I’ve received several comments on my videos from people who recommend certain treatments for a Candida overgrowth in the digestive tract, and some of these have concerned me and are not what I would recommend. So, I want to share with you some things to consider when it comes to treating this type of a Candida problem. Over the years I’ve noticed that many people feel that the more toxic the drug, the more likely they are to believe that it is stronger and that it will solve their problem.
This is not always the case. I want to caution you about several antifungal medications that are often used to treat Candida and other yeast infections, but I do not usually recommend them for treating a Candida overgrowth in the digestive tract.
Diflucan is a commonly mentioned antifungal that people mention or ask about. Diflucan is also known as fluconazole. Diflucan is a hepatotoxic medication, meaning that studies have shown that it is toxic to the liver.
Other antifungals that are known to be toxic to the liver include ketoconazole, clotrimazole, terbinafine, and amphotericin B. There are medical reasons for using these medications in some types of fungal or yeast infections. However, I would not recommend them in most cases of a yeast or Candida overgrowth in the digestive tract, specifically.
When using these medications, it is often recommended that your doctor monitor your liver enzymes, testing them before you start treatment and every month that you are on the treatment, so that you can catch liver damage early in the process and before it progresses too far, and of course discontinue the Medicare. So, if you do use them, I highly recommend that you do that.
When it comes to treating a Candida overgrowth in the digestive system, in over 20 years of treating Candida overgrowths I’ve found that most cases require several months of treatment. This is often much longer the antifungal treatments for other conditions.
And in my experience the medications we’ve been discussing do not shorten this time frame nor do they improve the outcome of my patients. Therefore, I have not seen any advantage to using them, and I feel that the risks associated with taking them far outweigh the benefits.
But if you are considering any of these options, I encourage you to take their liver toxicity seriously, and to work with your doctor to make sure that you use them as safely as possible.
I have found that here are many excellent and safer options to treat Candida in the digestive system. In fact, many of the natural antifungals that you see on the market can be effective and are excellent options for treating this type of Candida. We don’t have time to get into the details about all of those here. And another and much safer prescriptive option is Nystatin, which has no liver toxicity when taken orally.
If you need help treating a Candida overgrowth, or even just suspect that you might have a Candida overgrowth, we’d be glad to work with you and we have worked with patients all over the U.S. and many other countries via zoom and telemedicine.
Related Content:
How Did I Get Candida?
The Candida Die-Off Effect
The Microbiome: How To Treat A Candida Overgrowth
The Microbiome: How To Test For Candida!
Candida Overgrowth Symptoms
Is Candida Overgrowth Real?
Dr. Wangen is the founder and medical director of the IBS Treatment Center, the award winning author of two books, and a nationally recognized speaker on digestive disorders. He has been on ABC, NBC, and Fox as well as public radio, and was named one of Seattle’s Top Doctors by Seattle Magazine.