97 replies to this topic

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Thanks biology, I've kept up with your progress too, glad to hear you're doing so well

I thought I'd take a quick picture on my phone as a mini-log of the current state

Edit Picture removed

Edited by ThatPrimalGuy, 22 December 2011 - 07:33 PM.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

So it looks like the end might be in sight!

Progress has continued in the right direction since the last post. I think this is day 82 of my candida diet, and I've seen dramatic improvements, especially over the past 2 weeks. Where before my skin was bumpy and annoying all over my chest and arms, it's now largely smooth. My back, the last and greatest stronghold of acne on my body, now actually seems to be really healing. It went for quite a while with no new stuff and is getting better and better it seems. My chest hasn't had a new pimple in over a week, though its too early to tell if the blackheads around my pecs will go away.

I have had a slight reaction just today/yesterday, but it's understandable. I went out for my GF's 22nd birthday and stayed up late, missed showering, then caught a flu the next day, missed some of my supplements, slept for ages, then stayed up all night last night because I felt better. In that situation I'd expect to break out pretty badly traditionally, but my face and neck have remained pristine. I just have a small pimple on each arm, and one on my left shoulderblade. Even so, they're isolated spots, whereas in earlier times they would have been part of a crowd of small bumps and bigger spots. Overall I'd still say things are going fine. (The flu actually happened after I had roast cauliflower and garlic for lunch, which was about a bulb and a half of garlic (about a weeks worth). I almost wonder if it could be an intense die-off from all that garlic, but the flu has been going around, so I don't want to read too much into it. It's just that my immune system has gotten pretty strong, so I didn't expect to fall ill to some random flu, and it went away in like 12 hours.)

Key things at the moment I think are:
Salt - supplementing about a teaspoon a day, and definitely seems to be helping
Clove oil - since I got onto this it seems like I've had the candida under full retreat, with very limited reactions remaining. Possibly the real tipping point.
Palmer's cocoa butter - not sure how much of my healing is this but it is supposed to blend scars/spots so it might be responsible for some of the improvement in my body.

And of course all the usual things. As always, I need to try to get more coconut oil in my diet, I just have trouble with the unrefined stuff. It's not that I hate the smell, I even like it as a conditioner, it's just after I down it I always feel queasy. Very unpleasant, but I try to get at least a bit - even if I have other antifungals, it is pretty healthy, and I need all the fats I can get.

[RedInferno]

Looking excellent! This has been a good inspiration for me to start the diet myself. The most important thing to me really is getting my energy back. I started getting pretty sick after a round of antibiotics earlier this year and I'm tired of it. I want to get back to the way I was! Although I haven't officially started this diet yet, I've been drinking only water (and quite a lot of it) and avoided sugary foods (including fruit) for the most part. I still consume a lot of carbs, but even cutting out just the sugar, I've had little to no acne problems. I used to have a few problem areas on my face that were always covered by at least a few pimples. My forehead always plagued with them.

For the past couple years, I couldn't go a day without at least one or a few inflamed pimples. Now, I know days with total clarity in my face, even though occasionally I suffer from some hormonal acne from eating certain foods or stress. What's also helped is not stressing about it so much (though I should calm down about other aspects of my life as well xD). I basically treat my face as if I have no acne and only really wash it every couple days at most.

That aside, I want to know how else this diet has helped you and how much longer you plan to stay on it. Is thing going to be a lifestyle change for you or do you want to go back to the way you ate before (except much healthier)?

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Hey RedInferno -

It's definitely a lifestyle change with me. Apart from acne, I pretty much had chronic fatigue for a long time before this diet. Everyone I talked to would write it off as me having a bad sleep schedule (which, to be fair, I often did) but I know it wasn't natural to feel -this- tired, and it persisted even when I did trials of getting 8 hours sleep for weeks at a time. I'd always want to lie down somewhere, struggle not to fall asleep while driving. I was always feeling like I could use a nap. Now that's completely changed. As long as I stick to my diet, I don't feel like I need to nap unless I've gotten very little sleep, I don't always need to lie down, and I'm told I seem much healthier and more energetic. I've gotten better colour and skin tone, along with relief from acne. Also, my parents (espescially my dad) have gotten into a similar paleo diet from watching me learn to cook and being envious of my delicious meals .

