[LS, Lichen Sclerosus] STOP USING WESTERN MEDICINE!!!!!! ALMOST CURED!

what a fab name...!!...in addition to the great tips. Thank you!

I've been following a gluten free regime with sucess plus the grass fed as much as poss, raw coconut oil, free range eggs etc...trying casein free so bye bye dairy for a while BOOO! Then back on with raw unpastuerised if I can find a source in the UK. Did you encounter the GAPS protocol all that lovely full fat cream and yoghurt yum ...but got to fini the gut heal protocol.

Keep on coming with your lively and enthusiastic ideas!

Hi,  Horses!!  My suggestion is to0 go along with your dermotologist's antibiotics,  but at the same time do a bender on probiotics;  that way you have the best of both worlds and you get your gut into prisine flora balance.  It is important to get away from sugar and refined carbs.  Follow my suggestions to Dsauce, and you should notice a big difference in a few months.  Yes it takes time to get the gut flora right as the candida buries itself into the wall of the gut;  that's why I suggest the nystatin for a month,  to kill it off so that the proper bugs get a chance to establish and the control the candida,  restoring proper balance.  This is not expensive treatment,  but an investment into the future.  Best of luck.  Cheers.

Yes Zara I agree. I try to take as wide a variety and as copious an amount of probiotics that I can manage . People don't realise that candida can get a hold, the candida cells have tenticles that grip fast onto the gut wall. Antibiotics is really a dated and aggressive cure which causes so many other problems but works in extremis. A more gentle method is to overwhelm the bad bacteria ...pathogens...with the good bacteria...probiotics... so they are encouraged to take up residence throughout the body but in the gut in particular as candida and other pathogens are the primary cause of illness including MS and others neurological conditions. The gut being the 'second brain' of the body.

Don't be discouraged and don't quit the antibiotics til you've finished the course....but are you able to take probiotics at a different time of day?

Whilst probiotics are definitely good to balance out the effects of antibiotics, candida is a fungus, not bacteria, so antibiotics have no effect on it and you definitely should not be taking antibiotics to treat candida. Nystatin (mentioned by zara) is an antifungal, which is good against candida. Also, candida isn't always 'bad', as it is usually found in the nose, vagina, GI tract, etc. of healthy individuals.

hi everyone

Well it has been a year and 2 months ago where I was suffering unbelievable pain and since discovered the root and apparently a common cause of lichen. years ago for me (and many others) is candida. I was given steroids for years and it never went away and then got really bad. When it keeps coming back it got worse each time. For all those who are suffering now, order ADP and

CAPRIN online. I order from Biotics from USA. which I cannot buy them in Canada. It clears candida naturally and candida lives a 12 week cycle. I took 3 of each daily with lethicin daily (helps the liver flush out candida). it works so well. of course the naturopath says to cut back on sugar and use honey, molasses and cane sugar. So take this for 4 months and then I take 2 a day. I am unbelievably better and no steroids. The steroids do nothing long term if you are suffering, try this e

Hi Kathleen, I'm with you on following the standard advice from a medical specialist. There are two ways candida can be mentioned in the context of LS. My way is that I've had the splitting and atrophy/fusing that can be nothing but LS since I was nineteen and itching all my life before that. So, that's LS. But I've also had a million full-blown yeast infections. Cottage cheese panties, burning while peeing, etc. After many years of this my pharmacist told me that sugar, stress and friction will make candida worse. I think it was my GP who said yeast is like dandelions in our flesh, we treat the tops, but the roots are there and if we 'disturb the earth' they'll bloom again. I looked up the association between the two – in a medical paper from University of Michigan called 'Learn to Like the Lichens' right after talking about Clobetasol, the physician says "Treat associated Candida or secondary bacterial infection". I had a raging bacterial infection in a lesion when I was finally diagnosed last year. I think our flesh is just generally fragile down there. And I've come across a doctor connecting the Koebner phenomenon of psoriasis (which I also have) with LS, meaning trauma/friction can trigger an LS flare. So rubbing and scratching a raging yeast infection is probably not helpful to LS.

The second way Candida gets mentioned is in alternative medicine where various products and diets claim to clear it out of our systems. They blame candida for a multitude of effects on the immune system. I don't go down that path. I've had to give up sex. I eat a carefully healthy diet, no chocolate, no drinking binges, no bags of chips. I'm not spending my life obsessing over every molecule I eat and getting all stressed-out over it, on the slim chance that it will 'cure' me. My vulva cannot be un-fused. I don't want cancer and I want to be able to pee in ten years. And enjoy life. So, for me those are the two ways of mentioning candida.

Hello Morrell, Life can be a real bitch sometimes,  and this LS affliction seems to be among the most unpleasant ongoing complaints in existance.  My sympathies go out to all you folk that have it.

Because it is an autoimmune problem,  treating the symptoms and neglecting the cause leads to an ongoing and usually never-ending line of treatment.  And as it appears that so many autoimmune problems are related to food processing in the gut,  any disturbance of the gut by any changes in gut flora can have serious consequences.  

I know from experience that overgrowth of gut flora by candida leads to problems,  mine was chronic diarrhea for 14 months.  During this time my medic thought it was due to metformin,  reduced my dosage leading to elevated blood sugar,  and as the metformin appeared to be just going straight through me,  that aggrevated the bloodsugar problem,  feeding the candida and leading to repeated thrush/tinea infections.

