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Could We Be Living with Foreign Hitchhikers in Our Bodies?

It has been quite an amazing journey so far with using natural methods to heal my endometriosis. I am discovering so many interesting things about endometriosis and how my body works, which is super exciting! I find the more I discover, the more in touch I feel but more importantly… the more possible the whole idea of healing myself becomes.

One of the things I noticed a few months ago was that my healing had somehow plateaued. Somehow, it didn’t seem to matter how many supplements I took, how much good quality organic food I ate, my healing wasn’t improving to that next level. It just wasn’t quite reaching the heights that I felt it should be, considering how much good stuff I was feeding my body. I mean, I was really giving it to my body! I am talking super superfoods, mushrooms, goji berries, maca, spirulina, chia seeds, aloe vera—you name it, it was in there! I just couldn’t work out why none of this stuff seemed to be making the dramatic leaps and bounds I really needed.

I also started to notice that my tongue and nails didn’t seem to change. So, even though I was feeding my body all this highly nutritious stuff, it just wasn’t getting to where it needed to be!

I worked it out! My body was either not assimilating all these nutrients or there was a different reason. 

I explored further and discovered that there are in fact many different forms of “foreign hitchhikers” that can live in our bodies, without being invited! I always put everything down to candida. This is a fungal overgrowth which can form quite easily in many of us with endometriosis. It is an imbalance of a fungus that is supposed to live in our intestinal wall but when we go on the pill, take synthetic hormones, drugs and eat a diet high in sugars and starches, it becomes unbalanced. Candida was my initial thought on why I wasn’t absorbing the nutrients.

I have been quietly doing my candida cleanse for the last 2 months and it has been amazing! My digestion is dramatically improved and I generally feel fuller and though it sounds odd, more nourished.

While I was interviewing my naturopath for the REACH beyond Endo program (find out more here), which I am creating, I asked her about the link between candida and gluten and also told her that I was doing a candida cleanse. She illustrated to me that candida is merely fungal. It is only one potential invader of our bodies and that I should do a bacterial cleanse to really get everything out. At the time I decided to wait and finish my candida cleanse first … but then… Christmas came and having spent it in Germany, I inevitably landed up eating larger quantities of meat and chocolate (of course).

I developed a base case of heartburn and ultimately my stomach was burning for a few days. I got frustrated with it and couldn’t understand why my stomach acid was so low that I couldn’t eat meat. Initially, I thought this must be an iodine deficiency. You can read the full article on this one here. 

But, there it was again… that burning question: Why do I have a nutrient deficiency when I am eating all this good food? 

What I discovered was that I have been living with yet another hitchhiker! Yip, this one is called H.Pylori and it affects 75% of the population. It is a bacteria that lives in the stomach lining and this guy eats away all our good nutrients as well. It also causes our stomach acid to be lowered. What was really scary about this one is that it is super easy to get and that it absorbs some of the most important nutrients we need to heal from endo—vitamin B12, iron and vitamin C. Check out this website for heaps more info. 

So, it was time to really get to work on getting all these foreign hitchhikers to leave my body!

This is what I did:

1. Following a strict candida diet—no sugars including fructose. Read more about Candida here. 

2. Taking candida focused herbs to ward off the candida—this includes wormwood, black walnut and cloves.

3. Taking oregano oil and mastic gum to kill off the H.Pylori.

4. Taking bee propolis to give back the lost nutrients and also aid in killing off the H.Pylori. Bee propolis provides us with all the nutrients and minerals our bodies need. It is the best multi you can get!

Important Update 2019: As part of my journey I experimented with many different methods and theories on how to overcome Candida and HPylori as both are fairly prominent with endometriosis. What I discovered was that both were triggered by other factors and though these short-term protocols had some benefit, they didn’t address the root triggers of what was going on and inevitably returned. Having now studied Naturopathy and actually understanding the body better, I now suggest a different and more advanced cleansing protocol for my clients with endometriosis.

Hugs, Melissa x
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This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. Rick

    Is it safe to take bee propolis alongside tripple therapy for H pylori. Also is the alcohol based propolis better than other base forms of it?

  2. Melissa

    Try Nigella Seeds, crushed. Small dosage.

  3. Ximena Cruz

    What about hpylori treatment for little kids? And is that treatment really affective at treating hpylori?

  4. Anonymous

    Use caprylic acid
    plus and mastica chios

  5. Shelley

    I was recently diagnosed with h pylori and my dr. Wanted to put me on high powered antibiotics. After one dose, I couldn’t walk straight. I got a second opinion and this dr. told me GI’s are now transitioning to treating h pylori with high doses of probiotics along with a proton pump inhibitor for the reflux/ulcer symptoms. His reasoning was that completely eliminating the h pylori is resulting in long term reflux, and it really can live just fine in our stomachs in a small amount. I did this and felt good again, but once I backed off the high probiotic dose, I noticed some symptoms returning. How do you all use the coconut oil in particular? Any other thoughts would be great. Thanks!!

