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If you didn’t know, markers for candida in stool tests aren’t very trustworthy. This is a challenge when you’ve invested money to figure out what’s going on in your gut that is also impacting your skin.
Candida overgrowth is tricky to pinpoint if you don’t take several factors into account (and often they aren’t things you can test for).
Sometimes signs of candida overgrowth are fairly obvious, like getting thrush, a vaginal yeast infection, or candida diaper rash in children. Other times, the symptoms are subtle and could be attributed to other problems if you aren’t looking at the full case.
Because the inflammation triggered by candida overgrowth in your gut can absolutely show up as inflamed skin and rashes.
My guest, Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS, is a clinical nutritionist who helps babies and children with chronic rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin so they can enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms. As one of the most trusted pediatric skin-focused nutritionists, Jen is passionate to help families get to the root causes of the problem through her unique method called Conquer Your Child’s Rashesᵀᴹ .
We’re chatting today about what we tend to see in baby, childhood, and adult skin problems when we see or are looking for candida and other fungal overgrowth concerns.
So let’s dive in!
Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android
In This Episode:
- Is candida overgrowth a frequent root cause in skin rash cases?
- Is it worth it to try a candida cleanse?
- Pros + cons: Best tests for candida
- Are THESE skin issues signs of candida overgrowth?
- Diet + candida overgrowth (honest thoughts)
- Upcoming trainings to join
Quotes
“I have had multitudes of the thousands of people that are in my Instagram community, on my email list, here on YouTube, how many people have said, ‘I did a candida cleanse and I think I broke myself because my skin flared up so badly. I deeply regret having done this’.” — Jennifer Fugo
“When you have an overgrowth of something like candida or something else fungal, you're not going to be able to fix it with diet and prebiotics. I have not had a case where we've been able to do that. It requires some sort of natural anti-microbial antifungal.” — Jennifer Brand
Links
Find Jennifer Brand online | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
GOT RASHY KIDS? Register for Jennifer Brand’s free training – http://ConquerYourChildsRashes.com
FOR SKIN RASH WARRIOR ADULTS! Save your seat for Jennifer Fugo’s free training (7 Skin Rash Mistakes) – http://www.RebuildHealthySkin.com
Healthy Skin Show ep. 213: Stool Testing Do’s + Don’t’s For Skin Rashes
Healthy Skin Show ep. 311: What Causes Candida Overgrowth (and How to Stop It)
Healthy Skin Show ep. 313: Testing for Candida Overgrowth (Is the Candida Spit Test LEGIT?)
356: Troubleshooting Candida In Stool Tests (+ Other Labs) w/ Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS {FULL TRANSCRIPT}
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (00:02)
Hello everyone, so we figured we would answer a bunch of questions about candida overgrowth and how it could potentially be a trigger for skin issues because I have gotten a ton of questions about this over the last several months. I've been compiling them and Jen and I had this like, I don't know, we have this idea that we would sit down together and just talk about it because there are differences.
Like we probably have very similar but slightly different approaches because we are dealing with different age groups. And we also have different clinical experience because obviously we don't work on the same cases. So we figured we would go through and start answering some of your questions. Jen, I wanted to ask you really quickly, because I think it's important for listeners to know, because I think we should just talk about how often do we tend to see Candida in these cases.
How often do you tend to see Candida overgrowth show up as a factor?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (01:54)
I see it show up as a factor, whether it's candida or other types of fungal overgrowth, because there can be others as well. I see it pop up, I would say, probably the majority of the time. There are some common things that I look for in children when I'm doing this work with my clients. I think we're going to get into this today too, and I'm really excited about talking about this part of it too, because when we are looking for fungal involvement, it doesn't always readily show up on certain testing and some of that testing is like the primary testing that I do recommend for getting to the root cause of the problem. It's still important for doing that. However, it isn't necessarily the best way to pick up Candida. So some of the things I look for when I work with my clients, I do a very comprehensive intake process. And so some of the signs, you know, for example, if your child has cradle cap or had cradle cap as a baby, you know, if they have had what maybe was suspected to be, staph or something overgrown on the skin microbiome and they've used antibiotics or something like that that's supposed to help with bacteria and it hasn't worked, you know. So there's some clues that we look for. Also, you know, even if there isn't cradle cap, but itchy scalp, flaky scalp, sometimes where the rashes are located can play an important role also. So there are variety of things that I look for and I would say, again, in the great majority of the cases that I work with, there is some fungal component involved.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (03:23)
Yeah, I agree. would say that percentage-wise in adults, I see candida in probably like, I don't want to overestimate it, but probably 80 to 85 % of cases. There is some level of fungal or candida overgrowth. And you have to imagine in adults, like,
Listen, I'm in my mid 40s. At this point in time, I have had many, many, many doses of antibiotics throughout my life, partly because my dad was a doctor and gave me antibiotics for everything. So unfortunately, that was part of my unique history. But there are also a lot of other people, like you were saying, if you had, for example, eczema since you were a baby, and I have worked with cases where many people have had eczema for decades of their life.