Acne wise, I have had a few cheats of neccesity the last day or two, like a few KFC chips or half a bacon sandwich just because I was out of range of my own food. I got a neck pimple, which actually made me realise how long it's been now - I haven't got the catamine lotion out in ages.

My bodies going great, compared to when I started - it's steadily moving forwards, with occasional regressions, but is clearing up across the board now. I also seem to have less food reactions. The next things back into my diet will be sweet potatos, which I'm definitely looking forward to. After that some low sugar fruits like green apple. I'm basically going to live paleo for the foreseeable future, but I'll probably lift candida-specific restrictions like vinegar and such (not sure how many of those there are). There are some things I'd like to eat, that I probably won't for a while, like nuts and dairy (both are just too volatile) but being able to add starchy vegetables and some fruits back into my diet would be great. I'd also love to try some non-gluten breadrolls occasionally, the thick crusty ones. But yes, to answer your question in a long-winded way, I think this will be a lasting change. I probably value the increase in energy levels and the confidence I gained learning to shop and cook for myself as much as the clearing of my body acne.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Quick update - I've been adding some more starchy vegetables to my diet, turnips etc. Today I let them put the potato and pumpkin on my roast meal instead of just the greens (mmm tasty). I'm hoping I can handle these occasionally, since everything's going well. I do have a tiny spot on my neck and an even smaller one on my chin today, but I had really weird sleep and such lately (and missed my taurine for at least a day). Anyhow, that's about it.

[oneredwine]

Wow, so happy for you!

And this is exactly the kind of motivation I need to keep going

Thanks!

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Thanks for the kind words redwine

After having more potato than intended this week (it just kept popping up!) as well as a few other small cheats like grapes, I do feel a little more gritty than I did before, and have had one or two little pimples on my body. I'm in no way certain they're related, as my schedule's also been a bit out of whack and I've been a little stressed. But for now, I think I'll dial back on the root vegetables. No need to endanger my progress now.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Update,

The general healing process is coming along well. My body is in the healing stages, almost nothing new. My back is starting to look kind of clear if you don't look too hard, it's just covered in old healing marks. I'll post some before and after shots at some point when it's healed over more.

The only problem is my face is acting up slightly. Not much, just a bit of irritation around the forehead, a small red mark here or there (the type that arent pimples, just slightly aggravated pores if you know what I mean) and some a general lack of skin quality. This could still be backlash for all the root vegetables and such. I've also been snacking a bit too frequently on grapes perhaps - after checking their sugar content, I can only really afford to have 5-10 in a day, and not too frequently. It's also likely related to my poor sleep lately, I haven't been getting as much as I'd like and I'm staying up later than I should. Looking back, most of my bad periods with my skin correlate pretty tightly with bad periods of sleep you'd think that would get me sleeping more, but I have an almost pathological avoidance of early bedtimes. It just feels like time wasted.

Regardless, I'm happy overall. I need to try to stomach more coconut oil, since it's always good for me to have more good fats, espescially that one. I've been tossing extra olive oil on my cooking to make up for it, but I will try to get down a spoonful a day. It's more of a chore now in winter when it isn't liquid, though I guess I could take it down solid. Anyway, I've stuck to fairly strict eating since my last post, and I'm going to try to keep that up. Once my body is fully healed, I might risk some experimentation, we'll see.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Another update (they're always more frequent when I'm concerned, it helps settle my mind to have it written down)

