Author: Eric Bakker

Greetings. It’s Eric Bakker, naturopath from New Zealand, author of Candida Crusher and formulator of the Canxida range of dietary supplements. Thanks for checking out my video. I’ve got another question here. One from a lady called Bonnie in Texas in the USA. Bonnie is asking me why she is not recovering on the Candida Crusher approach. She’s saying “Help, Eric, help me, please. I’ve been following your program now for four months, but I’m not really recovering. I’m only getting very minor results.”

Okay, Bonnie, let’s go into a couple of different things on why that could be so and why you’re not recovering. I’m going to refer to some of the notes out of my book. “What to do when all else fails.” This is a page out of the Candida Crusher book. “Why many fail to get permanent results,” is a good one to read. I’d like you to go through that one. That’s right at the back of the book because I do believe you’ve got a copy of my book, Bonnie, so it’s good to go through that.

A couple of things that I want you to bear in mind. I haven’t seen you as a patient, but I have received an email from you from time to time. Please know also, I can’t personally respond to all emails. I get way too many emails. I do try to reply to some of the emails on YouTube and we’re going to a Candida Crusher Facebook page where people can actually talk to each other, and I can come in there and moderate some of the comments, so that will help you out as well.

One thing I want you to try to understand is some people recover quickly. Some people recover slowly, but most people recover somewhere in between, not too quick and not too slow. Progress also or recovery from any kind of chronic illness will happen in stages. I want you to understand that. And in the beginning of my book, I write a section on how people think they recover and how people actually recover. They’re two different things. When you start something new or if you’ve done something before, you’ll have preconceived ideas about it. Whether it’s going into a new relationship, starting a new job, going on a vacation, or whatever you do. It could even be landscaping your garden like I’ve been enjoying doing.

Whenever you start something new, you’ll have these ideas on how you think it will go, but then there’s actually the reality of how it will go. Have you noticed that things always take longer than you thought they would? A project that you’re going to do. Getting fit, for example. Buying a new home. It can take a lot of time, but you need to understand that because unforeseen things come up.

When I was landscaping my garden, I had a look at this piece of land and thought, “This is going to be easy. I’m just going to get a couple of machines in. We’re going to flatten everything out. Put the soil down. I’m going to put pavers in and it’ll be a nice and easy job. Low cost because I’ll do the labor myself.” Well, that’s where I went wrong because halfway through the project, I noticed that there was a huge big tree trunk partially submerged underground. It took a lot of time and money to get rid of. I solved that problem. It took an extra couple of days, almost a week to clear that. And then I further progressed and I’m digging away, and chop, I chopped through this major water pipe and the water is flowing out everywhere. Another problem. So I had one small problem after another bigger problem. Again, my motto is “Persistence breaks resistance.” I never gave up and I kept on working and now I’ve completed the job and it looks awesome.

One. It’s the same with you, Bonnie. Water pipes will come up. Tree trunks will come up. They’ll be snags. Things will come up along the way on your road to recovery. You may, for example, change occupation or change location. You may have some financial hardships at times. All sorts of things can occur and many people don’t take these changes into account on their road to recovery. Sometimes people even do crazy things like go scuba diving or go bungie jumping and I wrote about that here. A further way to avoid aggravations and to improve your chances of a quicker recovery is not to begin a new hobby or sport when you’re undergoing treatment. It is not wise to go bungie jumping, skydiving, scuba diving, long distance running or triathlons, for example. Your body is under considerable stress as it is when you’re undergoing a yeast cleanse, and your immune system will be challenged. This extra stress can only serve to lower your resistance even further by increasing your chances of aggravations and protract your recovery. Wait until you’ve fully recovered before you attempt any strenuous sort of activity.

Now, it’s not unusual for me to talk to someone who says, “Well, I’m just getting fit at the moment because come spring time, I’m going to do a half marathon.” And then I’ll say, “Well, do you think that’s a wise idea when you’ve got bowel problems and you’ve got poor energy at the moment?” “Oh, yeah. It’s a good idea because if I get fit and do this triathlon, I’m going to improve my recovery.” I say, “Well, don’t do it. Don’t be one of those weekend warriors.” And it’s the same with studying.