There's a high likelihood that you've had multiple rounds of antibiotics because of skin infections and other things that happen to pop up. So I do think that it's a significant factor. I don't think that people should assume that everyone has it because that's the trendy thing now. All you hear about on Instagram and YouTube is do a candida cleanse, do a parasite cleanse. They're like the trendy things and then people do them because they're desperate. They really, I mean, I wanna say, I wanna clarify that too when I say desperate, it's like you wanna do what you can to fix your skin, right?
Like, I mean, you're not getting the help that you want from your doctor, unfortunately, or you feel like their recommendations are super limited and you become curious about looking under the surface for some other factors. And what becomes really challenging is that, unfortunately, when you go online and you do your own research, sometimes we're led to certain solutions that can have that can cause flare ups, let's be honest. And I don't know if you've had this happen, Jen, or had parents tell you this, but I have had multitudes of the thousands of people that are in my Instagram community, on my email list, here on YouTube, how many people have said, “I did a candida cleanse and I think I broke myself because my skin flared up so badly, I deeply regret having done this.” Do you notice that in kids?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (05:47)
I do and I find it's troublesome when this happens in any population, but I find it even more troublesome with children because well-meaning parents, so if you're a parent and your child is struggling, it's like throwing darts in the dark and you're grasping at straws to help your child because it's absolutely miserable to watch them struggle with this. And like you mentioned, Jen, it's so popular right now, like candida cleanse are the big thing and how to address them. And the problem, not only does that really not solve the problem and can make it worse like you're saying, but also a lot of these recommendations are, not only are they inappropriate for adults, but they are certainly inappropriate for children. And so we have a lot of this information that is online, whether you're even like Google searching things, but a lot of the parents that I talked to have found information in online support groups, these Facebook support groups. And these groups.
They are really important and I think they're an important process of the healing journey, especially for parents that feel alone, you know, and need to have that community support. And so they're very important for that. But I highly, highly recommend taking any recommendations in there with a grain of salt, because the people making the recommendations are not clinicians, because clinicians are not allowed to do that in the support groups.
So you're getting recommendations from other people who are going through the same thing as you, who are also finding this potentially erroneous and dangerous information. Plus, what works for one person doesn't mean it's going to work for another person. I see this every single day. You know, what worked for your friend's kid, your neighbor's kid, even your other child may not work for this particular child. And that is because everybody is unique. Everybody's body is unique. And so there are just a lot of pieces to the puzzle that need to be taken into account so that things don't get worse.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (07:45)
Yeah, and I was gonna say that that's the same with adults. I oftentimes see like, hey, I did this and my skin got worse, but everybody else who seems to do this online, they get better. Like why? Why me? And it's like, well, their problems are not necessarily your problems. And when I say problems, I mean root causes. So.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (07:46)
People stay safe.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (08:07)
I wanted to go back to something you said earlier because a lot of people ask about testing. And so a number of questions that I accumulated were asking about testing and whatnot. And you pointed to the fact that sometimes tests fail us. Let's be honest, they fail us at times. And if you don't do the due diligence to look through your case and your history and you don't really know what to specifically look towards, things can be missed, so to speak.
So let's do a kind of quick yay or nay on some very common testing that people may have been told is good for Candida or to find Candida and others that are not so great, or maybe, maybe it depends. So let's start off with food intolerance testing or food sensitivity testing. Do you think that that can be used to figure out if you have Candida overgrowth?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (09:06)
I'm gonna go with a nay on that one. That's a no for me.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (09:11)
Okay, I'm gonna be a slight depends. A slight depends. Okay, so here's my take on this. I do not think that food sensitivity testing is worth it to do, like period. But if you've already done it, then it's not like you're getting your money back. So what can we get out of this that's of value? So if a client submits to me a food sensitivity test, the only thing that I would really care about
would be if they looked for brewer's yeast. On rare occasions, they'll also look for candida. And if those show up as moderate or high, that to me, I would be like, that's a clue. That's a possible, like I'm gonna chalk one up that there's possibly out of all the things, right? Cause we want to assess the whole thing that there could be an issue with candida. So that's just my take. How about, go ahead. Yeah.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (09:43)
Thank you. Actually, before we move on from that one, so what would you think, that does make sense, I rarely see on the food sensitivity testing that people bring me that they've looked, Brewer's yeast is on there sometimes, but I rarely see other markers that would be potentially help us point that out. What about in your opinion, if you saw corn or some of the moldier foods pop up?
