Hey all,
I was recently diagnosed with HPV and had a couple of questions as well as statements.

First off, I have a slight fungal infection, and it's on my penis, and I am having some trouble with getting over it, especially in the mornings when I am reminded of this little infection I have. I've had severe depression concerning the way my penis has looked recently and I am trying to find a 100 percent raw answer to overcoming this problem. It seems that the penis is very sensitive in the head area, and where I am circumsized. The doctor looked at it and said that it looks like it was irritated...Could have been from anything. Condoms...Dry masturbation...sweating from working out and playing sports...chafing of the pants, etc.

I have been raw since 2001 and I read online and have heard from someone who worked at a vegan store in the city to get rid of fungal infection, you need to not eat fruits or anything with sugar. Now I am a raw vegan, and when I read that, I was surprised. Does my lifestyle/diet need to be 80/10/10? And do tomatoes have any sugar in them?

And if I do have to have the majority of my diet be veggies and greens, I will make "super soups" or "green soups". I started today with: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, chard, zucchini, celtic sea salt (for flavoring), celery and garlic (I heard that this is good for you). I have done it in the past to help build up stronger gums.

Should I do this continuously for a few days to get my blood sugar levels sustained?

The main problem has been looking at the effected area, and touching the penis, especially the head and the foreskin has made it VERY sensitive. I am willing to fast, and do whatever it takes (without taking pills, supplements, or medications) to clear it up. I have been using for the past two days, Lotramin AF for the "infection". The doctor said that my penis looked normal, but the shaft is more red than usual. The pigment of it is redish, and the penis head looks like the skin of the palm of my hand. It's a little scaley. I am very much so concerned. Has anyone has this problem and overcame it? I need my questions answered because I am becoming quite upset.

check into mastercleanser fast. I think there was something in the pages about infections of all kinds.

What do you all think? Do you think the masterclenser fast would work? How long? Two weeks? Has anyone gone through this? And how are the cravings? I might just as well do this clense. Will it eliminate what I have?

Olive Leaf Powder. I buy it from San Francisco Herb Company - by the pound - Ten dollars a pound (how cheap is that) if I recall correctly. Its's a bazzilionth of the price of capsules at your HFS. Every morning I put a teaspoonful in a little water and chug it. it keeps all those nasty systemic things under control. No cold sores or such. And I used to get them on my lips pretty constantly. I couldn't eat nuts. I eat nuts twice a day now. No cold sores. It is also anti-bacterial, anti fungal, anti-viral. It's GREAT stuff. Definitely buy it in bulk, though. Otherwise it's too expensive. It absolutely works.

With love,

Piano Gal

Good advise! I'd still do the master cleanser just to detoxify your system, but as a continual preventitve, the olive leaf powder is good.

Crescent Moon Herbals is a good place to get olive leaf powder, too. They also offer wheat grass powder.

with cold sores on lips....I know this sounds counter intuitive - cleansing, fruit juice fasts and such have always made the cold sores worse in my experience. I've personally not found them a result of toxicity -probably more related to systemic weakness - too little of soemthing - rather than too many toxins. Too little red blood cells, for examiple. After 7 years raw, they neer healed. Go figure. But the Olive Leaf has done the trick for keeping them unmanifest. It's such an imperfect world. This is only my experience, though. Detoxing, cleansing may work for someone else. Not for me.

My best to you,

PG

I have never detoxed through the Master Cleanse. I will try it for 2-3 days starting Monday and see if it works. I heard that 2-3 in a month will help energy levels, etc. Is that a good number of days to start with?

I've done master cleanser for the first time. The energy level was through the roof! I'm going to continue with a 3-5 day every month from here on out.

RawGuy2000,

You and have have both been raw about the same amount of time, yet our respective health is vastly different. While a cleanse or a cure might offer temporary relief, things won't change until you remove the lifestyle habits that caused your health to fail.

Eating fruit with their natural sugars in them is not the cause of fungus. Fungus grows on the body for two reason - 1) there are dead and dying cells that are unable to protect themselves from the fungus, and/or 2) there is too much sugar in your blood caused by the body's inablity to properly process and deliver sugar from the blood stream to the cells.

Can you share what your diet (before the change you mentioned) looked like? Perhaps we could shed a little light on what may have caused the fungus. Also, how much do you exercise, how old are you, what percent raw/cooked, whats your stress level, are you generally happy?

Bryan, I am thinking of doing the master cleanser. I am 24 years old, unemployed, about 70/30/10 (don't know if I got that right). My raw food chef/friend makes me a bunch of kale salad (extra virgin olive oil, nut pate, tomatoes, sunflower seeds - soaked, almonds (for the patee), sprouts, etc) every Monday, Wednesday and Frday, and my sleep is VERY shitty. I go to sleep at 4 or 5 am, and wake up around 1:30 - 2:00 PM every day. It needs to stop. Do you think that might be the problem? I also only drink distilled water, and I sit at the computer a lot. I am 165 lbs, 6', and have been raw since August 2001. I did have a lot of raw almond butter up to 2004, then I stopped after having gum problems (thinking I was immortal I guess, and not brushing teeth), I got back on track, and started eating more fruits. I do not drink, do not smoke either.

I didm't notice the problem on the area of the penis, until after I played basketball for a week with a friend, and sweating a lot down there. Also, with only wearing pants and no underwear at the same time. Irritation is a defenite down there, very sensitive on the head/foreskin.