I finally took control,  took nystatin (and continue to do so),  changed diet to high protein high fat low carbs vegetables an milk.  This has stopped the diarrhea,  fixed the thrush/tinea problem,  and has me feeling a lot better.  I use coconut oil for cooking,  also butter (our milk comes from grazing cows),  free-range eggs,  and lots of mineral water.  Yes,  I use a lot of supplements to maintain bone health and general well being;  most important Vitamins A,  B group, C, D3, E,  K2;  Calcium citrate,   Magnesium citrate,  trace elements zinc,  selenium,  iodine,  and of course,  probiotics as supplements,  yakult and "living" greek yogurt.  To my thinking,  this tends to reverse the processes that caused the problems I had by restoring the proper gut flora,  thereby allowing the gut to repair and reduce the leakage of food nutrients  into the bloodstream.

It seems that you are trying to do this,  but you have not done the nystatin treatment;  I think nystatin speeds up the renewal of gut flora by killing the excess candida,  and as this does root itself well into the gut wall,  everything you can do to kill the excess candida is a plus.

Of course you must continue treating the symptoms,  you use what is prescribed for you as over time it has been found to reduce your symptoms.  By adding the candida cleanout you are helping your body heal itself.

I hope what I have written makes sense to you,  and others as well;  this is not "alternative" crap,  but adjunct treatment.

Best of luck for the future.

Cheers.

Thanks, Zara. (Your second sentence implies you don't have LS yourself. Am I wrong?) My thinking is that because my psoriasis is absolutely the best it's ever been, 100% clear, that's my indicator of ultimate success with lifestyle changes. The LS, in my mind, is scary like my mother's joint-distorting rheumatoid arthritis – it causes scarring and loss of architecture very quickly. I'm already too shrunken to have sex even if I weren't worried about the friction causing an outbreak of thrush. So for me, making a 50g tube of clobetasol last a whole year is a much smaller dose of meds than taking systemic nystatin. I'm going to ask my gynae if I can try what Kate does, use weak corticosteroid cream daily instead of strong twice a weak.

I'm not against alternative medicine. I went for TCM for a solid year during menopause. She was treating psoriasis with acupuncture, which in hindsight was setting up a weekly cycle of the Koebner phenomenon. I took home bags of woody herbs and boiled up thick tea, I gave up sugar, etc. Meanwhile my LS was quickly zipping up my clitoral hood and causing scary boils in my groin.

In thirty years of having thrush outbreaks no gynae or GP or derm ever prescribed systemic nystatin. I'm not about to ask for it.

Hello Morrell,  Nope,  no LS,  but psoriasis on and off for years,  with maybe some arthritic involvement.

Nystatin is not systemic,  it is not absorbed from the gut,  but kills the candida,  allowing the desired flora to re-establish if a wide range of inoculation by probiotics is done.

The gut is the feeder of flora into the urinogenital system,  so the ideal flora assay is one that contains the species that will seed the vagina and keep candida at bay;  some tend to "cling" to the vaginal walls and remain,  others are washed out by the normal cleansing action of vaginal fluids.  Sorry,  can't tell you which off the top of my head.

So the point of the nystatin is to knock the candida in the gut so the ideal flora can get re-established;  this then sets the ideal flora in the vagina and vulval vestibule,  rendering the area hostile to candida,  and hence,  thrush attacks.  THat is the mechanism for thrush avoidance.

The other aspect of re-establishing the gut flora is to allow the gut to repair damage done by the candida;  I mentioned "Leaky Gut Syndrome" earier,  some conservative medics tend to ridicule the idea,  but prescribe more medication.  Your approach to fixing yourself is good,  but could be much faster if you used nystatin.  Of course the choice is yours,  but I feel my obligation to make you aware of its use and benefit.

Also,  do you know your vit D3 status?  I found that raising mine by using 10,000 IU daily made a heck of a difference to my psoriasis too.  Most people appear to be deficient,  unless they live in tropical/subtropical regions,  all this indoor living is no good for us,  think about osteoporosis further down the track,  the autoimmune problems are a trigger for it.

OK,  must away,  you take care.  Cheers.

I haven't had a yeast infection since the last time I tried to have sex. I do know about leaky gut. Twelve years ago Dr. John Pagano's book is what got me really eating well for my psoriasis. I make my own super-probiotic yogurt. Most commercial yogurt is made with normal milk, which probably has traces of antibiotics from the cows, so you have to wonder what the lactobacillus count could possibly be. I use local small dairy organic fresh milk and started from a cheesemaking supply company. It's so thick and creamy and I know it helps. I'm really very healthy except for LS, which is quite mild compared with many women on the LS forum. The damage is bad from going so long untreated (what works for psoriasis doesn't really work for LS), but I feel I've got it in hand.

'starter' from a local ... not 'started' (I wish we could edit our mistakes, since there's no preview function.)

To answer your question, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it does.

I'm 66 and all through my younger years, pre-LS, I had vag yeast infections every couple of months. No biggy, according to drs of the time, and eventually the meds became over-the-counter, so I just kept using them, treating the symptoms not the cause. Around the time I was diagnosed with LS 10 years ago, I had achieved a state of yeast infection throughout my system, alleviated eventually by cutting out sugar and flour and sticking with whole foods, which has also helped my LS symptoms.

There may be no connection, but we're talking the genitals being affected by both problems, and both problems responding to the same diet, so it seems to me there's a connection.

As for unqualified advice, I think any advice that's attached to good results is good advice. I find mainstream doctors are stuck on following the rules too much. I've been told by mainstream practitioners that LS is a chronic condition with no cure and no research being done on it (and no plans for research....) Meanwhile, look around on this forum. Women and alternative practitioners have been doing their own research! I want to learn all the experiences out there of this stupid disease.

Hi..chronic diarrhea for 14 months is diagnosed as ulcerative colitis? Chronic because of diet? Dairy, raw vegetables scraping the walls of the colon and coffee beverages?