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (10:33)
That's an interesting question. I will have to noodle on that. Maybe we come back to that in another one of these. I don't know. That's an interesting perspective. But I mean, the problem is that those foods oftentimes show up high if you're eating them quite frequently. So I kind of look at it more as like, OK, we found some of the food protein, like the IGG. Yeah.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (10:50)
Mm. Yeah, it wouldn't necessarily be the mold, but like, right?
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (11:01)
Yeah. So I don't know. I probably maybe lean toward no, but I'm going to noodle on it. I'm going to give it some thought given that like I never thought of that before. So I'll noodle. I'll noodle. I don't know if anybody's ever came to you and said, I had my kid do the spit test. I get that a lot. I did the spit test online. I spit into a glass of water and it like grew legs. I must have candida. I am a hard no.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (11:09)
I couldn't either. Just now.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (11:31)
On the spit test being a valid sign of candida overgrowth. What do you think?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (11:37)
I have not had anybody come to me with that. If they do, it's going to be a hard nay and a hard pass as well. Yeah.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (11:44)
How about organic acid testing? So for anybody not in the know on this, this is usually an urinary test. It's typically done through a functional lab. So it's looking at something called organic acids. There's at least two different panels that I'm familiar with, one from Genova and one from Mosaic Labs. So Jen, with organic acid testing, yay or nay on identifying candida overgrowth with those tests?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (12:15)
That's going to be a yay for me. So I do find that.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (12:18)
Okay.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (12:22)
Well, it's interesting too, because I find that when I do the urinary organic acid testing, more often than not, something fungal pops up on there, even though I wouldn't otherwise suspect it based on symptoms or other testing or what have you. So I think that what I find is that it is more sensitive for identifying potential fungal overgrowth. It doesn't really tell you where it's coming from necessarily, but it's more helpful than, for example, like the spit test or the food sensitivity test or some of those others. Yeah. Have a good year.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (12:58)
Yeah, I would say it depends. So here's my take on organic acid testing. So one thing that I discovered very early on, after we graduated from University of Bridgeport, that was like the test that I used to run on all clients. Because we learned about that test in school. We used it heavily. I was really, really comfortable with organic acid testing.
And one thing I came to realize was I don't think… So this gets into the weeds of like, with time, with clinical experience, right? We start to realize that sometimes the reference ranges and like the colors that labs will put aren't always accurate because you have to consider other factors. I don't think the reference ranges are oftentimes showing, like they'll say, well, if you're in, for example, if there's like five quintiles, right?
So there's like one through five, but you have to be up in the like, fifth box to be high, I personally think that if you're in the third box or higher, you probably have a problem. So there's that. The other issue is that like Genova's test only tests for D. Arapnatal, which is a waste product of Candida albicans. There are other waste products of other fungal organisms. So you could have that as looking clear, but still have a fungal problem.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (14:12)
Mmm.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (14:24)
The other issue is that like Mosaic Labs, for example, is a little bit more broken out. They test for more things, but even then it's not perfect. It's not perfect. It does not accurately tell us for sure that yes, you definitely have a fungal issue because again, there's multiple, multiple types of organisms. So I think it can be helpful and I agree. It's more helpful than the other ones we just mentioned, but I think that again,
Is it possible to have a clear-looking test and you still have Candida or some other type of fungal problem? I would say absolutely yes. I mean, I do think that it might be slightly, I don't know, maybe slightly better than a stool test. And we should clarify. I want to clarify candida in stool test right now as…
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (15:05)
I agree there, absolutely.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (15:19)
…the PCR style, like functional medicine stool tests, where do you stand on those?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (15:28)
So the professional grade PCR, comprehensive digestive stool tests are a cornerstone that I use in my practice to figure out root cause gut imbalances for kids that are struggling with chronic skin rashes.