What’s the point in completing a PhD if you’re sick? Push the thing aside for one year. Put it off for 12 months. It’s not going to work. What’s the point in going into a new relationship with a partner if you’re partially well or unwell? You’re better off waiting until you improve your health before you jump head on into those things.

It’s the same with your sensitivity levels, Bonnie. You need to understand that some people are sensitive. Some people have got low sensitivity. Some people moderate. Some people high sensitivity. So you’ve got to work out what your sensitivity levels are and then make dietary changes and take supplements according to your sensitivity level. That’s an intelligent approach. Very smart thing to do because otherwise you’re going to aggravate severely. Go slowly. Take your time. Understand your degree of sensitivity. Understand that things always take longer than they appear.

Ever seen the sticker on the mirror of the car. “Be careful. Objects may appear larger than they are.” Problems may appear smaller than they are in this case. In fact, they could be larger. Expect the unexpected and be kind to yourself. Give yourself plenty of time for recovery. Four months to six months is average for yeast infection cases in my opinion. For sort of average Candida cases. We get the seriously sick patients I see and they can take one to two years or even longer to recover. So just bear that in mind.

If all is not going well, I’ve written a good section in the back of my book, “Potential Aggravations and how to treat them.” I go over all sorts of problems that could occur and how you can deal with those problems. In fact, I’ve done some videos on those. Headaches, anger, depression and crying, blood sugar problems, fatigue and low moods. Troubleshooting. If you still need help and you’re not recovering, what to do. It’s on this page here. I think you’ll be able to see that. That’s out of my book. It’s right in the back of the book.

Okay, so you’ve followed the program faithfully, but you’re not satisfied with your recovery. Something is holding you back. What the hell is holding you back? Here’s a checklist. Re-examine your diet. Have you faithfully applied the diet principles I’ve outlined in Section One of the book? Have you started to feel better and then include some of the foods you eliminated early on. Like caffeine, alcohol, sugary processed foods. Or maybe you slipped back into your old ways of eating or living. Be honest with yourself.

Two. Have you checked yourself out carefully for any potential food allergies. Sometimes you may need to do a food allergy test. Maybe you’ve brought those foods back into your diet that are challenging your body again like they used to previously.

Three. Have you incorporated the major lifestyle changes I’ve outlined in Chapter 7 and I’ve spoken about these a lot on YouTube?

Four. Have you got adrenal fatigue? You may wish to read Dr. Wilson’s book on adrenal fatigue or go to adrenalfatigue.org. Many patients I see have got adrenal fatigue. And they don’t fully recover because they’ve either got thyroid or adrenal issues that are preventing their recovery. This is a big one and this could be you.

Five. You may have to re-examine your lifestyle, especially consider the balance of demands on your mind and body that you’re making. Have you completed the home stress test? There’s a stress test you can actually complete in the book. Are you taking enough time out from the hectic demands of your work and family life?

Six. Re-examine your exercise program. Are you moving your body at least three times a week or are you chained to your computer?

Seven. How’s your sleep? Do you have insomnia or difficulty getting to sleep or early waking? You will never have a good immune function if you have a continual sleeping problem. And read my section on insomnia. I’ve completed some videos on sleeping disorders as well.

Eight. Have you discontinued taking unnecessary drugs from the doctor? Can you stop the oral contraceptive pill, antibiotics or hormonal treatments? You may be on steroids, for example. hydrocortisone, too much of that, or prednisone. And this could be suppressing the immune function.

Nine. How’s your environment? Have you cleaned up that moldy ceiling or bathroom? Are you still using chemicals or exposed to fumes, poisons or chemicals in your occupation or around your home? You may want to seriously think about finding another job if you’re around any kind of chemicals. A greenkeeper saw me with a yeast infection and a really big chronic jock itch. Once he got rid of his job and the chemicals that went along with it.

Ten. Are you taking the right kind of dietary supplements? I designed the Canxida range of supplements specifically for people to get them well fast. Check out Canxida.com. There are some pretty fine supplements on there that took me a lot of figuring out.

