Managing Candida through diet

What's a girl to do when she's faced with recurrent bouts of thrush? If you're Andrea Wren, it's time to diet!

Recurring thrush is no party. On every last-minute package I do to Spain I end up buying Canesten cream in bulk. Hardly a glamorous souvenir but I get through plenty of the stuff and it's cheaper than in the UK.

A constant low-level sinusitis infection isn't much fun either, with foggy headaches and a forehead pressure so bad I feel sick. Combine that and the thrush with bloating, flatulence (she blushes) and other digestive problems, not forgetting weight gain and sugar cravings, and you have a very disgruntled woman on your hands.

So what's going on? Such symptoms, say The National Candida Society, can be indicative of an overgrowth of Candida albicans, a yeast which normally lives in harmless amounts in the body but which can cause problems in larger amounts. Candida overgrowth can occur for a number of reasons but frequently happens after illness or stress, use of antibiotics, the contraceptive pill or other drugs, and through poor diet.

And while it isn't easy to manage, changing your diet really can help. But before going to drastic measures, you might want to check this is the root of your problems. Many GPs in the UK (mine included) don't take the issue seriously, so you may need to look elsewhere. Blood and saliva test kits, I discovered, are available to undertake at home, and you can send the sample to a lab for analysis.

I ordered a pin-prick blood test from Cambridge Nutritional Sciences Ltd (£55) which confirmed that I may have had or may currently have a Candida albicans infection, indicated by the levels of antibodies present in my blood. Saliva kits are also available from Individual WellBeing Diagnostic Laboratories (IWDL) at £70, but I chose not to take this as it seemed a little more complicated, requiring freezing of the sample and use of a next-day delivery service.