9 months brain fog, mucus, candida-overgrowth: b1-breakthrough?

[javelic1000]

Brain fog suddenly appeared February 2023 and I have not been able to get rid of it 9 months later.

About the health issue:
1. I experimented with fasting/low-carb in the months before I got sick, so I suspect this contributed to this health issue: lower metabolism, high cortisol. I had no serious health issues before.
2. The tendency has been: I feel like I am getting better and better, but then I relapse. Alcohol always makes it worse. I do not drink anymore.
3. Main symptoms: brain fog, mucus, red eyelids, no libido
4. When I fast, I get a very satisfying relief from symptoms, but symptoms reappear when I break my fast.

So, in my eyes this issue resembles what many people refers to as candida/yeast-overgrowth. I have experimented with low-carb/candida-diet, but it does not seem to do much. So I do not think that the carbs is the issue per se. I talked to a naturopath and he thought I had parasites, yeast overgrowth as well as liver problems. He also believes I am allergic to dairy and wheat/gluten. I avoid both now. Other than that I do not really know what I should eat.

In the past week I started supplementing with thiamine (b1) and I had a very positive effect. Thiamine-supplementation has had a very strong and immediate effect compared to other measures the last 9 months. I take 300mg 3-5x a day together with magnesium and I am going to continue doing that. I believe I have been b1-deficient and I think sorting that out would really help. I think I am going to avoid coffee and sugar, since that seems to be contraindicated to b1-deficiency. @charlie & @haidut

Solved? - IBS, SIBO, GERD, LPR, Colitis, Constipation, Celiac, Brain Fog

Other than thiamine and magnesium, I take d3 (5000 IU) and also a green powder as a multivitamin. The green powder has probiotics. I have other supplements, but I want to be careful. For example I did zinc and k2mk7, but later learned they should probably be avoided when having yeast-issues. I am familiar to some of @Travis theory on fungal infections. I therefore experimented with potassium iodide 130mg. I stopped doing that, because I felt it was somewhat risky, but might do it again if any of you recommend.

My goal is to be healthy for Christmas. Do any of you have recommendations to try to speed up recovery? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

[revenant]

I had similar symptoms (and still have sometimes) after a long low-carb experiment and B1 does help a lot. You can try oregano oil and see if you get a dieoff reaction; if not, it's probably not a candida / bacterial issue.

 

[javelic1000]

I had similar symptoms (and still have sometimes) after a long low-carb experiment and B1 does help a lot. You can try oregano oil and see if you get a dieoff reaction; if not, it's probably not a candida / bacterial issue.

I have had good short-term effects from oregano oil, but does not seem as decisive as thiamine.

 

[mostlylurking]

In the past week I started supplementing with thiamine (b1) and I had a very positive effect. Thiamine-supplementation has had a very strong and immediate effect compared to other measures the last 9 months.

Follow what your body is telling you. If you respond positively to thiamine then you are most likely deficient. There are multiple types of thiamine supplements. Which one did you try? How much did you take?

I've posted a lot about thiamine here. I've been high dosing thiamine hcl for 3 years and am doing well on it.

I therefore experimented with potassium iodide 130mg. I stopped doing that, because I felt it was somewhat risky, but might do it again if any of you recommend.

Fiddling with iodine can be hazardous to your health. If you are not deficient, you should not play around with it. You can get a iodine deficiency blood test; I got one recently, it cost $200.00 and it showed that I am not deficient. My endo, who saw the test results was pretty horrified that I would even consider such a thing. I am hypothyroid and I do take prescription desiccated thyroid medication which, by definition, includes iodine. But I've avoided iodized salt for many years and am unaware of any iodine that I might be getting via my diet. I watched a lecture by Dr. David Browstein on youtube which got me interested. Towards the end of the lecture he mentioned that people should be tested first before supplementing iodine. He also provided the name of the only iodine supplement that he recommends (sorry, I've forgotten the name of it).

From memory, candida likes sugar. Blood sugar gets higher in thiamine deficiency because thiamine is needed to convert sugar into energy (ATP). It makes sense to take thiamine to normalize blood sugar levels which would reduce the food for the candida. Thiamine is also needed for the immune system to work properly. Candida overgrowth happens when the immune system isn't keeping it in check.

