candida diet it didn’t make since that I was still so ill just from candida. The h.pylori was the ticker.

- Started a natural antibiotic regimen. Check my “What Worked” Post for that.