‘Having candida’ tends to be a much bandied about and over-used phrase. The fact is, the candida albicans yeast is a normal part of our gut flora and should always be present in our gut in small quantities.

The problems start when candida begins to overgrow. If it gets out of control candida can grow into your gut lining, start to break it down and cause ‘leaky gut syndrome’ which can give rise to many immune related issues.

Candida Symptoms

Normally, our ‘good’ bacteria will keep candida in check. However, when candida starts to overgrow you may experience any of the following symptoms –

• Exhaustion
• Sugar Cravings
• Cravings for yeasty food (like alcohol or bread)
• Brain fog
• Recurrent UTIs
• Sinusitis
• Allergies
• Gas and bloating
• Low immunity
• Thrush and other itchy, fungal patches on the skin such as athletes foot.

What causes candida?

If you’ve experienced any of the following scenarios, then you could well be looking at candida as the cause of your issues –

• A course of broad spectrum antibiotics
• Ongoing antibiotic treatment
• Taking the contraceptive pill
• Eating lots of sugar
• Prolonged stress
• Diabetes
• Corticosteroid medications
• Drinking a lot of alcohol

So, lets look at some of these symptoms in a bit more detail:

1. Feeling tired a lot of the time

If you feel fatigued or tired a lot of the time despite sleeping well, candida may well be to blame as it’s one of the causes of chronic fatigue, although certainly not the only one.

2. Being in a bad mood

Candida can also cause you to feel anxious, have erratic mood swings or depression, and it can also worsen PMT or menopause symptoms.  For more on managing erratic hormone levels have a look here.

3 & 4. Recurring UTIs or recurring sinusitis

It often surprises people that candida can often be the culprit behind these two niggly and persistent infections. Also, if you have anything like post-nasal drip, hay fever or congestion, candida may be to blame.

5. Digestive symptoms

Again, another common cause of ‘IBS’ type symptoms, candida can often give rise to bloating, cramps, diahorrea and constipation.

For more tips of getting rid of gut aches and pains have a look here.

6. Brain fog

Another huge symptom of candida is the dreaded brain fog – this is so common.  Do you ever have that feeling of having cotton wool between your ears? Or that you can’t concentrate, have a poor memory or lack focus? Again, if this is bothering you it may well be worth getting tested.

7. Poor blood sugar control

8. Toxins

Intolerance to fumes, cigarette smoke or perfume – due to the toxins from candida overloading the liver.

9. Fungal infections

Vaginal thrush, athletes foot, itchy patches on the skin – all of these are likely to have started from a yeast infection in the gut.

Ensuring you’re eating a diverse diet can be a nightmare when you’re suffering with your gut, especially as so many of these ‘healthy’ foods are also big trigger foods. If this is the case for you I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help you eat safely, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Dietary upgrades

Once you know what you’re dealing with, the usual course of action would be to modify your diet – taking out sugary and very high carb foods and replacing with lots of fresh vegetables, lean proteins and good fats.

It’s a good idea to work with a nutrition specialist when dealing with candida, as its not advisable to restrict your diet too much when doing battle with a yeast overgrowth. It’s also essential to make sure all your detoxification and elimination pathways are functioning optimally so you don’t get too much of the dreaded ‘die-off’ reaction.

What is insulin restistance? How do you know you have it? What symptoms does it cause?

After we eat any kind of food our pancreas secretes insulin.  Its job is to ensure that the energy we consume – glucose – gets to where it needs to go. Our muscle, fat and liver cells need to absorb plenty of glucose, and insulin facilitates this process. In addition, our muscles and liver store any excess glucose, and insulin also helps with this. So what is insulin resistance?  It’s what happens when this process stops working properly.  Read on to learn about the symptoms and signs you may be affected, and some quick tips to help you nip the situation in the bud.

What is insulin resistance – what happens?

If you’re insulin resistant your body loses the capability of responding to the insulin it produces appropriately. This means your muscle, liver and fat cells don’t absorb glucose from the blood as easily as they should. Consequently the pancreas has to produce ever increasing levels of insulin to help glucose get to where it needs to go. A consequence of this is that your pancreatic cells struggle to keep up with the demand for insulin, and end up shutting down altogether. When this happens glucose builds up in the bloodstream and the result is pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

Insulin resistance happens when your cells become less sensitive or receptive to insulin. They can’t keep up with all the carbs and sugar coming along.  The insulin receptors on your cells shut down, and that leads to more insulin production to try to deal with the extra unwanted sugar.

What is insulin resistance – what causes it?

Obesity, high blood pressure and increasing levels of fats in the blood are all linked to insulin resistance. Most current research points to excess weight as being being the primary driver of insulin resistance. This is especially true for weight which accumulates around the waist, giving the classic apple body shape. The great news is that losing this excess weight drastically improves how the body responds to insulin. In fact, dietary changes can prevent or delay the onset of diabetes.

Ensuring you’re eating a diverse diet can be a nightmare when you’re suffering with your gut, especially as so many of these ‘healthy’ foods are also big trigger foods. If this is the case for you I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help you eat safely, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Avoid sweet drinks

For example, fruit juice seems healthy as it contains an array of vitamins but juice doesn’t contain much, if any, fibre so the sugar will be absorbed extremely quickly into your blood stream. Again this means stress for your pancreas which has to produce enough insulin to keep up with demand. Also avoid sugary fizzy drinks and any drinks with added sugars. Stick to water as your main drink and herbal teas, tea and coffee (if of course you tolerate caffeine OK).

Finally, avoid overeating.

