All Lyme sufferers know about yeast. We know yeast overgrowth happens when we take antibiotics, and we know sugar doesn’t help. We’re sick of hearing about yeast – it seems like a boring topic we’re already experts on. We also believe that our symptoms probably aren’t yeast – we’ve been there, treated that, and our symptoms are so severe that they are most certainly the dreaded Lyme disease, not something as simple and easy as yeast.
Well, modern research has shown that yeast isn’t just something you treat “once.” It can rear it’s ugly head numerous times throughout the recovery process, even when you haven’t used antibiotics recently. In fact, it can behave like other Lyme co-infections, and it can be a component of different layers of the onion as you peel the onion of healing (I use this analogy a lot in my books).
Even if yeast isn’t a huge problem for you, the problem with not treating it is that it could hold up the entire healing process if you happen to be encountering a layer of the onion in which yeast dominates. If you don’t address whatever the “top” layer of the onion is, it’s impossible to keep going deeper. So treating yeast becomes the bottleneck of further progress. That’s why it’s important to take it seriously.
Some basic things to do: eat yogurt, take probiotics, and see if you respond well to one of my favorite yeast supplements, saccharomyces boulardii. This supplement is different from strains of bacteria found in yogurt and probiotics; it is instead a yeast itself – a harmless one which crowds out the bad yeast, then peacefully dies off and goes away. For someone who already has their bases covered with yeast treatment, saccharomyces boulardii can offer a new and advantageous angle in the fight. It’s been invaluable to me. Studies also show that it can wipe out C. Dif infections, which is a very important value when considering how prevalent those are in Lyme patients (due to heavy antibiotic use) and how dangerous they are.
Of course, you can also use nystatin, which is a drug that kills yeast. I like it because it doesn’t get absorbed after you swallow it, which avoids systemic side effects and keeps concentrations high as it works its way through your digestive tract. Diflucan is another yeast drug which can work but is systemic and can have much more significant side effects.
But these paragraphs above are not the main dish today – the main dish is the supplement of the month. A fantastic yeast supplement called Formula SF722, made by Thorne Research. This stuff contains undecylenic acid, which is a little-known yeast buster that many experts believe works as good or better than many of the drugs. SF722 is a hugely important supplement in my arsenal. It is, in my opinion, probably the most important yeast supplement. And it’s March’s supplement of the month!
So, there you have my main yeast protocol: probiotics, yogurt, saccharomyces boulardii, and SF722. Those are my favorite yeast supplements and the ones which have stuck with me over the years.
Bonus for the week: Here’s a bonus for you this week: I recently found a bunch of “trial packs” for interesting supplements. You can shop here for small, 5-10 capsule trial sizes of popular supplements and pay just pennies for these supplements. It gives you the chance to try a bunch of new things for just a few bucks. I recently stocked up on dozens of these and my checkout price was just about $20 (note: if you spend $20 or more here, you get free shipping). This trial option is great for Lyme sufferers because often Lyme sufferers can’t tolerate certain things, so better to find out spending a few pennies rather than spending a fortune, right? Check out the trial size products here.
One last, extra bonus for the week – if you use any of the order links in this blog post, and if you aren’t already their customer, iHerb will give you $5 off your first order!
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