Here's some info about thiamine deficiency and candida overgrowth, and also info about thiamine deficiency and the eyes:

Effects of diets of high sulphur content and varied concentrations of copper, molybdenum and thiamine on in vitro phagocytic and candidacidal activity of neutrophils in sheep - PubMed

Candidacidal and phagocytic tests were performed on 34 female sheep fed high sulphur diets containing varied concentrations of thiamine, copper, and molybdenum for 14 weeks. Tests were conducted at weekly intervals for five weeks during the latter half of the experiment. The ability of...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Characterization of thiamine uptake and utilization in Candida spp. subjected to oxidative stress - PubMed

Candida species are associated with an increasing number of life-threatening infections (candidiases), mainly due to the high resistance of these yeast-like fungi to antifungal drugs and oxidative stress. Recently, thiamine (vitamin B1) was found to alleviate stress responses in Saccharomyces...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Ignored Vitamin Cure For Macular Degeneration

 

[HeyThere]

I've been dealing with decades of digestion and candida issues to no avail.

Until recently.

And the only things I did that seems to have given it a suckerpunch hard enough to make me take a step back and wonder if I found THE FIX( for ME)?? (Who knows??):
- Children's Benadryl, just a little, every night.
- Cheap junk Emergen-C packet 1 a day for a few days, then had to take a break due to high sensitivities and mast cell issues, esp to Vit C.
- Started puffing on 7-11 pipe tobacco mini cigars, just about an inch of one a day. No inhaling, just mouth absorption as you should do. This seems to have been a definite plus. Only 3 days in so far and wow. Digestion better, inflammation down. Sleep deeper at night. Sinus glop gone. Eye glop gone. Endless nose glop gone. Dopamine raised immediately, which is a factor for feeling awake (brain fog killer) as well as Dopamine kills bacteria/bio film. Research Nicotine and cov19.

Honestly, those 3 things were the only change.

 

[javelic1000]

Follow what your body is telling you. If you respond positively to thiamine then you are most likely deficient. There are multiple types of thiamine supplements. Which one did you try? How much did you take?

I've posted a lot about thiamine here. I've been high dosing thiamine hcl for 3 years and am doing well on it.

Fiddling with iodine can be hazardous to your health. If you are not deficient, you should not play around with it. You can get a iodine deficiency blood test; I got one recently, it cost $200.00 and it showed that I am not deficient. My endo, who saw the test results was pretty horrified that I would even consider such a thing. I am hypothyroid and I do take prescription desiccated thyroid medication which, by definition, includes iodine. But I've avoided iodized salt for many years and am unaware of any iodine that I might be getting via my diet. I watched a lecture by Dr. David Browstein on youtube which got me interested. Towards the end of the lecture he mentioned that people should be tested first before supplementing iodine. He also provided the name of the only iodine supplement that he recommends (sorry, I've forgotten the name of it).

From memory, candida likes sugar. Blood sugar gets higher in thiamine deficiency because thiamine is needed to convert sugar into energy (ATP). It makes sense to take thiamine to normalize blood sugar levels which would reduce the food for the candida. Thiamine is also needed for the immune system to work properly. Candida overgrowth happens when the immune system isn't keeping it in check.

Here's some info about thiamine deficiency and candida overgrowth, and also info about thiamine deficiency and the eyes:

Effects of diets of high sulphur content and varied concentrations of copper, molybdenum and thiamine on in vitro phagocytic and candidacidal activity of neutrophils in sheep - PubMed

Candidacidal and phagocytic tests were performed on 34 female sheep fed high sulphur diets containing varied concentrations of thiamine, copper, and molybdenum for 14 weeks. Tests were conducted at weekly intervals for five weeks during the latter half of the experiment. The ability of...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Characterization of thiamine uptake and utilization in Candida spp. subjected to oxidative stress - PubMed

Candida species are associated with an increasing number of life-threatening infections (candidiases), mainly due to the high resistance of these yeast-like fungi to antifungal drugs and oxidative stress. Recently, thiamine (vitamin B1) was found to alleviate stress responses in Saccharomyces...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Ignored Vitamin Cure For Macular Degeneration

Thanks a lot.
I do thiamine hcl. I did 300mg 3-5 times a day, but in the past days I do only 100mg 3 times a day. I don’t think I will mess around with other types of thiamine, since I respond positively to hcl and am worried about ‘paradox’ response. Have been thinking about doing a higher dose, though, since I still struggle with brain fog. What do you think?