Have a think about those points, Bonnie. Those points were written for someone just like you. If you go through the checklist, you need to try to work out why you’re not recovering. Sometimes there will be one obstacle to cure that’s holding you back as preventing big recovery. And I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out. If not, book a consultation with me and let’s just see how you’re going there. And sometimes I’ll say, “Hang on a minute. This is a problem.” And then sometimes they say to me, “Wow, I never thought that was a problem.” And other times they’ll say, “I knew it might be a problem. I thought you were going to say I can’t have my one can of diet coke every day.”

And don’t forget to do my quiz, Bonnie, at yeastinfection.org. There is a quiz you can do. It’s the internet’s best quiz to determine your level of severity for Candida. And please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks for checking out today.

Hi there. It’s New Zealand naturopath, Eric Bakker. I’m author of a book called Candida Crusher and also the formulator of the Canxida range of dietary supplements. Thanks for checking out my video today. I’ve got a question here from a guy called George Everly in New Jersey in the USA. George is asking me a question in a quite a long email “How can I stop losing weight on the Candida diet? How can I gain weight?” George is quite a slim guy. He’s only about 110 pounds and he’s not really that tall. He’s about 5 foot 8-1/2 inches, so he’s a reasonably tall guy, but he doesn’t really weigh a lot.

George, the interesting thing that you need to bear in mind when you’re on the Candida diet is you can eat carbohydrates and you can eat proteins. You can eat fats. You can eat a whole range of different foods. You don’t have to lose a whole lot of weight. If you’re losing weight, it tells me basically (a) you’re not eating enough foods, (b) you’re not eating the right kind of foods to maintain the weight, or (c) you’re exercising or doing too much. You’re basically burning up your calories and not putting enough calories in there.

Also bear in mind that people with yeast infections and digestive problems who are unwell generally can often have a slightly higher metabolic rate, so they can be hungrier, be burning up more food, and then be very scared and cautious about the kind of foods they do consume because they could aggravate their gut and cause a lot of problems. This is something I typically see with Candida. That people start reading all these diets on specific carbohydrate eliminations and gut psychology diets and bodycology diets, all these kind of diets they read and they start thinking that they’ve got to exclude all carbohydrates from their diet. They just have a pure Paleo approach, so they basically stick with meats and vegetables. That’s a pretty boring silly diet. To me, it’s not really a diet that’s sustainable. You can’t keep maintaining diets like that.

I noticed a long time ago in the 80s that when patients went on very strict kinds of Atkins induction dietary approaches that they felt really good for the first few days or a week and then they felt like crap after that. They felt sick. They got blocked up. They got constipated. They didn’t feel well at all. It’s no good to be too strict with any kind of dietary approach for too long. So let’s talk about the different kinds of carbohydrates you can include in your diet with Candida, and if you’re scared about consuming these kinds of carbohydrates.

The advice I’m going to give you now, George, is not going to specifically relate to your case because I haven’t seen you as a patient. I don’t know all the details around your case, so it’s just general information. When I see people on Skype or FaceTime on the computer from around the world, I listen very carefully what they’ve got to say and I can give highly specific advice for their needs. Remember, just bear it in mind. These carbs can really range from person to person quite wildly.

I’ve never found brown rice a problem on the Candida diet, particularly if people start with small amounts of brown rice. We’re talking very small amounts. It could be an ounce. It could be like a tablespoon if they’re quite suspicious about that food. And they can add it to things like steamed vegetables or casserole dishes or different kinds of meals that they’re eating and they shouldn’t have a problem.

Point number one. Write this down. If you’re going to start a new carbohydrate in your diet or you haven’t consumed it for some time, start with very small amounts. That’s because the bacteria in your gut, whether they’re commensals, bacteria in transition from good to bad, or whether they’re beneficials or lack of beneficials or whether they’re bad bacteria or whether they’re Candida in small, moderate or large amounts. We don’t know what you’ve got in your gut. We don’t know how these bugs are going to handle a huge influx of this new carbohydrate. Be very careful when you start a new carb not to go crazy with it and have like two or three portions a day. Test the water to see how you’re going to feel. Because this could be a mistake. This could really increase brain fog, gas, bloating, and all sorts of symptoms. Just be very careful.