That is key that this is a professional grade comprehensive digestive stool test. And here we can go here for a minute because this is so critical because this one I have parents come to me daily. And when I start talking about the candida in stool testing, I got that. I got that one. Which one did you get? And I'm always afraid to hear the answer. So there are some tests out there that if you can get it on your own without the help of a clinician, these direct-to-consumer tests, kinds of results that they give back to you,
It's a really lengthy report. It's gonna recommend like a probiotic, maybe some diet changes. These tests are absolutely useless for getting to the root cause of the problem. I can't even tell you how many times somebody has come to me with this testing. We do the professional grade testing and there's no comparison between what gets missed on these direct-to-consumer tests. That said, when we're talking about Candida, I don't often see it show up even when I suspect it.
a client I was talking to earlier this week. I mean, just, it's clear that there is a fungal overgrowth problem to the point where their doctor has given them topical antifungals. They have swabbed and tested positive for it. Like we know it is fungal and it doesn't show up on the comprehensive digestive stool test. So that is not uncommon and it is absolutely not a reason to rule it out. You know, all that means is that the fungal, the overgrowth does not happen in the gut. It can be other places in the body, right? So just because there’s not fungal overgrowth or candida in stool.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (17:16)
Well, it can also, when you say gut, I think we should clarify, it may not have grown down far enough in the large intestine, because it could be up in the small intestine. We just can't test up in the small intestine for fungal organisms, with the exception of the urinary acids, but that doesn't tell us where anything is. But yeah, I agree. I agree that the stool test is, I don't know why. They're really hit or miss.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (17:26)
Yeah. It does not.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (17:43)
Sometimes you might get a better result with like a microscopic exam, but even that is not perfect. There's no perfect test. So if somebody told you like, if you definitively do this, that's it, great. I think sometimes if you can get a doctor to do like the more like looking at the IGA, IgM, IgG blood markers, that could potentially be helpful, but like so few doctors.
I mean, we've been doing this since 2017. I probably can count on maybe one hand how many doctors were actually willing to run those markers. They're helpful, especially if they're elevated. Then you have a reason why to prescribe medications. But it's really uncommon. But I agree. The candida in stool tests are hit or miss. And if you have a practitioner that's like, you look fine, the other one I like is it showed up, but it's not high.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (18:41)
Ugh.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (18:41)
You have a fungal problem.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (18:41)
That's my take, everyone. Well, but that's the thing too, because like we're saying, you know, it doesn't, and I'm glad that you clarified, because where we're looking when we are talking about the gut and the microbiome is the large intestine or the colon. So what we're looking at in these stool tests is what we're seeing there. And because that fungal overgrowth, the fungal stuff lives up higher. So in order for it to show up down there, like there has to be quite a bit of it to make its way down there and kind of shut off and get in there. So seeing any of it at all in the stool, even if it's just like under the reference range to me that is a huge sign of fungal overgrowth again because it doesn't usually show up there that way and then certainly and I do see this in a lot of children and I don't know how often you see it show up on a stool test the professional grade ones in adults but I do see it I worked with adults many years ago and I will say that I see it show up either present and or high the candida marker or the other fungal markers in a lot more kids than I ever did in a adults.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (19:42)
That's interesting. Yeah, I don't see the candida markers high or even anything present very often. Like, I'll give you an example. I have found, and this is just clinical observation. I don't have any data to back this up. It's just something, and like I'm talking to my associates and other practitioners that also work with adults. And one factor is many psoriasis cases have quite a significant fungal problem and it does not always show up on a stool test. And it's quite significant. I wish there was more research done on this, but a lot of times, a lot of the research today is pretty much, they're like gut microbiome and I'm like, okay, you know there's more than bacteria that just live in the microbiome. Could we like actually look at some other organisms that are in there because it's not just about bacteria. There are fungal organisms, there are parasites, there's all sorts of things and we're just not seeing that research. So there's not a whole lot to point to aside from like your clinical perspective of what you end up seeing as being a problem.
And the other thing I'll just mention too, as like a side note, because I mentioned the IgG, IgM, IgA panels, which by the way, they can be run by like regular labs. Like they're not like specialty labs or anything. So your doctor can write for them. But also like one thing I noticed is like if you see uric acid, which is a blood marker, if that is elevated or trending to the higher end of normal…
And yet there's zero sign of gout, like none. You've never had any outbreaks of gout, like nothing. That can be a potential sign because some yeast, so I guess it was like a few years ago, I saw Dr. David Perlmutter speak and he was taught, he has this like whole like uric acid book that came after whatever it was, Grain Brain or whatever. And he was like, do you know what?
