TOPIC:

Thrush is an infection caused by overgrowth of the yeast Candida albicans.

While the DAA antivirals themselves should not (theoretically) be an issue, problems with thrush are being observed with some patients.

Our skins are covered with "good" bacteria that generally live in harmony with us, and like ground cover plants in a garden, the fact that they are there taking up space prevents "weeds" from growing. Candida is a weed and a major good bacterium is Lactobacillus (which is what is in probiotic capsules and yogurt type foods).

Antibiotics like amoxyl kill off all the lactobacilli in your body and can allow Candida to grow. The typical case in medicine is a woman getting thrush following a course of antibiotics for a urinary infection.

Candida likes growing where it is moist so skin folds under the breasts, in the crutch region and sweaty feet are the usual problem areas. It is also seen in the mouth and gastrointestinal tract.

In the army, with crutch rot and foot rot the treatment is dry by day, wet by night. You need loose fitting cotton boxer shorts and antifungal talcum powder to keep things bone dry (the powder used for smelly shoes works fine if there is not a chemist open today) during the day. Usually we would use Clotrimazole or Miconazle cream at night.

Your underwear will be coated in the Candida yeast that causes thrush - boil or really hot wash it to clean it out. Change underwear and socks regularly, and add powder regularly during the day to keep things dry.

Oral antifungals like Nilstat drops for thrush in the mouth or Ketoconazole or Fluconazole tablets (for thrush anywhere) can be used.

It's important to treat for at least a week after it seems to be gone otherwise you tend to find it rapidly comes back (because it was not really gone).

Hi. I'm currently on Sof/Led HepCVirL on day 38 of 84 and have developed a pretty bad yeast infection in the past two weeks. I have seen my doctor about it and he has prescribed Fluconazole 150mg for 6 days. It seems to work but only temporarily. As a man, I didn't think I could ever develop a yeast infection in the genital area but it happened. My doctor seems to think that Sof/Led may be causing my natural intestinal flora to become unbalanced. Today I had severe bloating, brain fog, lethargy and just overall malaise. I have in the past 5 weeks of treatment been very responsive to the medication as my viral load has dropped from 1.5 million to 30. It didn't happen without hiccups. I have had pretty much every single side effect documented so far but I'm hanging on. 7 more weeks and I will be through this. I'm extremely grateful to the Angels I met online including Greg Jefferys and Dr James Freeman who made the delivery of generic Harvoni possible. I'll never have enough words to thank you guys.

I just hope that this candida issue can be resolved soon and that I don't have to go through it for the duration on my treatment.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I have found this side effect to be a little bit overwhelming. Thank you

Thanks James
Wondering if it was thrush in my gums and inside of mouth; hasn't gone away since tx.
I will get onto some Nilstat drops. No wonder youghurt soothes my sore mouth and flossing and brushing only aggravate
Ty
Ariel

Hi Ariel

I'm glad to hear that yoghurt helps.

Bear in mind that not all yoghurts are equal. The best ones are the natural pot-set ones with live ABC cultures (i.e Lactobacillus acidophilus, bifido bacterium, and lactobacillus casei).

I love yoghurt and regularly eat Mundella Premium yoghurt. It’s well known here to be the best, and to have the highest count of probiotic bacteria per 100ml, but I don’t think that it is sold outside of WA. Its ingredients are listed as: whole milk, non-fat milk solids, and live cultures. In general, yoghurt quality reduces as the list of ingredients grows. The next best pot-set yoghurt is VAALIA. See:

www.drdingle.com/yoghurt-report/

“Unfortunately many of the yoghurts tested had low probiotic bacteria counts. In particular, the large commercial yoghurts had as little as 9,000 times fewer probiotic bacteria than the brand Mundella. This is largely due to the way the yoghurt is made. Mundella is “pot set,” that is the bacteria are cultured in the containers in which they are sold. The highest count of 18 billion bacteria per 100ml serving was found in Mundella. These levels are in excess of most of the probiotc powders one can purchase from a chemist or health food store.”

The table below shows the number of live bacteria per 100 grams.

