To sum up my experience, I am sharing with you the letter I wrote to an author of the book I am using to heal myself.
"Good day Eric,
I hope it is okay for me to respond to this email. I just wanted to let you know that I am really enjoying your book. There are many things in there I am already aware of, but so many people are not. I love that your book is so thorough, and would recommend it to everyone.It seems like you cover everything, just a spectacular piece. It can be a bit overwhelming as there are so many books and information out there regarding candida, I am so very glad I went with yours.
On a more personal note .... Eric, I was in a terrible state. I think when I took your test I was like 98%. For the past few years I literally felt as though I could feel myself dying. I too have gone to many doctors only for them to tell me that I was fine. But I knew without a doubt that I was not, far, far from that. I knew something was severely off starting about 10 years ago. I would get these bouts of exhaustion, accompanied with dizziness, headaches and nausea.They were so bad I would be down for 3 days when I had these attacks. That is when I started seeing doctors and looking online for answers, to no avail.
More years passed and I continued worsen. I could feel something changing in my brain. I am usually a fast thinker, a fast talker, a multi-tasker... but that was changing. My mental clearness was becoming foggy, my memory started slipping, which with time only continued to worsen. It is really hard to put into words how it felt mentally. I remember there was a couple years where it felt as if the source of fogginess that was putting distance between me and my thoughts or me and reality was a mass in my head above my right eye but near the center of by forehead. Like some weird mental congestion. Eventually I couldn't even handle stress, At peak stress moments it literally felt as though my body was internally vibrating or something, and often physically begin to shake too, mostly apparent in my hands and legs. Also started getting heart palpitations and sometimes my heart would race for no reason. Oh, and my mood... it had become terrible. I even no longer liked myself. It was like I was Dementor from Harry Potter and would suck all the goodness from the room upon entering it. And though I could see this, and was aware enough to know this attitude was not okay, even with conscious effort i couldn't change.
Thank God, I have an absolutely amazing husband who has known me for 20 years, and knows the real me. He could see that something was very wrong, and since we could not find the answer, he recommended I stop working and stay home. I would try to express to him that everyday I felt less and less myself. Like I was slipping away from myself. It was scary.
For the past 3 years I stayed home. The first year I basically slept. Only up at night, to make dinner for the family then watched a lot of Netflix, and played some games on my iPad or PC. That first year was really hard and such a hopeless feeling overwhelmed me. It was a very dark place and I was convinced I was dying, albeit slowly but closer than I should be. And because the doctors could not find anything, felt as though my friends and family thought perhaps I was a hypochondriac. I didn't even share what was going on with me with my dads side of the family because I know their answer would be you're bipolar and suffer from depression, you need to take drugs. (That is their answer to everything.) I personally am anti-drugs and feel they are not handling the problem only making people worse. Needless to say, for the first time in my life, I sincerely felt alone, lost and alone. I would eat once a day and completely withdrew from the world. Looking back I wonder if I subconsciously knew food was making me sick, because I really wasn't eating much, perhaps 1-2 cups of food per day.
Year 2 of being home. I felt slightly better, only in that I wasn't getting nauseous anymore, dizziness was rare, headaches and fatigue less frequent. Though now I was more like lethargic. Every time I would get a new symptom I would then add it my list and retry Googling for the answer. (I really didn't like Googling for answers because somehow I always end up on some page with some weird disease with my symptoms that says I am going to die. It can be an alarming affair.) I don't recall what the symptom was at that time, but I stumbled on metal poisoning. I then went through a period where I was eating healthy raw foods, taking supplements, yada yada. I remember red bell pepper were something I craved and would eat daily. But, at the end of this, even though I felt a bit better, I still could not think clearly and brain was not feeling well. I begun to fear when any of my family members would bring home a little cold or flu, because while they would be down a day or two, I would always catch it and be down for two weeks getting the worst of it.
I had some serious dark days during these recent past years. For example, I wanted to go through all my stuff and get rid of most of it because should I die I didn't want to leave my husband with a mess of things to have to go through. A few times I had conversations with myself, how I was actually okay with passing, I was so tired of feeling this way with no light at the end of the tunnel and only feeling like it was getting worse. Then I would think about what I would miss, my son would always be the thing that would come to my mind, and not so much that I would miss him, because II would, but more so the fact that he still needs me in his life. Tears would roll at the thought of knowing the toll my absence would create in his world. I would then tell myself, if I can at least make it until he is 18, or 22 would be better.