What's the worst food for gout? And I was like, I think it's beer. I think it's beer. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it's beer. Well, turns out it is beer. But I didn't know why. And it's because of the brewer's yeast. And brewer's yeast specifically auto-produce. So they self -produce purines that then get converted to uric acid. And yes, brewer's yeast, which is the cere,
Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, you can have that in your GI tract. So I've seen a number of cases over the last couple of years since we started looking at that marker show up where it was like super weird. They have no gout whatsoever. They have no joint issues, nothing. And yet when we really dug through the case, it was a pretty significant fungal problem. So I'm not going to say this automatically equals that, but I do think it's interesting when you consider that.
So, Jen, it sounds like I'm going to ask you this because obviously I'm sure you've had kids that have had thrush and other and dandruff and you said cradle cap, which is also kind of in that fungally family. One person wrote in and said, my stool test returned zero candida. Right. We just talked about this. Even though I have dandruff, sebderm and thrush, does that mean I don't have a candida problem?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (23:09)
It means you do have a Candida problem. Yeah, you do. And that is a perfect example of why it is very important to have a comprehensive history so that you know what's going on and to work with somebody that can help you do that. Because if you're interpreting these results yourself, you can easily assume, well, it must be something else because my tests say I don't have it. Well, you have all of these other signs and symptoms, so you have it.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (23:12)
You do. Yeah, thrush is literally an infection of Candida. It's like a huge overgrowth in the mouth and down the esophagus. And literally, they treat it with usually, sometimes oral liquid nystatin, but like other things. So I mean, it's definitely a fungal issue. And like you pointed out, it depends where the overgrowth actually is. If it's not far enough down, if it's not significant enough, it's not going to get picked up on a stool test. Those stool tests are limited.
I 100% agree. So your thoughts, because I know you work with kids and sometimes parents are adverse to meds or they're not 100 % on board with using more of the natural antifungals like herbs, et cetera. So somebody asked, is it possible to treat candida overgrowth without any natural antifungals by eating fibers and prebiotics or trying a candida diet?
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (24:32)
I'm gonna go with nay, so I'm gonna say no.
These are barely caveats. However, I'm just like thinking along along those lines when we have an overgrowth and this of course is assuming it's going to be in the gut. So if we're talking about that overgrowth in the gut or in the large intestine and let's say for example that person that child has low levels of good flora. So like and by good flora good bacterial things for example. So when that happens that leaves room for stuff we don't want to overgrow.
So it's possible like something like candida, for example, can start to show up. But that said, increasing levels of good stuff, eating fiber, prebiotics, that's going to help the good stuff grow, potentially could like, I get the theory behind it, but bottom line, right, okay, so get the theory, long story short, I get the theory, the theory is on track. However, when you have an overgrowth of something like candida or something else fungal, you're not going to be able to fix it with diet and prebiotics. I have not had a case where we've been able to do that. It requires some sort of natural anti-microbial antifungal. And something else I think is important for people to know is that when we are talking about anti-microbials, these are not like prescription, conventional, like dropping a bomb in there type thing. When we're talking about anti-microbials, there are things like, and this isn't necessarily for Candida, but when we're talking about herbs that are used as anti-microbials like oregano or sage, or thyme or some of these things that are in, you know, some of these antimicrobial products that are used for this sort of thing.
They're plant -based, like you just can't eat enough oregano to make it therapeutic, right? So that's why you have the oregano oil. So these are natural things. And it's not like an isolated, like an antibiotic, for example, is specifically targeting like a certain type of bacteria because plants within nature, they protect themselves with their own natural, like these things, these natural chemicals that are in them. So they are specifically based on nature made to protect good and ward off bad.
So those are the types of things that we use and they're very effective. And so much of the research out there too, depending on what we're looking at, but like, you know, with Candida even shows, you know, equal effectiveness often between something that is conventional, like a Nystatin or what have you, you know, and a more natural herbal antimicrobial. Something else that I think is really interesting. So I want to bring this up too with nystatin because I had a client many years ago and this was very interesting as they had fungal overgrowth… like it was a major problem.