Yoghurt Bacteria per 100ml

SKI 2,000,000
UNCLE TOBYS 120,000,000
JALNA 300,000,000
YOPLAIT 410,000,000
BROWNES 600,000,000
NESTLE 1,300,000,000
VAALIA 11,000,000,000
MUNDELLA 18,220,000,000

I hope that this helps.

Cheers

GT2

Thanks heaps GT2
I eat Tamar Valley, Chobani and cocoyo which is the coconut base one (my cholesterols are good)
Also one made locally
I'm living in a small rural coastal community and our local stores carry purer product which reflects the communities demands. I'm thinking of using manuca honey too, and there's a few apiaries nearby.
My fave youghurt is the chobani brand I wonder what the good bacteria is like in that brand.
I will click the link and see if my brands are there too
Ty
Cheers
Ariel

Thanks GT2
Jalna is my yoghurt of choice

Sucks to have mouth thrush- bet those powders would taste rank

Hi Arial and Beaches

Here are two links to articles by Choice on yoghurts, probiotics, and prebiotics

www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/dairy/y...se-a-healthy-yoghurt

“ … probiotics by themselves are not enough to increase the activity of good bacteria. You should also eat 10g per day of prebiotics, which are non-digestible carbohydrates that act as food for the good bacteria.”

www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/dairy/y.../articles/probiotics

"Probiotics are live microorganisms - such as bacteria, yeasts and fungi - which in adequate amounts may have health benefits. Studies have shown they can improve digestion, help protect against disease and enhance immune function. Strains of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium bacteria are the most commonly used probiotics as they can survive the passage to the gut. Probiotics are most widely available as dietary supplements in tablet, capsule and powder forms or as a component in yoghurts and fermented dairy drinks.

Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that can increase the activity of select "good" bacteria. Prebiotics naturally occur in bananas, asparagus, leeks, onions, garlic, chicory and wholegrains like wheat, rye, barley and oats. Savvy marketers spruik their benefits in foods including breads and infant formulas."

Therefore, the best advice according to the above, if you live in the Eastern States, is to buy the Vaalia natural yoghurt (for the high probiotic count) and chop a banana into it (for the prebiotics and to add some natural sweetness).

I used to be on PPIs, but after changing my diet, and including the above, I haven't taken them for years now.

Try and include garlic, onions and asparagus (cheap at the moment) into your evening meals too.

Cheers

GT2

These links are excellent, thanks heaps buddy. I cant do garlic since peginf, or asparagus actually, but can do onions....it has made me intolerant to tomatoes as well isn't that weird!
I was just chatting with another member here about the joys of two nights following a faint whiff of garlic sauce I suspect in a wrap I ate last week...but....I did but Nilstat drops early today and I have now done two washes as directed of a mil each and my tongue is starting already to look pink not white. Yep it was thrush like a baby gets!
Being that rationalising type that I am, I rekn if my liver is going t behave like a baby (ha, bragging here ALT <9) well my big mouth obviously wants to join in and behave like a baby too. The last time I bought these drops was during breastfeeding days many moons ago and were for my baby. The cherry taste is not exactly a fine wine..

Re Garlic, I hope Mgalbrai has a clove around his neck whilst on hols in Transylvania mwahahahahahahaha

GT2 I forgot to mention I have been craving bananas too that makes more sense reading the articles ty

Hi Ariel

The absolutely best yoghurt that you can eat is the one that you make yourself.

Two other Tasmanians show you how in the link below:

www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/homemade-yoghurt

I've done this, with a few twists of my own, after trial & error, and I guarantee that you will never find a better yoghurt in any shop ...

This is a picture of one batch I made.

OmGosh YUMMMMMMM

GT2...
All the yogurt in the world won't get rid of yeast if your fasting blood sugar is 11.6. High blood sugar causes yeast infections.

You should look into the high sugar. 11.6 is diabetes.

P.

Hi Price

Thanks for your input.

I have unintendedly taken this thread off subject. Dr Freeman started off talking about thrush caused by candida which growth can increase when antibiotics kill off lactobacilli. He mentioned that the antivirals that we take shouldn’t be a problem, however, he then went on to offer excellent advice on how to get rid of thrush if you do have it from some other cause.