A slight general downturn, which is disappointing. I got a pimple over my lip large enough to actually be painful, and feels like another on the way. I used to get these occasionally, even when "clear" on just taurine, but I haven't had them since starting this diet. I already went through the possibilities last post, but I forgot that I did also have a store-bought salad that had some kind of dressing that tasted of apple cider vinegar. I suppose that means it probably had sugar to balance it out, not sure if that would affect me. Apart from the lip pimples the only other problems were a small pimple on my arm and one on my back, and an increase in irritation and itchiness. I've tried to stick very strictly to my anti-candida diet for the last week, so hopefully I'm getting past it. I have a big event in 2 days time and I'm hoping these lip pimples will fade down to be relatively unnoticable (they're not highly prominent atm, but the clearer you get, the more sensitive you become to small things).

In another note, the mark from the single corner-lip pimple I had more than a month ago still hasn't completely faded. I'm not sure if its the proximity to the redness of my lips or what, but it's taking a long time. It's barely visible, but not something I want around forever. On top of that, another small red mark appeared above it, almost linking to it, and there wasn't even a pimple there! just a random mark. Super weird. I'm going to choke down some coconut oil tonight and try to get a good night's sleep. Maybe I'll take a short work day tomorrow and relax.

Anyway, thanks for listening

*Edit*

Got the tiniest imaginable whitehead on my cheek (barely more than a bump, I can feel it more than see it). However, size aside, I havent had cheek pimples in like 6 months. I thought of a few new things - the itching has made me rub my face a -lot-, so that could be causing it. The itching itself might be caused just by winter, it's suddenly got a lot colder here. maybe I need to try a moisterizer. The other possibility that I'd rather not consider is that it's lack of taurine. I've been lowering my dose steadily to conserve my supply and because it seemed I didn't need it. I've gone down from 1.5 teaspoons a day at the height of my usage, to between a third and a half teaspoon a day. I took a full teaspoon last night just in case, but I'll have ot make the decision of whether to order more in soon (it's pretty expensive). If I know I need it I don't begrudge the cost, but I had been thinking I didn't. Oh well. My sleep has also still been bad, because while I'm going to bed earlier, I can't stop reading, so I'm up till all hours. If my situation improves with my continuing dietary restrictions and hopefully better sleep then I'll be glad, but I think I'll have to order more taurine in just in case.

Edited by Pangarl, 27 May 2011 - 06:12 PM.

[RedInferno]

Hey there, I haven't begun cooking with virgin coconut oil yet, just taking it straight after a meal.

I'm wondering if (let's say I plan to take 3 tbsp of coconut oil a day) it counts when used in cooking? Or do I have to take 3 tbsp outside of that?

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Coconut oil is stable under high heat, so I would think you can count cooking oil, just remember that some of it will stay in the pan, so adjust your calculations slightly.

Day 103

So I'm feeling a lot better now. I had a stress free, though busy, weekend. I also got good sleep both of the last two nights, and I've been eating plenty of good meat, drinking coconut oil (it's tonnes easier to do if heated in a pan first till it's nice and warm, doesn't seem to stick in your mouth/throat so much), and taking all my usual pills and potions. My face has returned to normality, which is a great relief. My arms are also really smooth and nice again. My lower back is nearly fully healed, but I've got a few relatively recent spots on my middle back region. Most of these came up at the same time, when I suspected starchy vegetables, and this is still a fairly likely culprit. I might have got one or two new ones since then, but as my back has such delayed reactions, it's hard to tell. Anyway, I feel good again, and I'm once more relaxing and trying to just go with the flow and continue my diet as best I can.

[RedInferno]

Glad to see you're doing good.

Since my main antifungal is extra virgin coconut oil (I plan on incorporating apple cider vinegar later or garlic) I was wondering if it's absolutely necessary to rotate antifungals. I read from a lot of people that they do in order to keep the candida from growing resistant to a particular antifungal. There are also others who use the same thing all throughout and it is still effective. I read somewhere that according to Dr. Mccomb (who has his own Candida program..which I won't be taking of course haha, I'm sticking to the strict elimination and supplementation route) that needing to rotate antifungal treatments is a myth when it comes to natural products like garlic or coconut oil.

