Metronidazole & Fluconazole (Combination therapy for BB)

[KeepTrying09]

Antibiotic may have caused the Candida to Flourish? I also had severe right side abdomen pain during the course. Its similar to the symptoms of IBS I think. I had seen the doctor for that but he didn't buy in.

Yes, antibiotic use can cause Candida to flourish. In fact that's one of the primary reasons why Candida flourishes in the first place. About your doctor, you mean he didn't buy into the whole idea about Candida? If so it wouldn't be surprising, doctors generally don't.

Whats the link between them (Omeprazole and Candida overgrowth)?

Researchers did a study in which they found that the usage of Omeprazole favors the growth of esophageal Candida. Check out the link at http://www.springerlink.com/content/h8y ... 47e9&pi=19. It's interesting because I used to take Omeprazole before I was treated for Candida. I don't take it anymore...

[KeepTrying09]

I assumed that this was different from normal diflucan? Hence would be a waste to take it?

It shouldn't be different. Fluconazole is Fluconazole, it doesn't really matter what brand name they call it. The only thing that might be different is how many mg the pill is. Usually for vaginal thrush the pill is 150mg.

I don't think it would be a waste to save it. As I mentioned, if you ever take Fluconazole for a longer period of time, you could always add this one pill you bought to the mix. Keep it just in case.

[halitosisux]

KeepTrying, taking any kind of acid lowering medication like a PPI can sometimes result in lung infections like pneumonia.
I'm guessing that's simply because there's less acidity which results in more bacteria and other microorganisms present in areas which would normally be maintained more sterile, such as the esophagus, which then gradually spreads into the lungs.
I wonder if this is why candida started to grow inside your esophagus?
How long were u taking omeprazole?
All of this might depend on a number of factors, particularly how much acid a person would normally have otherwise been producing. So if you were not producing much acid naturally, then omeprazole might have reduced it sufficiently enough to cause this kind of problem, whereas someone who produces more acid would not.
I imagine from your personal story that you would have been tested for helicobacter, but if not then its definitely worthwhile doing so. When I had an endoscopy a few years ago the doctor told me straight away that I had no signs of any gastritis and later test results confirmed this.

[halitosisux]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1379351/
A quick google search revealed this.

[djay19]

my first post, new here was wondering cant u possibly take Fluconazole long term if the side effects for liver probelms are small, just a risk u taking, just like guys who drink heavily???

[KeepTrying09]

How long were u taking omeprazole?

I started taking some kind of PPI/Acid reducing medication back when I was a teenager although I never really did take them for an extended period of time. Back when I was about 13 or 14 I started having severe stomach aches in the mornings. The doctors thought I had ulcers. They made me do an upper GI (where I had to drink barium liquid while they took x-rays of my stomach), but they didn't find any ulcers. They put me on tagamet or zantac (can't remember which one) anyway though. After that I would just take PPI/Acid reducing medications (including Omeprazole) whenever I needed them. It wasn't often, but I did take them sometimes none the less. I haven't taken them though since I was treated for Candida.

I imagine from your personal story that you would have been tested for helicobacter

When my doctor here in Thailand did the upper endoscopy on me, she also took a sample from my stomach to check for H. Pylori, and it came back negative.

my first post, new here was wondering cant u possibly take Fluconazole long term if the side effects for liver probelms are small, just a risk u taking, just like guys who drink heavily???

Hey djay19,

Welcome to the forum. Hope you find some answers here.

About taking Fluconazole long term, personally I do not feel it is necessary. I have only ever taken Fluconazole once in my life, for a 14 day period. As you can see from my endoscopy pics, that was enough to clear my Candida infection. I think long term usage of Fluconazole is reserved for those patients who are severely immunocompromised, such as AIDS or Cancer patients.

[halitosisux]

I was going to make a seperate thread for this question but i doubt there'll be much response so i'll ask it in here because it relates to the general discussion. I just wondered whether there's anyone out there who feels that their BB is something which rises up from their stomach/esophagus/throat/ whether or not they've ever tried taking HCL supplements with their meals and if they have done whether it made a difference and if they havent then its worth trying because as mentioned in that helicobacter/halitosis case study, achlorhydria due to helicobacter infection for example, could create a pathway of short and far reaching consequences that can lead to BB. Anyone could find they have achlorhydria (whether they have helicobacter or not) and the symptoms can be misleading many into believing they have the opposite situation of too much acid/reflux going on in their stomachs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achlorhydria

If you read this it makes you think.