  6. Melissa

    It can but it doesn’t always and it could also be Candida which is different again and elevates Oestrogen 🙂 So confusing. I would focus on getting some good gut flora into the body with Coconut Kefir and Sauerkraut and make sure you are on a good probiotic. After further research it states that H.Pylori can actually live comfortably in our bodies without any harm 🙂

  7. Daniella

    Great site, full of very interesting information. I was just wondering, I have been suffering with endo for many, many years and have lost an ovary and tube so far and it has spread to my upper abdomen area – not very pleasant! I have been on an holistic journey for this for years and feel I am going round in circles. My other ovary is now 8×7 with a 5×4 cyst on it and the stomach intestine problems are getting too painful so I have now been connecting it with H-pylori and/or parasite or bacteria in the stomach. I read your article and linked it to the H-pylori website and read that it can lower estrogen which I was confused about as I am positive I have it. But endometriosis is estrogen dominant so not sure if you have a theory for this?
    I look forward to your insight, thanks again for all the information

  8. Melissa

    Thanks Nicole. I had no idea how much this is actually taking over our western world! Scary stuff!

  9. Nicole

    Hi Melissa, this is such a fantastic article. I’ve read so much in recent times about good vs bad bacteria. It’s quite a hot topic and the discussion is very much needed. We are living in such a sanitized world that we’ve forgotten that we all need bacteria to survive and have a healthy body. Love that you’re talking about this important topic! 🙂

  10. Melissa

    Hi Jen,
    I like the sound of cabbage juice. I have been eating heaps of home-made sauerkraut and it has the added benefit of good bacteria too 🙂 Really loving it!
    I personally don’t eat a huge amount of beans but they would be quite good for you. I tend to get a little bloated from them but eat chickpeas. I think I need to build up my digestion a little more before adding them in – or just cooking them on a slow heat for a long time. I eat legumes regularly – green beans and snowpeas.
    It is a pleasure – thanks for your support and comments 🙂

  11. Melissa

    Hi Belinda,

    Thanks for sharing that. I use Coconut Oil quite frequently already but knowing that, I will certainly use it more 🙂

  12. Jen

    Thanks Melissa for your encouragement. My naturopath has me using cabbage juice because it kills H-Pylori in about 10 days. That way I don’t have to spike my candida with honey. Cabbage juice 1/4 cup 3x a day. On an ulcer diet though with cabbage juice I started detoxing too fast. So I had to take a break from the cabbage juice. Once my kidneys catch up I can start the cabbage juice again. I’ve spent the last few days reading through all the info on your site and through the free download. I don’t see anything about beans. I know they are hard to digest but I wasn’t sure if you girls are cutting them out or not…. any thoughts about eating/avoiding beans/legumes? Thank you again for having this blog and for all the time you put into conversing here!

  13. Belinda

    Hi Melissa

    I have been reading a book called “The Coconut Oil Miracle” by Dr Bruce Fife CN, ND. He addresses the topic of H. Pylori and according to his book “medium chain fatty acids” or MCFAs (found in coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil) can kill gut bacteria. Naturally occurring MCFAs have been scientifically researched and the results have shown that they are anti-viral and anti-microbial (to the bad microbes).

    Coconut oil has had a really bad reputation for years because it is high in saturated fat (through false information thanks to the soybean industry as well as many others!), but saturated fat is now being lauded for its many health benefits as well as being applied to many medicinal uses. A perfect example is that it is used as an ingredient in infant formulas and for premature intubated babies.

  14. Melissa

    Hi Jen,
    It is a pleasure sweets and sorry for the struggles you have endured so far. For the stomach ulcer, I found a high active Manuka Honey – from New Zealand drunk in hot water to be really effective. I used it when I had one a couple of years ago. About a teaspoon of honey on an empty stomach in hot water. It was very soothing. It will spike up your candida a little in the short term but at least your stomach will be healed.
    The body is amazing and you can trust in your own intuition on what it needs 🙂

  15. Jen

    Melissa,
    I just googled “healing endometriosis naturally” and your blog came up. This post has me in tears. I’ve suffered with endometriosis for 28 years. I’m 38 now. I have a rare severe case and have exhausted all doctors as well as naturopaths. To make a long story short, I’ve had a hysterectomy (infertility as well), and I still take tons of ibuprofen. I had no idea the ibu. was ruining my liver and stomach even more. Two weeks ago I came down with a terribly painful stomach ulcer. I’m still in agony. I’m trying to figure this all out on my own as I feel like I’m feeling around in the dark and my naturopath just wants to keep treating me for candida. YOU have connected all the dots for me in this one single post! Bless you! Once I get this ulcer healed I’m going to start working on healing my liver and I’ll keep up my candida detoxing. Finally, hope. THANK YOU FOR HAVING THIS BLOG! I’m a follower now! You are the first ray of hope I’ve found. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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