If you follow the guidelines I’ve already mentioned you’ll be much less likely to overeat as a combination of all those food groups will keep you feeling nice and full. Eat mindfully without distraction, listening to your body’s signals which tell you it’s full.

If your digestion’s feeling a bit ‘off’, you’ve got hormone problems or your immunity is not what it could be, perhaps your liver could do with some TLC. Let’s take a quick look at some of the main jobs the liver does, and how we can support it. If you have a congested, or sluggish liver you’ll definitely feel the effects around the body, so is your liver causing your gut problems? Read on to discover more.

• What does your liver do?

  It’s perhaps not the first thing that springs to mind when you think about your gut problems, but your liver is definitely a key player in your digestive system. Everything you eat, drink and consume in other ways – breathing in toxins for example – passes through it. Therefore you definitely need to treat it right so it can do its job effectively.

   

  • Your liver helps to clean your blood, literally filtering it and ridding the body of anything harmful.
  • It makes bile, which helps you break down fats from food.
  • And stores glucose, giving you a boost of energy when it’s needed.

   

  A lot of women don’t realise that their livers are a vital part of their hormones staying balanced. While the liver is filtering out toxins we don’t need, it’s also breaking down and escorting oestrogen to the door, when is no longer needed.

   

  The liver operates in two phases to do its detoxification work, and it needs specific vitamins and minerals to do this optimally. If it’s not functioning as it should be, or if you’ve got excess toxins circulating, then your liver gets all clogged up and can’t get rid of all that excess oestrogen. When oestrogen isn’t metabolised properly it simply ends up circulating through the body again.

   

  With an optimally functioning liver you can look forward to – 

  • Less problems with your digestion
  • Regular hormone cycles with less PMS, perimenopause and menopause symptoms
  • Increased energy
  • A more efficient immune system
  • A brighter mood and focussed concentration

   

  Is your liver causing your gut problems? Here’s what to avoid

  • Excessive alcohol
  • Packaged, processed and refined foods
  • Heavily sprayed fruits and vegetables
  • Processed meats
  • Refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils
  • Sugary snacks and drinks

   

  All these types of foods cause the liver to work extra hard to remove toxins instead of allowing it to do its main jobs in the body.

  Aside from all that, what’s also really bad for your liver is high levels of ongoing stress.

  Research has demonstrated that consistently high stress levels contribute to increased inflammation throughout the body and exacerbates liver damage.

• Eat an anti-inflammatory diet, and choose organic where possible to reduce the level of pesticides you’re consuming. Your diet has a huge impact on how your liver works. Because the liver is so busy processing the foods you eat it can become overwhelmed when it has too much to do.

• Avoid breathing in toxins, or absorbing them through your skin. Cleaning products, aerosols, cosmetics and toiletries, and insecticides typically contain toxins which damage your liver. It’s always preferable to opt for organic, natural household products where possible as these are much kinder to your liver and your health in general.

The solution to your hormone problems is surprisingly likely to lie with your gut health.

Are you plagued with dreadful PMS each month?  Or perhaps you suffer with awful perimenopause symptoms?  Surprisingly, the solution to these hormone imbalances is likely to lie with your gut health. Keep reading to discover three really simple actions you can start working on today, to help get your hormones balanced.

Hormones: What are they and what do they do?

Examples of our hormones include –

• Oestrogen
• Testosterone
• Adrenaline
• Insulin

   

  They are extremely important chemical messengers that affect many aspects of our overall health.  

  Before we get onto how to support your hormone health, its useful to be aware of the kinds of symptoms which indicate your hormones might be out of whack.

  Common signs include the following:

  • Irregular periods
  • Uncontrolled weight loss or gain
  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Problems with digestion
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Energy dips throughout the day

  So as you can see, problems caused by hormone imbalances can be very far reaching, affecting just about every part of your body.

  High oestrogen can contribute to problems that include endometriosis and fertility issues, while symptoms of imbalanced insulin often include energy plunges through the day and weight gain.

   

  So what has all this got to do with your gut?

   

  Let’s focus on the female hormones here to give you an idea: Enter the estrobolome. 

  What is the estrobolome?

  The estrobolome refers to a cluster of friendly bacteria which resides in the gut. One of its functions is to metabolise and modulate levels of circulating oestrogen.

  With a healthy microbiome the estrobolome produces optimal levels of a vital enzyme called beta-glucuronidase – however, we don’t want too much of this as it can cause oestrogen imbalances – we need it at exactly the right levels. Beta-glucuronidase is also vital for nutrient absorption and carbohydrate breakdown.

  It is crucial then that your levels of friendly bacteria are optimised if you want to avoid those nasty monthly, or perimenopausal symptoms.

  For more information on optimising the health of your microbiome, click here.

  Additionally, new research is demonstrating that the dreaded leaky gut also plays a huge role in regulating hormones. How? Because inflammation tends to start in your gut, and then impacts almost every part of your health.

  So here are three REALLY SIMPLE actions you can start today to help your gut and hormone health: 

2. Watch your stress levels

It’s true to say that stress is unfortunately unavoidable. However, how you manage your stressors is a major component in how well your hormones stay balanced. Key here really is taking time for yourself – making yourself a priority. It’s often tricky to acknowledge that we’re stressed when we’re in the midst of a stressful situation, but weirdly when we look back it seems obvious! It’s a good idea to get into the habit of some self-care techniques, some great ones which are easy to incorporate include:

• Journaling – putting stress thoughts onto paper can really help
• Meditation
• Taking time to walk in nature each day
• Deep breathing exercises
• Magnesium baths
• Acupuncture