How do you test for yeast?

[JoyBop]

Dr, Bock spoke a lot about cadida and yeast. I have also heard a lot of you mention it.

For those of you who have dealt with this, what tests have been done and what has the treatment been?

Thanks.

[sf_mom]

We used a comprehensive stool analysis for testing. You can also test for yeast other ways (Blood and Saliva).

 

I like the comprehensive stool because you know which strain of yeast you are dealing with and which remedies are useful in treatment of specific strain. The stool analysis will also look for parasites, other opportunistic bacteria, level of good bacteria so which strains of probiotics might be helpful in re-establishing gut flora and if digestive enzymes are required for absorption of vitamins and minerals. The comprehensive is more expensive than the blood or the salvia test but again provides a lot of valuable information. We re-run comprehensive stool at least once a year.

 

Obvious signs of yeast are white coated tongue, white patches of skin usually on the face (this could also be vitamin/mineral deficiency), eczema, itchy soles of feet, palms, rectal area, etc. A black coated tongue is fungus. Yeast will convert to fungus. Here is some good information on yeast.

 

http://drmccombs.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/10-candida-myths/

 

We have treated yeast with both nystatin and diflucan plus other herbals remedies. Even with ongoing treatment, I believe we are still dealing with yeast but we did see improvements with initial treatments. Diflucan will treat other underlying infections as well like Lyme. We did notice a die-off phase with treatment so an increase in symptoms. When we first started treating yeast/fungus our DD broke out with ringworm followed by a full body fungal rash between weeks 3 to 6. We had no other indication DD had a yeast/fungal issue until we did comprehensive stool and started treating. Older DS had some periodic eczema, itchiness, white patches of skin and positive stool analysis. Younger DS had a black tongue at one point and positive stool analysis.

Edited November 11, 2013 by SF Mom

[LNN]

There is supposedly an at home spit test you can do - spit into a glass of water first thing in the a.m. before getting out of bed. If the spit dissipates, no yeast, if it gets stringy, yeast. Google "yeast+spit" and you'll find details. Not sure if it's accurate.

 

You can also do a blood test for antibodies to candida albicans. But candida isn't the only fungal infection you can have in the gut, so if you get a positive, you're good to go. But if it's negative, you may have to test for other fungii.

 

Like SFMom, we've done a stool test. I can't recall which lab we used - genova maybe? - but they had a deal where you pay $99 up front and they bill your insurance but you don't have to pay anything more regardless of the insurance outcome. We did the kit thru our LLMD. It showed negative for candida but high for Sacc. B, which is a problem for DS (even tho many here take Sacc B as a probiotic). It also showed us some nutritional absorption issues and borderline dietary issues.

 

We've been treating first with diflucan and now with nystatin plus colon cleanse plus reduced carbs/sugar plus probiotics high in bifido cultures. We've also used odorless garlic daily (but not using right now). Years of abx have made this a bigger project than I imagined.

[JoyBop]

Just curious, how log do you treat with duflucan and for how long?