Anti-Stress Nutrition Programme to Improve Mood,
Health, Behaviour and Learning
By Brenda Sampson
CASE HISTORIES SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF THRUSH
1. Debbie Smith's Story - I am in my thirtieth year and am overjoyed with my health at present, for I am well on the way to beating Candida, a condition which has plagued my life for maybe fifteen years.
On reflection I can see how I have overloaded my body with rubbish, not giving a thought to it except to the pleasure of taste. As a child I delighted in my mum's homebaking. I can remember eagerly coming home from school, sitting in front of the kitchen cupboards and pigging out, going through all the tins, having a bit of everything. It was all made with good old white refined sugar and white flour.
Most of my childhood memories revolve around food. I remember being four years old and getting in for a heap of trouble one day, yet I still remember what I had for lunch that day. There are many more fond memories but I did not realise how obsessed I was with it all until recently. My sister found a postcard I had sent to her when I was ten. I had gone on holiday with my girlfriend and her family. On the postcard I had written, "Please get mum to save me some biscuits out of her new tin." It would seem that food was always on my mind. You guessed it. I had plenty of tooth decay and a weight problem.
As a young child I had asthma frequently. At seven I grew out of it. At fourteen I had severe hay fever for three months and at fifteen glandular fever, at twenty-one I was plagued by a mystery illness. I was fine during the day but coughed all night leaving me exhausted. The only way to relieve this was to sleep sitting up. This I did for three months. At twenty-eight I was again diagnosed asthmatic. I had the silent type, no wheezing, but I felt like someone was inside me squashing my ribs.
During my teenage years I realised my health was not the best, but once again, food was much too pleasurable to consider becoming a "health freak" or "fruit cake". I suffered what I term "burning feet". After I walked a little and stopped, my feet felt like they were on fire. I never felt completely well and vital and thought exercise was the pits.
I was fast on a road to debilitation and destruction. After the birth of my two children I suffered depression for four years. During this time I smoke, drank and ate a lot for pleasure. Just a few short months ago I became nearly bedridden. I could no longer function as a warm responsive person. I was continually lethargic, I always had to sit down or lie down and especially hated the mornings. Upon waking I always felt worse than the night before. I looked terrible. My eyes could hardly stay open. I had dark rings and bags under the eyes and many lumps under my skin that never developed into anything but gave me the appearance of having a mild case of acne. My hair was lank and lifeless. I was bloated and felt ugly.
Life was difficult to handle, feeling so exhausted. My children also have asthma and associated allergies and they were sick a lot also. All this added up to a life that was pretty unbearable. Fortunately I met someone with M.E., and she recognised the symptoms in me. She introduced me to the Allergy Association and pointed me on the right path with advice and support. To become well became all-consuming. I read all I could about Candida and went to a homeopath and also found a doctor who helped me through this.
Many good things have come about because of being unwell. I have learnt to listen to my body and to give it what it needs. It has also been good discipline to my whole life. In fact I am now very health conscious and enjoy exercise and can feel the benefit from it, and am building up a stronger immune system. My husband no longer pollutes us by smoking inside. Due to Candida my life has never been so good. It has brought many wonderful rewards and changes. I have learnt also that there is always something good to come out of something so tragic.
2. A mother writes of her teenage son
"It is now six months since I wrote to the Allergy Association asking for information on the treatment of my son's very enlarged tonsils, which the doctor said were not infected. I would like to thank all who wrote or telephoned; their useful information helped us to see that this might be a Candida problem.
We consulted the allergy specialist you suggested. He thinks Candida is the major problem together with an allergy to dust and pollen. My son takes nystatin powder, zinc capsules, drops, and gives himself injections to build up resistance. We find it easier for the family to be on the same diet. The library has a very good book, "The Yeast Connection". We found it was a sign that Candida may be present when someone smothers their food in tomato sauce.
One tonsil is now back to its normal size and the other is no longer a problem when swallowing, but we have noticed other dramatic changes too. My son often felt ill in the morning; stomach ache, pains in his legs, headaches, sore eyes and runny nose. It would be easy to assume this was a lazy teenager who did not want to get out of bed. These symptoms have now gone and his eyes, hair and skin are clearer.
Athlete's foot which had been a problem for months disappeared; his balance and coordination have improved; he was always having accidents. Long bouts of sneezing have stopped, deafness from catarrh has gone. He can run without getting a sore chest. There is a big change in his personality too. He has changed from a miserable, aggressive, solitary person to a happy, considerate young man who has learnt to smile and no longer fights with everyone in the family. My son has had allergy problems all his life, but seems healthier now than ever before. Thank you for your assistance."
