Some early thoughts on possible Candida link

[Clues]

This is a follow-up from https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=3212.0.

After seeing a YouTube video of a guy claiming to have been cured of POIS by eliminating Candida overgrowth, I decided to try out an anti-Candida diet myself.

The symptoms I have that might suggest a chronic Candida problem are:
* Oral thrush. Not diagnosed by a doctor, but it looks exactly like some of the pictures I've seen.
* Red skin in face, but oily white-ish granular substance on top. This really took off after a Tetracycline acne "cure" about 20 years ago, and has diminished since, but never went away. It's now a small amount mostly around and on the nose. I can't remember exactly, but I contracted POIS around that same time (early 20s).
* General redness and irritability of the skin. E.g. if parts of my skin is being stretched (e.g. while sports stretching), that skin will look red for a while.
* Redness and soreness of penis head and foreskin, which a urologist claimed was inflammation. He didn't do any lab testing though.
* White-ish granular substance growing in ears, similar to that described on the face.

I'm currently following roughly the diet described here: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/candida-diet, as well as supplementing with turmeric and garlic, and using a baking soda mouth wash.

I'm only 1.5 weeks into the diet, but there are already visible results. The facial symptoms described are lessened to a point where I'm 95% certain they're lessened by the diet. The oral thrush seems to be shrinking as well, but slowly. The stuff in my ears has come loose and seems virtually gone, externally at least. The skin on the rest of my body looks noticeably less red and inflamed. I had my first orgasm 2 days ago, about a week into the diet. My POIS symptoms vary in strength, so it's too early to say whether the diet is affecting them. However my symptoms this time seem to be on the lighter side, for what it's worth. Mild headache, less "brain fog" than usual, a bit less "spaced out" and irritable than usual. But again, this could be an unrelated variation. I will post an update after a few more weeks.

Note: I am by no means sure of any link, I am very much a layman here, and I'm aware that it's possible I have a Candida problem and POIS separately. But changing my diet is not a big deal to me, and is risk free as I can easily get all the nutrients I need while staying away from alleged Candida-promoting foods.

[Muon]

* Oral thrush. Not diagnosed by a doctor, but it looks exactly like some of the pictures I've seen.

CTRL-F: Leukoplakia

Presentation, Diagnosis, and Management of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

You are scrapping food which triggered mast cells locally leading to leukoplakia, nothing to do with candida. I bet the other inflammatory symptoms are probably also mast cell related.

[Clues]

CTRL-F: Leukoplakia

You are scrapping food which triggered mast cells locally leading to leukoplakia, nothing to do with candida. I bet the other inflammatory symptoms are probably also mast cell related.

Thanks Muon, that's super interesting. Hadn't heard about Leukoplakia. Having looked at some pictures though (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leukoplakia), I still think my case looks more like oral thrush. "The edges of the lesion are typically abrupt and the lesion changes with time"; This doesn't match my case. Hairy Leukoplakia looks a bit closer, but my case still looks more like oral thrush. Incidentally I'm seeing a doctor today about an unrelated thing, will ask her opinion.

EDIT: 100% waste of time to ask this doctor about the substance on my tongue. She was dismissive from the start, and when she asked whether it's a problem for me (with the subtext being: why are you fussing about this?) I didn't feel like repeating the whole POIS story. I'll ask a better doctor another time if the diet doesn't change/fix it.

[Clues]

Just a quick update on my experiment. My digestion is definitely getting better: Less gas, firmer and less viscous faeces, less bloating. Some specific symptoms seem to be improving: less inflamed-looking skin, less of the growth I mentioned on my skin, less of what I assumed was oral thrush, less light sensitivity (don't squint as much), and I think I'm generally less fatigued. Sadly I'm still experiencing mood swings. The brain fog might be a little better, hard to tell.

I'll continue with the diet, however I think Muons suggestion seems likely: That it's really MCAS I'm dealing with, and that the Candida diet is helping just because it happens to be anti-inflammatory. This is based on the MCAS symptom list on Wikipedia matching extremely well. So I'll tweak the diet to focus on proven anti-inflammatory foods, which are largely the same anyway.

Btw, it's worth noting that I've only had one orgasm since changing my diet about 1.5 months ago. As mentioned it seemed like the symptoms were milder than usual in general, however I did notice that 3-4 days after the orgasm, my skin looked very inflamed again. This has since died down while I've avoided masturbation and sex and continued with the diet.

[Muon]

I have stumbled upon something. Does the White-ish granular substance look similar to this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uremic_frost

[Clues]

I have stumbled upon something. Does the White-ish granular substance look similar to this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uremic_frost

Hmm it does look sort of similar actually. But if I had "prolonged kidney failure" (from Wikipedia entry), it seems odd that I haven't had more severe symptoms or anything out of the ordinary on the various blood tests I've taken in the last 20 or so years (although I can't remember whether I've ever tested specifically for kidney issues). Maybe uremic frost can come about another way though?

Btw when I say "white", it's really more that my skin elsewhere tends to be pretty red and inflamed-looking (correlating with where I'm seeing the white stuff), so it's really more my normal skin colour than it is white I think.

[Clues]

Here are some pictures. Tongue before and after 1.5 months of new diet, and side of the nose after. Unfortunately I didn't get a "before" pic of the face. Warning: tongues are a bit gross up close, so don't open if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MCv6_a9giWTqSEFMtJNwHK-57VxT8IaE

[Clues]

Posting an update here in case anyone comes across this thread.

Based on my experiences with the Candida diet and further research I've made since, I think it's a dead end.

Muon alerted me to the possibility of a mast cell activation disorder, and I now think it's very likely that that's what my main problem is, and that orgasm just happens to be one of my triggers for mast cell activation. This is based on my triggers and symptoms matching very well with typical MCAD trigger and symptom sets.

I suspect the reason the Candida diet was an improvement for me was that it incidentally involves cutting out a lot of histamine-rich and histamine-triggering foods like cheese, processed meats and alcoholic beverages. All of which I was consuming before I started the Candida diet. Histamine-rich and histamine-releasing foods can contribute to mast cell activation.

I've found an endocrinologist who knows about mast cell disorders, and he agrees that some sort of MCAD is a likely underlying problem. See this thread for more info on that and future updates: https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=3202.0

[mike_sweden]

i am performing LCHF diet to reduce sugar, try it, reduces risk for candida etc