I put the potassium iodide on halt. Actually only do thiamine hcl now and avoiding dairy. Seems to be working.

 

[javelic1000]

I've been dealing with decades of digestion and candida issues to no avail.

Until recently.

And the only things I did that seems to have given it a suckerpunch hard enough to make me take a step back and wonder if I found THE FIX( for ME)?? (Who knows??):
- Children's Benadryl, just a little, every night.
- Cheap junk Emergen-C packet 1 a day for a few days, then had to take a break due to high sensitivities and mast cell issues, esp to Vit C.
- Started puffing on 7-11 pipe tobacco mini cigars, just about an inch of one a day. No inhaling, just mouth absorption as you should do. This seems to have been a definite plus. Only 3 days in so far and wow. Digestion better, inflammation down. Sleep deeper at night. Sinus glop gone. Eye glop gone. Endless nose glop gone. Dopamine raised immediately, which is a factor for feeling awake (brain fog killer) as well as Dopamine kills bacteria/bio film. Research Nicotine and cov19.

Honestly, those 3 things were the only change.

Interesting. I actually for the first time in my life started smoking cigarettes during the summer, since that gave me a momentarily relief from brain fog. But I had bad allergic (?) response last time I smoked, so I don’t do it anymore. Seems to only have a momentary effect.

Do you think positive effect from smoking is related to b3-deficiency? Apparently nicotine and nicotinic acid is somehow related, but do not know much about it. Personally I had negative effect from supplementing niacin (b3). I now think that was due to b1-deficiency. That is also why I hesitate trying smoking cigarettes again, even though I’ve had positive effect earlier.

 

[mostlylurking]

Thanks a lot.
I do thiamine hcl. I did 300mg 3-5 times a day, but in the past days I do only 100mg 3 times a day. I don’t think I will mess around with other types of thiamine, since I respond positively to hcl and am worried about ‘paradox’ response. Have been thinking about doing a higher dose, though, since I still struggle with brain fog. What do you think?

I put the potassium iodide on halt. Actually only do thiamine hcl now and avoiding dairy. Seems to be working.

I think you should give higher doses a try. Brain fog is a sign that your brain is hypoxic, thiamine will correct it.

I'll tell you what I did: I started with 300-350mg of thiamine hcl 2Xday, always with water and at least 30 minutes away from food and never after 3:00pm. I stopped consuming anti-thiamine things like tea and coffee and cut way back on the sugar but not the orange juice. I increased the thiamine hcl about every 10 days. Over about 4 months I got up to 750 mg thiamine hcl 2Xday.

Then I found Dr. Costantini's website and decided to follow his protocol which meant I needed to increase my thiamine hcl to 1 gram 2Xday (based on my weight). After 2 days on that dose, I experienced major improvements in my digestive tract including normalization of my stomach acid and my peristalsis. I'm still taking that same dose (1 gram, 2Xday) and my health is better now than ever.

Thiamine hcl does not absorb efficiently through the intestinal wall so higher doses are needed. 100mg of it taken orally won't do much of anything. Thiamine hcl has been around for a very long time and is considered a "safe supplement".

Besides Dr. Costantini's website, I found the following very helpful:
Dr. Lonsdale's articles here.
Elliot Overton's articles here.
Elliot Overton's videos about thiamine here.

I also take magnesium and some riboflavin which, according to Elliot Overton, can become deficient when high dosing thiamine. I also drink orange juice to get enough potassium.

 

[javelic1000]

I think you should give higher doses a try. Brain fog is a sign that your brain is hypoxic, thiamine will correct it.

I'll tell you what I did: I started with 300-350mg of thiamine hcl 2Xday, always with water and at least 30 minutes away from food and never after 3:00pm. I stopped consuming anti-thiamine things like tea and coffee and cut way back on the sugar but not the orange juice. I increased the thiamine hcl about every 10 days. Over about 4 months I got up to 750 mg thiamine hcl 2Xday.