So this was a child and they were on prescription Nystatin from the doctor Every time so the skin would improve they had a lot of like constipation bowel issues, too So on the nystatin for the couple weeks they were on it things would be great They'd stop it within a few days flare Constipation like worse than before it was like every time they were on it better every time as soon as they went off of it things They really escalate
So starting to dig into this, some of the Nystatin formulations, especially for kids, because it's like a sweet liquid, it's got sugar in it.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (28:09)
I guess so it tastes good.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (28:09)
So like, so you're feeding and I know we're talking about like you can't, you can't get rid of Candida. We'll probably go here too. So I'll just mention it really quickly, but you can't fix the problem with diet or candida diet. However, throwing more essentially fuel on the fire is also not gonna help. So I do find that the natural antimicrobials are very effective and helpful.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (28:28)
Yeah.
So I agree with you, I get the concept, right? Because the idea is that, I must have depleted my gut bacteria. And so I need more gut bacteria to control the yeast. And that's great, but when it's like overgrown, because Candida is an opportunistic organism. So if you're taking a lot of antibiotics, or to be fair,
You can over-deplete your own gut microbiome bacteria by taking too many natural antimicrobials as well, just an FYI. They're not without potential side effects. So don't assume natural is somehow always safe. There are pros and cons to things.
I've also seen people who have huge amounts of bacterial overgrowth and they have Candida overgrowth. like, I'm really not sure in that instance, when you think about like, you have to think about all of the players, it's not just, I have Candida, like what's going on? What else is out of balance we need to find? And in adults, especially, especially when you've been dealing with issues for a really long time, if you've had skin issues for years, if not decades, that
Oftentimes there's a complexity there that people really, really struggle with. And so I just want to give that kind of facet. So no, like.
I agree 100%. You're not going to starve Candida. Candida are the cockroaches of our gut microbiome. They are commensal. They're meant to be there, but they're cockroaches. They will be long gone, or they will be there long after everything else goes away. It's sort of why when people do… And I used to employ this. Early on, thought coming out of school especially, was like, if you put them on a low starch diet, you'll starve the yeast and then as soon as somebody tried to even eat like a banana all of a sudden they're starting to have issues again things start to creep back in.
They don't understand it's because it was still there still hanging out the problem's still there so I just don't think that the candida diet is as effective. My preference is that people do a more like lower glycemic balanced diet that they can sustain, that they might even be completely happy on beyond this whole part of their life. And we use the other tools like dealing with all of the other obviously root causes using herbs, using medications if their doctor is willing to play ball and support them in their journey, especially if they do have some of these other things that show up pretty significant. I find that's a better spot to be in.
Then you don't have to question whether it is OK to eat the berries or the banana or even the like the piece of cake at your kid's birthday party. You don't have to be afraid of that. So that's just my take on it. I would rather somebody be comfortable and not have to question it, but it's kind of my thoughts on that. So Jen, we have so many more questions to answer. We have so many. I feel like we have to do a part two on this, because there are so many more questions, and they're really, really good questions.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (31:53)
Great.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS, LDN (32:01)
So I think what we'll do is you and I will put our heads together. We'll figure out when we can do this again and give people more answers to questions. So first of all, I would encourage anybody listening to this if you find this conversation fascinating. So if you find this conversation fascinating or you want us to answer other specific questions, put them into the chat, into the discussion, wherever this interview slash I don't know, ask Jen thing. We literally just decided to do this on the fly. So there's not much format here. We just wanted to have fun and to have this be a more relaxed conversation. But either way, please let us know what else you'd like to know. What other things are like maybe you've been told or you've heard that you're wondering our take on Jen is great with kids because she specifically is that funny? We were study partners in college and then Jen works with babies to mid-teens. I work with adults who are mid-teens to however old you are. So we have a lot of fun talking about this kind of stuff.
Jen, you're available at http://jennifercarynbrand.com. And I know you've got a couple of really great webinars coming up, some free trainings that parents and caregivers can sign up for, especially if you've got kids or babies and you're trying to figure things out that you can go to http://ConquerYourChildsrashes.com. We will put the links in the show notes.
And then I'm hosting a training for adults on Wednesday, September 4th. If you can't make it live, that's totally fine. I'll send you the replay. If you're looking to dive into the root cause stuff that’s driving your rashes so you can address them rather than just guessing (some of this definitely touches on Candida, for sure). You can go to http://www.rebuildhealthyskin.com and sign up to get access to that training.
Thanks, Jen, for being here. I'm so glad that we did this.
Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS (34:04)
Me too. Thank you for having me.