[Larc400]

Sux, I've often thought the same thing, that a low HCl may be behind it all. This can lead to bacterial overgrowth etc. No, I've never tried supplementing my food with Betaine HCl but maybe we should give it a go..?


Part of the reason I think I may have low HCl production is because I have reflux (nightly) but never a sour taste in my mouth during the reflux.

[halitosisux]

Yeah the doctor who first proved that Helicobacter causes most ulcers drank a dish of the bacteria to to demonstrate his theory and developed achlorhydria and BB soon after.

Betaine HCL is widely available and inexpensive. A lot of people on this site have said they are underweight and in poor health. Achlorhydria causes many far reaching health problems.

Because my own BB had nothing to do with my stomach, HCL didnt do anything for me when I experimented with it years ago, and it certainly didnt cause me any problems, even though I took many more tablets than you are supposed to.

You should give it a go. Try a low dose to begin with and work your way up. If you happen not to have achlorhydria and you are producing plenty of acid then I dont think it will make much difference if you take a lot of HCL. But if you do have achlorhydria then even one tablet is going to make a difference and you'll know you are on to something.

It might be worth first taking a short course of metronidazole if you can get access to them. If you have bacterial overgrowth anywhere which has been due to having achlorhydria, then simply taking measures against achlorhydria alone might not do anything for BB which is being caused by a standing bacterial overgrowth.

You might have reflux purely because of physical and structural reasons. If you are only getting reflux but without the painful symptoms of ACID rising up your esophagus, then its almost sure as shit you have little or no acid production.

[halitosisux]

Just did some searching, there's heaps of info on this being linked to BB.
Here's one with some good info.
http://www.naturalmeds.co.nz/Conditions ... hydria.htm

[mindyb]

Just an FYI. I took Bentaine HCL with my meals and felt it did relieve my breath. I started buying it in bulk and was convinced it was helping me. This was about 2 years ago.

Somehow, I trailed off taking it, probably because I got some sort of reaction- and thus felt it wasn't working.

Maybe I need to take it again to see what comes about or with additional meds.
I've tried reading all the posts in this thread. How does Bentaine HCL coincide with these two meds?

[halitosisux]

MindyB that sounds promising. I would try the course of metro & the antifungal together if possible and then go straight onto the HCL on completion of the course, along with the types of probiotics that KeepTrying has recommended, in the hope you'll reduce bacterial populations to normal levels thru the meds and then maintain this state by increasing your acid levels in your stomach, along with the other benefits of having normal acidity on your entire digestive process. Assuming, of course, that this turns out to be the cause of your BB.

When you think how well-hidden achlorhydria or hypochlorhydria could be (because it might be also be occuring intermittently too) and reading about how complex the whole system is and how prone it is to being dysfuntional, its got be be considered because clearly this important stage of digestion can have a such huge effect on the rest of your digestion and well-being, as well as simply allowing the formation of an unfavourable gut flora.

There are two ways I can think of where low acid levels might be responsible for causing BB. One is, quite simply, the lack of sterility and the direct consequences of this, such as foulness and bacteria backing up the esophagus. The second is that the consequences of low acid can be allowing the contents of the small intestine to become putrified. And in the same way that strong odourous compounds, such as garlic, can become absorbed from the small intestine, then so too can this putrification become absorbed and enter the bloodstream.

[KeepTrying09]

I posted a thread awhile back about the importance of chewing food properly to avoid bad breath. I think it's related to what you are mentioning Halitosisux. In one of the articles I quoted, they mentioned that not having enough hydrochloric acid in your stomach can lead to food fermentation in the small intestines which in turn can lead to a bacterial/fungal imbalance in the gut which in turn can lead to bad breath. There's also a YouTube video in the thread where a woman talks about poor digestion and bad breath too.

Here's the link. viewtopic.php?p=24505#24505

[halitosisux]

Yes, good point to make.

[Larc400]

A summary of my case :

I'm almost convinced my BB is due to achlorhydria, which has led to bacterial overgrowth in stomach + small intestine (SIBO).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achlorhydria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_bowe ... h_syndrome


Apart from the BB, I have a couple of other symptoms/signs which may be connected to all this:

-I have a B12 deficiency which physicians have not yet been able to explain. This is common in achlorhydria.

-I sometimes wake up at night feeling like I'll vomit any second (reflux). I sit upright and the feeling is gone.

-I get ridiculously tired after meals.




So now I guess I could go to the physician and ask for investigations into these things, but I know there'll be months of waiting. OR I could just go straight to treatment by getting antibiotics from Thailand

Does anyone else feel the above applies to them? Anyone else here with B12 or other deficiencies?