Then I found Dr. Costantini's website and decided to follow his protocol which meant I needed to increase my thiamine hcl to 1 gram 2Xday (based on my weight). After 2 days on that dose, I experienced major improvements in my digestive tract including normalization of my stomach acid and my peristalsis. I'm still taking that same dose (1 gram, 2Xday) and my health is better now than ever.

Thiamine hcl does not absorb efficiently through the intestinal wall so higher doses are needed. 100mg of it taken orally won't do much of anything. Thiamine hcl has been around for a very long time and is considered a "safe supplement".

Besides Dr. Costantini's website, I found the following very helpful:
Dr. Lonsdale's articles here.
Elliot Overton's articles here.
Elliot Overton's videos about thiamine here.

I also take magnesium and some riboflavin which, according to Elliot Overton, can become deficient when high dosing thiamine. I also drink orange juice to get enough potassium.

I'll probably build up like you did, the only thing stopping me is concern about paradox symptoms, have you ever experienced that?

The only strange thing I noticed when increasing dose was stool smelling thiamine (it has a strong smell). I immediately thought that indicated too high dose. Probably was going too fast increasing dose? If I go slow it would be fine I hope. Thanks, anyways.

 

[cremes]

Then I found Dr. Costantini's website and decided to follow his protocol which meant I needed to increase my thiamine hcl to 1 gram 2Xday (based on my weight). After 2 days on that dose, I experienced major improvements in my digestive tract including normalization of my stomach acid and my peristalsis. I'm still taking that same dose (1 gram, 2Xday) and my health is better now than ever.

Where on Dr Costantinis site did you see a dosing recommendation on weight? I’ve looked and looked and can’t find it. A direct link would be fantastic.

 

[mostlylurking]

I'll probably build up like you did, the only thing stopping me is concern about paradox symptoms, have you ever experienced that?

I never had a negative reaction to thiamine hcl EXCEPT when I tried to take 2.5 grams in one day instead of the 2 grams. (I weighed 178 at the time). That night, when I tried to go to sleep, I experienced shooting electrical zapping pains in my thighs. So I went back to the 2 grams/day dose and have never had a problem taking that dose.

I did have a negative reaction when I tried to take a single dose of the TTFD thiamine (100mg); it gave me a headache that lasted 36 hours. It is my understanding that TTFD uses glutathione to work; I was deficient in glutathione and I think that's why I reacted badly to it. Taking thiamine hcl has normalized my level of glutathione (shown by blood testing).

The only strange thing I noticed when increasing dose was stool smelling thiamine (it has a strong smell). I immediately thought that indicated too high dose. Probably was going too fast increasing dose? If I go slow it would be fine I hope. Thanks, anyways.

The thiamine molecule contains a sulfur component. This is probably what your were smelling. I don't believe it's a problem and will probably go away with time. Thiamine effects the gut bacteria so changes happen.

Thiamine and the Microbiome - Hormones Matter

Health depends on the 70-100 trillion single-celled organisms that live in our intestines.

www.hormonesmatter.com

Where on Dr Costantinis site did you see a dosing recommendation on weight? I’ve looked and looked and can’t find it. A direct link would be fantastic.

It's on the Therapy page. At least it used to be. I'll go check.

This is from the Therapy page; "the disease" pertains to Parkinson's Disease.

Finding the Correct Dose​

The correct dose varies on the basis of:

• Duration of the disease (the longer is the duration of the disease, the higher will be in general the doses;
• Severity of the symptoms and rate of progression of the disease;
• Weight and physical characteristics of the patient;
• Sensitivity/responsiveness to the treatment.

In order to determine the right dose, we usually stick to the following protocol.


In case of recent onset of the disease in patients whose weight is between 50 to 65 kg (110 – 145 lbs), we begin the therapy with two grams of thiamine per day, before and after lunch.


In case the patient weighs more, the dose can be three grams per day, always divided into two administrations.


Oral thiamine should not be taken with juices or any sour beverage, water only.