I'm curious what your personal experience is and how extensive use of an item has done for you. I notice that people keep taking coconut oil all throughout the diet to get sufficient fat intake; I wonder if it's still effective as a means to fight candida.

Thank you so much for your help!

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Hey Red, No worries. I've sifted a lot of contradictory sources on candida, but the most reliable seem to agree that natural antifungals don't need to be rotated. I've used coconut oil and clove oil effectively for quite some time along with garlic when I remember. I can recommend all three. I did start with ACV, but I'd just be careful, because there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus on whether it's a good route to go down for all candida sufferers.


In skin news:

All my recent problems seem to have melted away, possibly because I took a fair bit of coconut oil for a few days, or because I upped my taurine intake to a full teaspoon a day. Either way, everything is looking good, my skin is smoothing out and clearing up all over. Before/after shots soon to come.

Keeping this online journal has made me think about keeping a general blog not devoted to my skin issues. I wrote and saved a few posts, I might put them up when I get the chance. I guess you guys don't know that much about me besides the fact that I'm a fanatical dieter and acne fighter

For anyone interested, I'm 21, currently working as a research assistant in a psych lab while I run down PhD supervisors for next year. I kept up a pretty high GPA through my degree, and so I'm getting awarded a university medal next month, which I'm pretty proud of. I have a gorgeous girlfriend who I met in my studies and who is now starting her own PhD. I have two guitars (an electric and an acoustic) soon to be joined by a third, my dream guitar (a les paul traditional). I'm pretty devoted to becoming a profficient musician, so I spend a lot of time studying and practising music when I can. I'm 5'10, 63 kg's, and have to eat enormous amounts of food to maintain that weight. I did parkour for a while, but dropped it after a semester, it just wasn't quite for me. I'm considering taking up a martial art on a dare from my girlfriend, who's a judo champion. I love to write, and though I'm always putting off my creative writing, I recently took on the authorship of the blog for girlfriend's family's candle store, so that's something

I guess that's it for now, thought I'd share a little for anyone out there taking the time to read my updates

[RedInferno]

Your progress and great attitude are inspiring! I'd love to read your general blog if you decide to do that.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

The last week has been great, skin-wise. It seems that taurine is still useful to me even now, as upping the dose to a teaspoon a day seems to have had a decent impact. That or it's just the healing process. Regardless, arms are clear, shoulders are clear, face/neck are clear. Back is actually almost clear, healing some semi-recent spots, but I would no longer be anxious if I had to go shirtless on the beach. My chest has been great for about ten days, though yesterday I did got my first spot there in a while. Not a big angry one, just a whitehead above my abs. A bit annoying, but hopefully not a sign of anything bad. I've been a bit more relaxed in my diet, still avoiding grains/legumes/carbs in general like the plague, but not worrying so much about eating out at a restaurant. If I have a dish that's just vegetables and meats, I don't worry about what's in the sauce as much, I figure a little sugar in some sauce probably won't hurt me (fingers crossed). Also been eating a bit more pumpkin, to no negative effect that I noticed. Most of my problems are winding down, though I'm maintaining vigilance for a while yet. Today marks 3 months and 3 weeks on my anti-candida diet.

P.S. - Thanks Red, it means a lot

Edit: I forgot to mention I have been eating a few too many grapes (a small bunch a day since we had some) as well as slacking off on my coconut oil. Also had some stuff like takeaway curry etc. Not too big a deal but always good to note the change. Might be related to the spot on my chest, and the slightly painful bump on my forehead. It probably won't make it into a pimple through all the taurine I'm taking currently, but it possibly indicates too much fructose for me. Today's been a strict anti-candida day though, and I'll try for the next two days as well, though I might have to go out on sunday.