When I first started to stay home I was 130 pounds at a height of 5'5'', I am now 109. All my life I danced. That is what I studied when in a performing arts school as a teenager, that was the only real life passion I had known. Anyone who knew me, the word dance was synonymous with my name to them. I had danced for over 20 years, all my adult life, never less than once a week sometimes up 4 times a week. And when I would dance it would be for hours and pretty nonstop. It was about 3 or four years ago, when my passion for dance started to dwindle, eventually I would get winded within a few minutes of dancing. But mostly, the passion for it left my soul. This was a sad day for me indeed. In the past 3 years I maybe go dancing once a year, the last time I went was October. Part of the point of this paragraph, is to not only demonstrate something tragically, mentally was occurring, but also I had been a very physically active person. I will be 42 next month, and before I stopped dancing I had only about 5-10 pounds of fat, but I had a lot of lean muscle. During the past 3 years I have lost a lot of muscle. It would appear that I am that more rare percentile as I am aware those with candida overgrowth more commonly are on a heavier side. Yet I am of a small frame, was a fit lady, always mistaken for 10 years younger, though in the last few years I have felt so old.
My last doctors visit, this was the first doctor to not just say "You're fine" but actually showed me the results of my blood work. I was astonished. My good cholesterol was higher then then the recommended marker, my bad cholesterol lower than the marker, my blood pressure outstanding, everything was actually better than what the average markers. No wonder doctors seemed so confident when they would tell me "You're fine". I was no closer to my Scooby-Doo mystery once again, regarding what was wrong with me. I started to think, maybe I am just getting old, loss of memory, the fogginess, occasional blurred vision, fatigue, etc. It was just happening so fast, it didn't make sense.
So another year past, uninspired, sad, disappointed in the person I become who basically sits at home and does a whole lot of nothing.Everyday feeling like I am slipping away slowly. As much as I wanted to change, do something, feel better, I couldn't, with only occasional energy and mental capacity to do something outside my home. All my relations have severely suffered over the past years as I completely withdrew from the world around me. I had never been one that was heavy into online games or iPad games, but I am grateful that I had them during that time. It was one of the only things that brought me a little joy and gave my brain some activity, and a creative outlet.
Then new symptoms happened a few months back. First it was a smell in my armpits. It smelled like cat pee. At first I didn't think too much about it, then a months later my feet, around my nails. This was very odd to me. Never in my life did I have stinky sweat or stinky feet. And, with my feet, I am at home, I rarely wear shoes. It baffled my mind how this could have happened. Back to Google I go. Of course the first thing that was coming up was breast cancer, but it's Google, so of course I am going to end up on the worst pages first. I keep digging. I found some random blog where someone is asking people what could this odor of cat pee from her armpits possibly be. As I read through the comments, there was one person who mentioned candida overgrowth. I then jumped to see the list(s) of symptoms for it, and there it was... all of it, everything I had been experiencing chronically or occasionally, and subtle things that I hadn't even considered symptoms. They were all on the list! I was hopeful again. First time in a very long time.
I spent a whole day just looking around the topic, trying to figure out where to start and who's advice to follow. I chose you. You have a passion about what you do that came across to me as genuine, unlike some of these overly smiley, possibly hired actors sorts.I think I watched all of your videos and got a sense that your health philosophies were very aligned with my own. So I bought your book roughly about 8 or 9 days ago. I was very impressed that this book is a bit more broad spectrum about health and so thoroughly goes over candida. 700 something pages of awesomeness!
As I read and skimmed through your book, the first thing that happened is I found myself looking at my medical history in a completely new light. I now believe I have had candida overgrowth for over 20 years. I remember having the bizarre skin reaction on my eyelids around 18. The skin on my eyelids turned scaly and thick, I could not open my eyes fully except for when taking a shower and it would soften. I was prescribed and anti-fungal gel which cleared it up. Then getting diagnosed as having scalp psoriasis. Next in my 20's and 30's I was bombarded with vaginal yeast and bacterial infections. I would have minimally one a year sometimes up to 4 per year. Another thing I felt like such a ding-dong about was my tongue in the more recent years had been whitish, but when I look at pictures of thrush before it always looked like this thick gloppy-like stuff on the tongue and mine didn't look like that but the pictures you had in your book I was able to relate to. Another thing is in the past couple years I started to get these horrible earaches, but they felt different than any earache I had had before. Anywho, the list went on and on and I realized I actually had a lot more symptoms than I had realized!
As I continued to read and skim, I kept seeing all these things I had done right, for example I completely had cut out all alcohol from my life. Though I did that because I observed that it made me feel ill, but not the same ill one feels in a hungover state, it was different. Only on occasion would have a soda, I do have a soft spot for rootbeer. For the most part I did not eat a lot of prepackaged foods. As I went down the list I actually could feel a little happy about all the things that I had done right. Now the question I was asking myself, "what am I missing?"