The equivalent Intramuscular administration of thiamine would be:

• For 2 grams/day orally = 1 x 100mg injectable solution per week;
• For 3 grams/day orally = 2 x 75mg injectable solution per week;
• For 4 grams/day orally = 2 x 100 mg injectable solution per week.

NOTE: When it is administrated through intramuscular injections treatment could lead to allergic reactions (we observed 4 cases in 2,500+ patients). Mainly there are dermatological rushes and allergic phenomena.
-end paste-
Also I found this one:

Effects of Overdose of High-Dose Thiamine Treatment| Crimsonpublishers.com

We treat Parkinson’s disease with high dose thiamine in addition to the classic therapy since 2012. On this topic, we published three studies carried out with Italian patients [1-3]. The treatment consisted in performing 2-3 intramuscular injections of 100mg of thiamine per week.

crimsonpublishers.com

-paste-

Introduction​

We treat Parkinson’s disease with high dose thiamine in addition to the classic therapy since 2012. On this topic, we published three studies carried out with Italian patients [1-3]. The treatment consisted in performing 2-3 intramuscular injections of100mg of thiamine per week. The highest dosage was reserved to patients whose disease severity was the greater, long past onset, and patients whose weight was more than 90kg. We also treated patients on anticoagulants. In this case, the thiamine was administrated orally (tablets). We noticed that in order to obtain comparable results of the intramuscular therapy with the oral therapy we needed to administrate a dose of thiamine 140 times when treated with tablets or capsules (personal data, not published). In other words, in order to obtain the same clinical effect of 1 intramuscular injection of 100mg of thiamine once a week, it was necessary to administrate 14 grams of thiamine orally per week, or 2 grams per day. This dosage, when appropriate for the patient, has always been well tolerated and we did not observe collateral effects.


At the end of 2015, our patient’s pool was considerable, and we began to notice that some patient, after the first two weeks on high dose thiamine protocol, would show an initial general improvement followed by a worsening of the original symptoms. We started to think that the cause could be attributed to an excessive dose of thiamine for that specific patient, since we have observed a similar behavior in other diseases [4-6]. Suspending the thiamine protocol for a week led to the regression of the worsening of symptoms. The therapy would then be restarted at halved dosage, which could be further adjusted to reach the correct dosage for the patient and obtain a consistent decrease of the symptoms without any collateral effect. We deem that the appearance of the symptoms of thiamine overdose could have an incidence of about 1% of the patients treated with 200-300mg of thiamine per week or with the corresponding oral doses. We also observed a prevalence of thiamine overdose manifestation in newly diagnosed patients, or in patients whose symptoms are mild or who have a small body mass. Over the past months, we began to treat a number of patients of Anglo-Saxon and African origin. Initially we started the therapy with the same schedule used for patients visited in Italy and described in our studies. The vast majority of the patients showed quite soon symptoms attributable to overdose of thiamine, even the same day of the first thiamine administration. Some patients showed, in addition to a general feeling of discomfort, unrest and an overall worsening of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, also a medium intensity migraine. Such a symptomatology regressed after a few days after the high dose of thiamine was suspended and consequently restarted with halved doses. In other words, these patients have been observed to require, on average, lower doses than those of Italian patients in order to return the same favorable effects on the symptoms. Other ethnicities could be more or less sensitive to the therapy with high dose thiamine. In light of the above, we recommend that colleagues and practitioners begin the treatment with patients of ethnicity other than Italian with doses that are half of what we published previously with reference to the case studies we observed directly. The correct dose, in our experience, is the one that improves the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and improves the sense of balance bringing the score of the pull-test close to normal, as opposed to its altered state due to the disease.
-end paste-

 

[cremes]

@mostlylurking got it. I did see those passages but they were so general I didn’t view them as dosing guidelines by weight. In summary, 50/65kg = 2 grams orally, if greater than 65kg use 3 grams. Not very exact.

 

[mostlylurking]

@mostlylurking got it. I did see those passages but they were so general I didn’t view them as dosing guidelines by weight. In summary, 50/65kg = 2 grams orally, if greater than 65kg use 3 grams. Not very exact.

No, that's why I included my personal experience too. At least thiamine hcl isn't toxic and negative side effects pass pretty quickly.