What I was trying to ask with my gluten free question was: How sure are you that it is actually, 100 % your lyme treatment that has been causing your EC to go into remission?

Thanks, Tergot. I know of others with Lyme disease who take Antibiotics or other meds every day indefinitely. Hence, do you think you will need to take the herbal tincture indefinitely to maintain results? Also, some people here noticed that EC improved while taking a certain Antibiotic (maybe one that targeted mouth bacteria), but EC came back after discontinued use of the antibiotic. In other words, do you know if the tincture may be fighting against bacteria/yeast infection on the lips just like an Antibiotic similar to how a bacteria/yeast infection might be secondary to the main cause?

Or do you think peeling lips is due to dehydration instead of infection on the lips?

Is anyone else going to at least try polygonum cuspidatum (japanese knotweed) and uncaria tomentosa (cat's claw)? If you don't have lyme, this could work for most bacteria (or even fungus infections) on lips?

Mainstream Lyme tests are useless because MDs use CDC guideline which are outdated and inaccurate. In my country the national health service (NHS) tested me as negative, but the private lab I used tested me as positive.

My EC has not come back, it has improved since removing gluten and improved further with Lyme treatment. Lyme disease and co. are immunomodulating bacteria and as such it's highly likely such opportunitic yeast (otherwise harmless) like candida then become a problem to the body. I've already said this I know.

A lot has been said on this board about biofilms (the sticky white stuff in the mouth) being the by-product of candida and interrelate with EC. Most MDs will prescribe creams like canesten cream on the basis that it is thrush, and thrush is another name for candidiasis. So they acknowledge it is a fungal (out of control overgrowth) but they seem unwilling to look at the bigger picture, i.e. immunosuppresion and why that may be happening to their patient. Often they don't even know about gut dysbiosis or that many diseases begin in the gut.

Those in the alternative health fields that I've had personal experience with have a good understanding of disease and addressing the underlying causes, gut dysbiosis, toxicity/deficiency issues, etc, and they don't bother trying to address localised areas affected by candida, instead they work on improving and restoring gut health which has a knock on effect. Their knowledge of health is better. Still, little is known about Lyme even in these circles and there is little that can be done about candida if immunosuppression is a factor in why you are getting candidiasis in the first place.

While Lyme and co. are still largely denied that means people with frequent outbreaks of candidiasis in whatever form, may be fighting a battle they can never win. The fear I have is that many of those candida sufferers (EC sufferers) may also be suffering from a Lyme and/or co. infection. I am. My Lyme is what got me my EC.

If you want my honest opinion, my unfettered opinion on EC and what EC really is? I think it's oral thrush (in 99% of cases), it's never been more complicated that this, but the solution is. That is why you sometimes see improvements in peoples EC when they put something on their lips or change their diet a little, of course the yeast is responding to those changes and hence you may see a reduction or flare in symptoms - for a while. It is (for most people here) thrush as a result of systemtic candida overgrowth but I don't think the buck necessarily stops with candida and dietary changes - although it does with some, which explains how there are many people who have cured their EC from such things as liver flushing, special candida diets (which vary, but always involve removing processed Sugar from the diet for a time and then phasing back in certain foods), addressing leaky gut issues by removing toxic foods like GMO, or inflammatory foods like gluten. There is merit in each one. But it's not a full system theory, it's one factor in isolation, and none of these work long term (even if done properly together) if Lyme and co. are working away doing their own thing to keep the door open for yeast infections. You are just going to develop yeast overgrowth again if the Lyme and co. are not addressed as it is something your body needs and can never 100% eliminate.

Often people have tried candida elimination and failed, I believe they either didn't do enough, did the wrong thing, or did the right thing but had underlying immunosuppression they didn't know about caused from Lyme and co.


I think in every case, nothing is solved long term from putting somethiing on the EC affected area and hoping it stops the EC for good. The majority of focus is on what to put on the lips and I think this obsession comes from how normal MDs have focused far too long on treating localised problems like EC in a localised way, and this falty way of thinking is still being proliferated (although not consciously), by those who come here trying to self treat.

The leave alone method is one example of trying to treat EC in a localised way. It became well known because of Daniel Miller and was in part a misnomer from the start because it gave merit to the idea that the lips are somehow damaged from injury and need time to heal, this is bullshit. He did enough to completely eliminate his oral thrush, and that's exactly what got him cured. In the end he acknowledged the leave alone may not be important and tried to make clear that leaving them alone did not likely achieve anything, it was when he became more proactive (use of antimicrobials - change in lifestyle to one with heavy sun exposure (heat kills candida)), that his EC cured. He started out for a long time believing the EC needed to be left alone untouched, and so many people (including myself) got the impression that EC needed a lot of time to heal and huge scabs needed to be left on. People are still getting this impression after coming away from his blog and suffering months of scabby, ugly looking skin on their lips in the hope to heal them. He's never been able to fully debunk the unnecessity of this because to this day he doesn't truly know what cured his EC, he can only report on what he did. It leaves a lot open to misinterpretation.

If the Lyme and co. is suppressing the immune system which allows candida to keep coming back, what's the point in treating candida? There isn't one, which is why I'm treating Lyme and co. with a separate treatment for candida as an add-on(which I haven't yet properly started). Essentially though, candida is balanced by a healthy functioning immune system, so by treating Lyme and co. I am attempting to allow my body to re-balance candida populations and cure the thrush on it's own. This is why I said I'm not too bothered about candida. I have thrush not just on my lips but all over my face, scalp, head of my penis. For some reason the EC on my lips was the first to go, but there are other parts of my body I want rid of as soon as possible which is why i'm mentioning it here, to give a broader overview.

I don't think probiotics are enough to make an impact on candida, they work in syngergy with herbal supplementation designed to target yeast. Nystatin and others I am currently investigating to help form a fully anti-candida protocol but the bulk of my focus is on Lyme, and inadvertently some of these tinctures will disrupt candida as well. Herbs work by disrupting the way that pathogens work, and they are much less damaging long term than conventional Antibiotics .