Think about it this way. If you were to start a new job or you were to start a new exercise program or even start a new relationship or you’re going to start anything new, do you just go completely head on into it without any thought of what you’re doing? You probably don’t. You probably ease yourself into these kinds of things because it makes more sense to do that. And it’s the same with the diet approach. Ease yourself into the new carbohydrate.

Brown rice, quinoa. Quinoa is quite a good grain from South America. It’s probably around 18 percent protein. It’s a high protein. It’s a good carb. And I find it quite nice with different kinds of boned broths or chicken broths or vegetable broths or potassium broths. You can cook it with water. You can add it to all kinds of different dishes. Brown rice, quinoa. You can also add millet in there. Millet’s quite an alkaline, clean grain and I find it really good for breakfast, cooking up like a millet porridge. And again, that can be added to many different kinds of meat dishes, savory dishes. That’s usually okay. Small amounts of millet are fine. Buckwheat. Buckwheat flour is quite nice to have. Buckwheat noodles. There are noodles called Soba noodles. You can get them with mixed wheat or you can get 100 percent buckwheat noodles. I find Soba noodles quite nice to eat.

There is already about four or five approaches you can add to your diet. Don’t forget to include small amounts of beans into your diet. Again, be very careful not to include large amounts because you get a lot of gas and bloating from all that fiber. Small amounts of beans or legumes like chickpeas can be added to the diet. You can make hummus up with a bit of tahini, which is basically mashed up sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic and chickpeas. That makes up a dish called hummus, which is quite an attractive dip to have with raw vegetables. It’s got a lot of carb in that.

There are many different carbohydrates you can include in your diet. You’ve got to find the ones that agree with you. You need to start slowly, small quantities and gradually build up. If you get discomfort, you back off. It’s simple. And also alternate the carbs. Have them at different times of the day. Different times of the week. Don’t keep eating the same stuff over and again. Don’t be afraid of carbohydrates in your diet. If you’ve got severe intestinal Candida, you may for the first several weeks be very cautious, especially if you’ve got a lot of gut issues and brain fog.

You need to be cautious with pumpkin, squash, corn, and potatoes. These foods are very high in starches and sugars. Various stages of ripeness of these foods can also dictate whether they’ve got more starch or more sugar in them. And also ways that you prepare these foods, whether they’re baked or fried or made into soups. That can also change how they affect your body as well. Again, you need to experiment with that. If you’ve got a severe gut problem, back off these starchy vegetables for the first few weeks. I always find baked potato and baked pumpkin a little bit better than steamed or turned into soups. So just be very cautious.

I hope that gives you a good bit of advice there, George, on carbohydrates. Don’t be afraid to include those in the diet. They will ensure that you won’t lose a lot of weight, especially if you’re eating ample vegetables and a mixed selection of meats along with those carbohydrates. You should be fine. And also, George, check out my Candida quiz at yeastinfection.org. Thanks for buying my book, Candida Crusher. I just read your email. I appreciate you buying that book. You’ll read more about all the kind of starchy carbohydrates in that book. There is a whole section in there on weight loss as well. And also, George, don’t forget, I’ve created a range of products you can find at Canxida.com. They’re going to help you significantly with your yeast infection.

Thanks for tuning in.

Greetings. It’s naturopath, Eric Bakker, from New Zealand. I’m the author of Candida Crusher and also the formulator of a range of supplements called Canxida. Thanks for checking out my video. I’ve got an email here from a medical student. I love getting emails from medical students. And this one is from a lady called Sarah Berry. Sarah Berry is from Sydney, Australia and she’s a second year medical student.

Sarah is saying in an email that I shouldn’t be seeing patients because I’m not medically qualified or fit to see people in any kind of clinical setting. And she’s saying that only medical doctors are real doctors and, therefore, are qualified to see patients. Naturopaths are not qualified. They have no clinical or medical skills and should not be practicing medicine. Thanks so much for your email, Sarah, I really appreciate these emails.

I always say to people like you “Come back and talk to me once you’ve been a doctor for 25 or 30 years. Come back and let’s have a cup of tea and let’s have a talk to see what you feel then about your clinical practice. And, in fact, if you’re still seeing patients at all.”