Note:
Dr. C.O. Truss, in his book on Candida infection, "The Missing Diagnosis", has this to say about Candida infection in males: "Teenage boys with this condition appear depressed or ill tempered and lacking in ambition. Acne may be severe (or athlete's foot). School work suffers severely as a result of the intellectual impairment, the lethargy and the depression. School "drop outs" are frequent among both boys and girls with this problem. After seeing a number of cases, one cannot help wondering about the possible relation of this condition to the sharp increase in teenage suicide and drug use.
Although the condition appears to be less common and less easily recognisable in the male, it can have equally devastating effects on intellectual performance and mood, and be equally destructive of self confidence and accomplishment. When these behaviour patterns develop, especially if associated with intestinal symptoms, acne, and a history of allergy, infections and antibiotics, yeast infection and allergy should be considered. It is only one of the possible causes of this type of problem, but again, the consequences when this diagnosis is missed are tragic." (The Missing Diagnosis contains two other excellent chapters on the effects of Candida on infants and children, and on teenage women.)
3. The following two case histories show the results of thrush infection through three generations. In the first case there was no diet modification and health deteriorated in each generation. The second family modified the diet to use the Feingold programme, reducing the ingestion of toxic chemicals and sugar, with more fortunate results. The children in the third generation are healthy and their parents healthy and good citizens.
In the first family, a grandmother had thrush when her children were born a generation ago. A son was hyperactive, though no one knew what was wrong with him then, and he was only given medication. This man is now an alcoholic. The daughter's family is now in trouble. She has two boys, five and three. The older has asthma, the second is hyperactive. The mother had arthritis after both births. (All these symptoms are linked with Candida and allergies.)
The boys were born from a fertility drug. The mother was on the pill, which makes people zinc deficient and therefore immune deficient. Her doctor did not think she needed to continue the pill, but immediately she stopped she became pregnant, and now has a baby girl three weeks old, ill with thrush and flu. She had no milk for the baby so it is on Isomil, though recent research shows soy milk is high in aluminium and therefore should not be given to premature or newborn babies.
The grandmother says that she herself is tormented by sugar craving. She went on a sugar free "Fit for Life" diet and felt very well, but succumbed to sugar again and now feels ill. Very likely she is still troubled by intestinal Candida. Could all the family's problems have come in part from the grandmother's original thrush problems?
By contrast, here is the story of the second family. The mother was a foundation member of our Association when we started in November 1977. She had two hyperactive sons. She used the Feingold programme successfully and in 1978 wrote me the following letter about the younger son. Both sons are now grown up. The older is happily married with a healthy child and in steady employment.
The youngest daughter was not hyperactive, but had severe eczema. In the 80's the mother took her to a specialist in allergy and in Candida treatment. He diagnosed Candida in both mother and daughter and put them on the anti-fungal medication Nystatin, with yeast free, sugar free diet. A fortnight later the eczema was 75% better and the mother told me something interesting; she had suffered from bleeding gums when she brushed her teeth all her life; but in the last fortnight with oral Nystatin, they had stopped bleeding. Thrush in the mouth damages the membrane lining in the mouth and can cause mouth ulcers. Presumably it was also responsible for the weak gums, since they healed with anti-fungal treatment.
The mother must have had thrush all her life, and if so it would have been a basic cause of her sons' hyperactivity. Experienced allergists consider that in many cases, food and chemical sensitivity come from poisons from thrush overgrowth; and hyperactivity comes from food and/or chemical sensitivity.
This is the 1978 letter referred to above:
"My son David, aged just eleven, has been on the Feingold diet for eight months. I was very sceptical about the diet, as David had been on drug therapy which was effective for a while. I did not know if I had the patience to persevere with the diet, as I had five children, aged from four to sixteen. However I love my son dearly and he was still having trouble concentrating at school and still having difficulty in controlling his movements and behaviour.
Much to my surprise after three or four days he stopped wetting the bed and has not wet it since. He had wet it almost everyday since he was born. His attention span improved along with his school work. The teacher was not told anything about the diet and she pinpointed when it happened. He became less aggressive and irritable. He seemed a happier boy. He often said he wanted to kill himself as no one liked him and nobody understood his problem. He learnt to tie his shoe laces and this was quite an achievement as his grandparents and I had been trying to teach him that since he was five. He used to hate crowds and cling to us frightened wherever we went. During the Christmas holidays he wanted to go into Wellington on his own in the bus to look around.
Others outside the family have noticed an improvement. I did not realise just how many of our foods are artificially coloured and flavoured until I went shopping the first week David was on the diet. Many labels leave a lot to be desired and if in doubt I just do not buy. These are the things I have noticed and he said himself he feels happier. His peers accept him better, his teachers are more positive towards him. I wish the diet had been available for my sixteen year old son, who was also hyperactive, when he was little."
