I have been dealing with gut health issues for over nine years. Throughout that time I’ve struggled with recurring candidiasis, which is a fungal infection caused by a type of yeast called candida. I did my first candida cleanse at the age of 23. I’m 32 now.
During that nine-year period, I’ve had a candida infection come back three times. One of the biggest symptoms I experienced was brain fog along with chronic bloating after eating. Living with chronic brain fog and bloating was starting to impact my mental health, and made it hard for me to eat out without anxiety.
I was asking myself why it kept coming back—until I was finally able to rid myself of it, seemingly for good, over the past two years.
After getting ulcers—which was a good sign I had to take some restorative action for my health—I came to the crucial realization that I needed to focus on healing both my gut lining and my stomach acid.
I had actually tried all the traditional things for healing your gut, like greens powder and probiotics and fermented fruit and vegetables, along with multiple candida cleanses, but they weren’t helping me long term. My problems kept recurring—and even getting worse.
So I decided to do some serious research, and some serious testing and measuring of my gut health to get a deeper understanding of my body and the issues I was experiencing.
And that is when I learned the effect that stomach acid can have on your gut flora. I feel like nobody on social media, with all the videos about gut health, is talking about stomach acid.
Figuring this out was the key for me to unlock long-term gut health. So if, like me, all the usual gut health things aren’t working the way you’d hoped, it’s worth looking at stomach acid. And more specifically, if you have low stomach acid, like I learned that I did.
If your stomach acid is low, your gut creates the perfect environment for candida to live and thrive, and to keep coming back no matter how many cleanses you’re doing. You will also constantly be bloated no matter how many probiotics you take because you’re not digesting your food properly.
Some signs of low stomach acid are reflux, heartburn, burping after meals, pain in your stomach after eating, bloating, and nutrient absorption problems.
Once I understood the impact my low stomach acid was having on my gut health, and how that related to candida, I did a few things to help fix it.
I started taking digestive enzymes, which help you to break down your food. I also began using apple cider vinegar before my meals to help me digest food, especially before a large meal or one with a lot of animal protein where I knew digestion would be hardest.
I also took a betaine hydrochloride (HCl) supplement around mealtimes as there is some evidence that it can help to improve your stomach acid for digestion, and I thought it would be helpful until my body was able to create more acid on its own. Other supplements I used were zinc and B vitamins, which can help the stomach to produce its own acid.
Before I was able to take any supplements for my stomach acid, though, I did have to heal my stomach lining. Not everyone will need this step, but I did. I was able to heal my gut lining primarily by eating a lot of cabbage in soups and juice, as well as aloe vera juice.
From starting my candida cleanse, it took about six or seven weeks before I saw a major improvement in my mental clarity and energy, and my bloating symptoms. During this time, I also spent periods taking herbal supplements that I feel helped, such as wild Mediterranean oregano oil.
Lastly, I also introduced probiotics back into my diet. I tried to avoid adding everything together at once, because they can have competing—and ultimately counterproductive—effects on your body, such as killing the good bacteria as well as the bad and the candida.
If you’re going to do a candida protocol or want to improve your chronic brain fog, bloating, or digestion issues, I recommend working with a functional health care or holistic practitioner to guide you through a personalized approach that fits your own needs because everyone is different.
Now that I have been able to successfully keep my candida from coming back, I have much more mental energy and clarity, as well as a significant improvement in my bloating. Additionally, balancing my stomach acid levels has helped improve my digestion so much.
My life has gotten much easier without the burden of constant worry over what foods are causing my bloating, and I am much happier living without brain fog.
A happy and healthy gut equals a happy and healthy life.
Remy Kay is a holistic health coach based in San Diego, California.
All views expressed are the author’s own.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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