Ariel commented that she has thrush in her mouth and gums and found that yoghurt soothed her sore mouth. I had mentioned to her earlier that I had experienced increased gum bleeding after starting DAA treatment. She asked me to check out this thread. I should have just read it and not commented. I don’t have a yeast infection. I’m controlling my gum problems by cleaning my teeth after every meal and washing my mouth with the antibacterial mouthwash “Listerine Total Care”. This works for me.

I have Barrett’s oesophagus caused by long-term gastro-oesophageal reflux. I used to be on PPIs. I’ve since changed my diet, including eating good quality yoghurt on most days, and do not take PPIs now and can’t remember the last time I had any sort of reflux or heart burn. So, I was just putting that out there, knowing that a lot of HCV sufferers are on PPIs.

My fasting 11.9 blood sugar was a definite worry to me. It’s never been this high before. Another forum member, Hope, told me that this happened to her as well. Her glucose level was high at week 4, was OK by week 8, and fine at EOT. See:
fixhepc.com/forum/patient-stories/659-af...nxiety.html?start=90

This seems to have happened to me. For the first 5 weeks I was extremely thirsty and had to get out of bed during the night, every night, and urinate one or twice. I’d wake up most mornings with a dry mouth. Since then, these symptoms have dissipated. Over the last 8 weeks I have lost 5% of my body weight and now very rarely get up to urinate during the night and never wake up with a dry mouth. I’ve posted an article today about fatty liver disease from my local newspaper, in which Assoc. Prof. Leon Adams notes that:

“Losing 10 per cent of your body weight by modifying diet and increasing exercise would reverse the condition for 90 percent of people.”

See:
fixhepc.com/forum/gt2/994-gt2-honks-his-....html?start=90#17396

I’m a living testament to Assoc. Prof. Adam’s prediction. Hopefully, I can lose another 5% of my beginning body weight over the next 8 weeks. Proof in the pudding will be in 8 weeks when my next blood tests are due (EOT + 4 weeks). I’ll post them. If my fasting glucose level is still too high, I will follow Dr Freeman’s advice and get a script for metformin.

Regards
GT2

GT2...
Sometimes I have these brilliant ideas that turn out not to be so brilliant after all. So this one time I decided to help somebody put a prebiotic on the market to help people with hep c. So I talked my research partner into joining me and spent a couple off years researching pro/prebiotics. So if you don't mind, I'd like to share some of what I learned.

PRObiotics, as you said are live beneficial bacteria. PREbiotics are cell wall fragments from dead bacteria (that's why they don't have to be refrigerated). Prebiotics are not food for probiotics. They don't feed microbiota. They stimulate the intestinal goblet cells to increase and to produce more mucus. Microbiota, specifically Akkermansia Muciniphila (the dominant bacteria in humans), then harvest sugars from the mucus and use them as food source.

A decrease in the abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila in gut microbiota causes reduced production and layer thickness of mucus and reduces gut permeability. In other words, it causes LEAKY GUT. Leaky gut can be caused by antibiotics disrupting normal intestinal flora, obesity, Cirrhosis, high cholesterol, Insulin resistance/Diabetes, fatty liver, alcohol use, GI problems (like stomach ulcers, diarrhea, Barrett's esophagus, H,Pylori infection, colitis, etc).

Why is having leaky gut a problem?

The liver is the first organ that encounters venous blood from the small and large intestines via the portal vein. So that makes the liver vulnerable to exposure of bacterial products coming from the intestines. Translocation of large amounts of gut-derived products is usually prevented by an intact barrier system. So in a healthy organism only minor quantities of bacterial products reach the liver. In general, the liver tolerates small amounts of bacterial products in order to avoid harmful responses, but damage of the intestinal epithelial barrier results in a leaky gut that lets large amounts of bacterial products reach the liver.

Bacterial products, otherwise called Lipopolysaccharide are large molecules consisting of a lipid and a polysaccharide found on the outer membrane of gram negative bacteria. When they reach the liver, they act as ENDOTOXIN and elicit a strong reaction from your immune system which can cause inflammation and contribute to the initiation and progression of liver disease.

So as you can see, pro/prebiotics are much more than food.

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P.