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Candida: hoax or not?

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Hi everyone

I would just like to ask the forum in general if anyone has been pestered by people trying to sell you dietary supplements, menus, nasal inhalers or eating plans regarding Candida.  An acquaintance of mine is badgering me persistently to try to eliminate Candida and inflammation in my body which, according to him, is responsible for many of my health conditions.  He claims that there is scientific proof that it causes everything from tiredness to indigestion to attention deficit disorder.  

I listened at first, but then he showed me a link to a video about some Italian professor who has "proven" that CML is caused by a fungus.  He is encouraging me to stop imatinib and start on his diet plan.  When I saw this video, which I consider to be complete and utter rubbish, I immediately told him what I thought of it.  He was so persistent in his insistence that Candida is the source of all my ailments that I have had to block his number to stop the harassment.

My two questions are:

1)  Is he onto something with this Candida?  I believe it to be a complete hoax, and I refuse to stop my imatinib, but I was just wondering whether anyone has had any success with adopting an anti-Candida diet?

2)  How do other CML patients cope with people trying to sell you everything and anything from marijuana oil to glyconutrients?  I find it such an invasion on my privacy, as if someone is trying to profit from my condition, and it infuriates me to such an extent that I don't want contact with these people.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Best wishes

Martin

"He is encouraging me to stop imatinib and start on his diet plan."

This is the point that I would completely and utterly stop listening to anything he says. 

There are of course valid reasons to try to stop TKI therapy, but they need to be done in the right clinical setting and well monitored. Not as part of what sounds like a pyramid scheme selling supplements.

I do think that there are supplements that can help us, particularly managing some side effects. But they are not going to cure CML on their own.

David.

I feel your pain.

The way I solve the problem is, for the most part, not telling people I have CML. I am lucky enough to be generally healthy (I cannot type this with a straight face, I mean, I am on a leukemia forum :) ), so you cannot really tell I have something serious, unless you meet me at the hospital for my check ups...

Of course if the argument pops out, and I am with people I trust I tell the story.

Anyway, the argument to refute these kind of suggestions is quite simple. If aloe (just to name one of the super foods) was a cure for cancer, why doesn't Novartis patent an aloe based drug? It'd be much cheaper to produce than Gleevec, and they become even richer. If the cure was easy and was out there, well, some smart Pharma guy would have patented it. I mean, it's their job to find cures and sell them, how could they have missed all these wonder natural drugs everyone is talking about?

Anyway, I fully agree with David, the chat stops when someone mentions dropping TKI; that is, I believe, the most stupid suggestion ever.
There are of course useful integrators, that can help you with side effects and with reestablishing a better physiological balance; some of them, like curcumin, seem also to have a measurable anti-cancer effects.
And, beware, there are fully natural remedies that might work against TKI, like St Jonh's wort.

So there is no definite answer here; some integrator can help you, some can harm you, none, by itself, can do better than TKI.

 

 

Sounds like a hoax to me, especially the stop TKI part, haha. Although I will say it is interesting that I have always had a facial skin condition called seborrheic dermatitis which is caused by candida overgrowth. I never changed my diet to resolve it though I just wash my face with a small amount of H&S shampoo which has a mild amount of pyrithione zinc, enough to keep mine in check without the stronger prescription cream version. In college when I drank lots of beer it would flare up. So I guess if we use their logic I got my CML form Busch Light surprise. 

Thank you so much everyone!  I think that the very best choice we have as CML patients is to stick with the TKIs and all this other stuff is incidental.  Today I heard a discussion about alternative medicine on the radio, where it was mentioned that people with serious illnesses are twice as likely to die from them when they ignore the advice of their medical doctors compared to those who take what they are prescribed.

Always good to hear from others on the forum - I really appreciate the advice so much.

Best wishes

Martin