That is what I found in your book. 1. I needed to ensure to cut out ALL sugars and starches. 2. I needed to learn to like fermented foods. 3. Though I had anti-fungal items in my house, now I knew the proper way to use them. Armed with this info, I relieved my kitchen of some items and off to the store I went.
Me going "warm turkey" as you recommend in your book was basically going right to the MEVY, with the only exception of blueberries, green apples, and 1 cup of coffee in the morning with less than or about a tsp of Xylitol and 1-2 tsp of milk. I already only use extra virgin olive oil, sometimes coconut, and mostly Braggs apple cider as the vinegar I use. For the most part my diet was not too far from where I needed to be. Now it was about diligence, reading labels so things like sugar and yeast are not sneaking in and upping my vegetable intake and avoiding the starchy ones.
It has been about 8 days now. Since I already had GSE in my house, that was the first thing I did, is put 2 drops in my water and that is all I drink (except for my small coffee in the morning). Within 24 hours my tongue looked incredibly better. Another thing I did right away was add 1 drop of lavender extract to the top of my deodorant before applying it. Finally that terrible smell was not coming through my deodorant. Now due to my successful diet, I don't even need deodorant! About the 4th day was the hardest, I was at the store and saw some chocolate and it took everything I had to get out of there fast without buying it. But a couple days later when faced with the same chocolate, I could admire it with fond memories but my body wasn't throwing a complete tantrum about it. Then yesterday, oh my, for the first time in .... I seriously cannot remember in how long, I noticed my brain activity improved. I can feel it! I don't feel as distant and am thinking faster. I am not where I used to be, but the fog has lifted a lot. I can actually carry hours of conversation now. Look at this small novel I have written you! That would have been very difficult for me before to compose and organize my thoughts in order to construct this.The dark cloud that has shadowed me for too long is lifting and it feels amazing. Last night for the first time in years I went for a walk and it felt wonderful, my body is feeling happy again and harmony is being restored. I am pretty sure your book just saved my life. For the first time in long time I can actually see a future that has me in it. And for that I thank you and send you a virtual heartfelt hug. I literally have tears streaming down my face right now, but I am pretty sure they are ones of joy.
I know it will take time for me to continue to heal myself, but now at least I have a path. This experience has been life changing and I know I will never see the world the same. I look at foods that people consume and see how easy it is for the majority of the population to take their health for granted. How could doctors have missed this all these years when it was right in their face! It almost feels like a conspiracy against the people with greed at the root. They rather pump me full of antidepressants and make me worse while lining their pockets. As if there is an intentional lack of training in the medical field for the purpose of selling their drugs. When I searched the internet one thing I found are hundreds of people out there saying something is wrong but doctors say I am fine. It is clear to me that sugar, candida overgrowth, poor diet, is an epidemic. Probably the root of 80 percent of peoples health issues. And where is our doctors? Even the ones that I have seen who seem to really care, they are just not hatted to really heal, only to give drugs. This is where the internet has been a force of good.
I kick myself a bit too. I had come across discussions of candida here and there in the past. However they always seem to be in a tone of that candida isn't a big deal. Therefore didn't seem like something I should worry about, or related to me. Well, if there is anything I could tell your viewers and all the good people of the world: is candida overgrowth IS a BIG deal. It is so sneaky because it is so slow, but in time can totally pick apart your body piece by piece and CAN completely ruin the person you are. I had absolutely no idea how dangerous candida overgrowth can be, now having gone through what I have, I know first hand how incredibly dangerous and debilitating is can be. If I didn't finely figure that out, I know my lifespan would have been cut short, I have absolutely no doubt about that.
There is still more to my story, but this part has to do with my husband. For years he has had intestinal issues, suffered often, weekly, sometimes daily from intestinal discomforts. Diarrhea a daily or every other day occurrence. He too has seen many doctors, and was not provided any real treatment. Some of the responses he had gotten from doctors were actually a bit laughable and in my head questioned if they were even a real doctor. Well, since he has been on this diet he too is doing great. His skin also is not itchy anymore, his sweat not as pungent, no headaches, and not one intestinal episode, no cramping, heartburn, diarrhea, nothing. He happily remarked to me the other night, I think you hit the nail on the head, for both of us.
Well, that is it. I believe I shall conclude this letter now. I hope you enjoyed hearing my story. Please know you are welcome to use as much or as little of this letter how you see fit and/or contact me should you like to. I send you and your family much love.
Best regards always,
Seraphim"