Edited by Pangarl, 08 June 2011 - 10:41 PM.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Had some possible die-off symptoms the last few days, which I hadn't had in a while. Got a new arm pimple and felt a bit sick overall, also a touch of diarrhea. It might be a reaction to me tightening up my diet after lapsing a little. I'll wait and see. Overall, I've had some small cheats recently, but am sticking closer to my routine than I was before.

*Next day* I had a long sleep and my face and body are looking a bit better. I feel like things are complicated because of all the small cheats lately. If I'm better, is it because I'm cheating less and the die-off is over, or am I feeding the candida and making it happy? I'd like to think its the former, as I've been off grapes for almost a week now. I did however have some home-made apricot chicken last night, so hopefully that wasn't too fructose-heavy. My social calendars been filling up which has required some more flexibility on my part. Overall things are still way better than when I started, but I'm getting a few of the tiny red bumps I got when I was just on taurine alone, and the occasional new body pimple annoys me. Nothing worth worrying about appearance-wise, but I do worry about what it indicates is happening inside me. Anyhow, hopefully I'm past my mini-die off due to tightening up my restrictions, and I'm going to attempt to keep them in place now. I do wonder, though, if I'll ever be able to consume much of anything processed or sweet without breaking out, regardless of whether I beat this candida thing (if I haven't already).

Anyhow, that's me out.

Edited by Pangarl, 13 June 2011 - 09:09 PM.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Just took some photos to do a comparison of my current situation to where I was - it's really encouraging! I'm glad I kept some photos to remind me how bad things were. I'll try to get them up later today. I feel like I'm past that last die-off at the moment, having tightened my restrictions, and taken some coconut oil, and things are going good. Talk soon!

[ThatPrimalGuy]

Alright, 4 months progress shots!

To be fair, the before shots are actually baseline's I took halfway through 2010, so about 7 months before I started this regimen. However, none of my interventions in the meantime had any significant effect, so they give you a pretty good idea of what I was dealing with at the start of this log. I'd like to think this is significant progress, let me know what your opinions are

Edit Pictures removed

I had almost forgotten how bad my back was, so seeing this has renewed my motivation to stick to my diet, at least for the near future. Hopefully this will give others an idea of what diet can do to body acne.

That's all for now

Edited by ThatPrimalGuy, 22 December 2011 - 07:34 PM.

[ThatPrimalGuy]

The die-off symptoms seemed to have passed now. I haven't had any fruit for a decent time now, and I've been on my clove oil regularly with some coconut oil thrown in when I can. I do have one new decent sized pimple on my lower back, and one slightly older one on my upper back, so the fight's not totally over yet, but my older marks are fading each day, so that's good. My arms and chest have stayed clear, as has my face. Only small cheat was that I went out for thai food saturday night and had chicken with cashew, with an unknown sauce, as well as a small amount of pasty in the entree, and then a bite or two of bread later. Nothing to worry too much about. I got up early this morning to try to get my sleep pattern under control, so hopefully that will be helpful.

In less skin-related news, I'm trying to procrastinate less and make more out of every day. I'm working really hard at my guitar studies, and trying to fit in some singing practise, but I've decided I'm also really going to make an effort to start writing, even if only short stories. I love writing, and I'm good at it, but I always tell myself I'll be a writer "someday," which usually means never. I don't want to have any regrets when I look back, so I'm going to give every effort to not putting off my efforts at writing. In aid of this, since I just finished a giant book series, I think I'll give reading a bit of a rest for now and pursue my music and writing in it's place. Learning martial arts is still a plan, but, while I don't want to procrastinate, I also don't want to take too much on at once, and there's only so many hours in the day, so I'm going to leave that just for the moment.

Anyhow, that's all for now,
Cheers,
Pan

[mildchild]

great updates! your progress looks very good, and thanks for introducing me to the whole candida thing. i don't think i have it but i'm completely in favor of the high fat diet.