Recently, a patient had come to the practice with a long standing history of refractory Crohn’s Disease. She was seeing me because in addition to her Crohn’s Disease barely managed, she had an issue with recurrent Candidiasis in the esophagus, with concerns that it could be lower in her GI tract. The most likely risk factor for the recurrent Candidiasis issue was maximum use of immunosuppressive agents.
To add a layer of difficulty to the case, the patient was getting married in two months and there was concern about how well she was going to be for her wedding.
In my career, I have treated many cases of refractory Candidiasis. With these refractory cases, I use a combination of both Diflucan or fluconazole and nystatin. It is my belief that the reservoir for the Candida is the GI tract. Nystatin, which isn’t absorbed into the blood stream, eliminates the Candida at its source.
I decided on treating her with a month of Diflucan and nystatin. It was the next part of my treatment protocol that surprised the patient, her fiance’ and her mother. I asked her about her diet. After all of the years that she had been dealing with Crohn’s, not one of her physicians had asked her about her diet. Unfortunately, it was heavily based on wheat products.
The patient agreed to go on a grain free diet, along with the medications. In a recent follow up, the patient stated that this is the best she has ever felt. Since then, she has experimented on what she can and can not tolerate. She has found that the only grain she can not tolerate is
wheat, most likely the GMO wheat that is used in this country. That is for another article someday. The patient also reported that this is the longest that she has gone being symptom free, both for her Crohn’s and her Candidiasis. Those words always ring true, we are what we eat.