I just read an interesting survey on the internet that was completed where about 40 percent of doctors, in fact, consider dropping out of medicine quite early on their practice and they rank dissatisfaction as one of the main reasons why. They’re not earning enough money. They don’t enjoy practice. They’re not getting results. They’re quite annoyed with the whole medical system and there are many reasons why they cite this.

It’s a sad fact that when I qualified from college myself nearly 30 years ago, I discovered that the dropout rate for naturopathic physicians is extremely high five years after qualification. In fact, 95 percent of naturopaths don’t even practice in a clinical setting five years after they qualify because they just don’t really get the clinical support, the education, they don’t make a good enough income, and they’re many reasons why they can’t continue on, so they scale back to a part time practice, which is very sad.

I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve had really good support from my wife who has helped me for many years. I wouldn’t be able to work without her. She does all my bookkeeping for me and helped me for many years booking patients in, which is now automated online, thank goodness. Without proper support and continuing education yourself without improving your own skills, you never really maintain that sharp cutting clinical edge. And again, I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve always maintained apart from my clinical practice, I’ve maintained technical interest in the industry, so I’ve traveled quite a lot to America and throughout Australia and New Zealand. I’ve gone to many different medical conferences, integrated medical conference, and natural conferences. I’ve networked with a lot of fantastic people who I now consider some of my best friends all throughout the world who are specialists in integrative and natural medicine who have really helped me to advance my education and I’ve, in turn, helped to advance theirs to some degree.

Sarah, the best advice I can give you is “When you’ve got 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 patients under your belt, then I’d like to talk to you.” Because students have often got a lot to say, but they don’t really mean anything. Nothing beats experience. Now, you can say all you want about my lack of skills and qualifications, but I did do a Bachelor of Health Science degree focusing on complimentary medicine. And I did spend a few years doing post-graduate training in different countries. And apart from that, I’ve got an incredible amount of clinical experience spanning now 27 years. Surely, that must account for something.

During my travels, I’ve met some incredible doctors and some of them, in fact, have no medical qualifications whatsoever, but they were fantastic clinicians. Purely because of the way that they interact with people. What you will learn, Sarah, over time is medicine is not all about giving pills or surgery. It’s to my understanding a big part of healing people or facilitating the healing process is understanding human nature, is working with people, and really understanding how they get sick and how they develop their own sickness through their mode of living, through their occupation, through their relationships with other people. It’s not just about diagnosing diseases and then giving pills and that’s what medical students tend to think. They tend to think that we find the disease in the human being, we give the pill or the surgery, and the patient is cured and they’re healed and they get better again.

Well, that’s a lot of crap. That’s not what happens. But that’s what a lot of students think. One of my best friends, in fact, many years ago qualified alongside me as a naturopath and a homeopath and that man went on to become a medical doctor several years later. He now, in my opinion, has become very pharmaceutically indoctrinated to the point where he thinks natural medicine is a load of crap. When a patient comes to him with a cough or a sniffle, that patient get an antibiotic.

It’s incredible how people can get brainwashed into this disease model thinking. My advice to you, again, more advice is please don’t get brainwashed by pharmaceutical interests. Keep an open mind in healing. Pharmaceutical medicines are wrong. They certainly have their place. But in my opinion, they have no role in healing people from long term chronic illnesses. All they do is suppress symptoms and that’s something that you’ve got to learn over time. Symptom suppression sometimes is necessary, but it’s very evil in many cases and it will never get a patient to the point where they’re gaining optimal health.

So the offer for the cup of tea or cup of coffee is still open when you qualify and you’ve got many years of clinical experience under your belt, do come around to my place and let’s have a kind hearted conversation and I’ll maintain this email on my file. I’ve probably got about 500 emails like this from specialists and doctors. I’ve got some fantastic ones from a cardiologist called me the ultimate quack. None of my potions work. I’ve a great one from a gastroenterologist, from cardiologists, from different kinds of people. And a lot of them like this from medical students. I keep them all in a couple of different folders just in case that person might want to come over for that cup of tea.

Thanks for tuning in.