Also, I do get stressed a lot, especially when parts of my body do not look normal! Ha. I am happy with myself and life, yes.

you get yourself to a bookstore and read the first 36 pages of Gabriel Cousens Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine. He addresses fungal infections, as well as virus etc in a very cogent way, to my view, and to my personal experience. He adds an important piece to the puzzle I had not found elsewhere in any of the raw guru's - from Natural Hygeine on down the line. Only 36 pages. Might be useful

PG

Olive leaf -- powder, extract or tea. I don't know if or what is raw but you should go to a bookstore and buy or read that book while there called something like "Olive Leaf Extract." Good for all fungal, viral, bacteria.

RawGuy2000,

Your lifestyle has put your body out of balance, and being out of balance the body is susceptible to disease - in your case a fungus is growing on your skin and it won't wash off.

Keeping the problem area dry and well ventilated is important. If you have a place you can sunbathe nude, that would help. Fungus loves to grow in dark and moist places.

The lifestyle habit you mentioned, the lack of rest and sleep, the stress, and elements of your raw diet can all contribute to the fungus. It may take changing a just one habit, or perhaps two, or perhaps all of them to get your body to heal.

Getting good rest and sleep is very important. Without it, the body has a hard time detoxifying itself. When you don't sleep, your body is spending more energy going into your activity, your thinking, your emotions, rather than working on cleansing the body and healing the parts of the body that are in need of repair.

Stress will also drain your energy, energy that could be going into healing your body. You might look into do some yoga or deep breathing to help with the stress. Meditation also helps. You didn't mention whether or not you are physically active, but if you are not, getting exercise reduces stress and creates an environment for the body to remove toxins via the sweat, and to move your lymphatic fluids around in your body. Being in the sun will also help your body detox and it reduces stress.

Are you sure your diet is 70/20/10? Some of those foods you mentioned, if put into the nutritional calculators like fitday or nutridiary are higher than 60% percent fat. My guess is your diet is 60% fat or higher (meaning 30/60/10 for carb/fat/protein). Just taking your fat level down to 20% will make a difference. Rather than doing the master cleanse, if you were to go a month without any overt fats, this might handle your condition.

Eating the typical transitional raw diet causes many to to fail on the raw food diet, that is they give up on raw foods because their health fails. You are at this crossroads now, and what is require for you to regain your health is to incorporate more the of the health building habits and letting go of the health damaging habits. Use fitday or nutridiary to get your fat levels down to 20%. If you don't use one of the nutritional calculators, it is very hard to know what your carb/fat levels are because fats are so concentrated compare to carbs in the raw diet.

Take a look at this FAQ to see about the ramifications of your raw food choices. The section on Blood Sugar Issues talks about what causes yeast and fungus.

I like the olive leaf powder thing. Had not heard of it. You might also try some kind of calendula cream or a calendula gel like Califlora (at the health food store) to help prevent and heal chafing. Apply it directly to the affected area. I use it for yeast infection and it works really well for that.

-Ally



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2006 10:56PM by Ally.

Bryan,
Thank you for the information. Very enlightening and I appreciate your input. What sort of foods should I stay away from?

I am going to stay away from products with yeast. I also was going into the city in NY a lot to eat at Quintessence, a raw food place, where I'd have a sea ceasar salad a lot for the past two weeks, and then I'd still be hungry and go next door to the organic raw food place and get some raw food crispie chips. If I have to cut those out of my diet I will, and if I have to cut down the kale salad, I will do that as well. Also, I do a lot of night time stuff, and I'd usually eat on the way back home, around 2 am. I would guess that it's best to stop doing that.

Now, I have not had this in a while, but I am wondering what you think about the durian once a month? Do you think that it will be a bad thing to have? I absoultely love it but have not had it for months. I know that it's very fattening, so I figured I'd ask.

I used to do FitDay.com and I will start up again.

I'd still like to do the master cleanse diet. Do you suggest I do it for a few days, or do you think the sugar in the maple syrup and lemons will mess up my sugar levels more?

I think you would be best served by eating totally fat free for a few days, getting most of your calories from fresh fruit and salads. For the length of your "cleanse", don't eat any forms of concentrated fats - oils, nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocados, mature coconuts, etc.

Start the first few days eating the less sweet fruit - citrus, berries, stone fruit, and after a few days try eating the sweeter fruits like bananas, mangos, etc.

While the fruit has a lot of sugar, it also has a lot of fiber to moderate the flow of sugar into your bloodstream. The master cleanse uses maple syrup, which is a concentrated refined sugar product with no fiber whatsoever. This means that the sugar from the master cleanse will go directly into your blood quite quickly.

Remember, your health will only be as strong as the weakest link in the chain. For you the weakest links may be not enough rest and sleep and too much stress. All the energy draining habits need to be addressed, and then you must practice the health promoting habits.

Hi RawGuy,

Sorry about your problem.

My first boyfriend had this (I didn't know it) and I picked it up from him and gave it to another boyfriend unknowingly. The warts showed up about 5-7 years later. It took years of pain and suffering to get over it. At first, I had laser surgery and then I used "Aldara", a prescription acidic creme, on any other bumps that came along. (The second boyfriend was given Aldara, also.) The Aldara burns intensely. It took about 2-3 years to completely clear myself of it. That was before I became raw.

A female friend of mine shared her experience and told me her doctor put on some sort of frozen liquid to freeze the wart off and she didn't have any more problems. I think this is similar to the methods used for taking off plantar warts.

After the two-three year period, I haven't have any additional problems with HPV. Since modified raw and abstinence, I have release 3 growths during my cycles and I also parasite zap on a regular basis. You might read "The Cure for All Diseases" by Hulda Clark. It doesn't give alot on warts but does talk about disease and detoxing your environment.

Hope that helps.
Therese

Hey RawGuy,
Im surprised no one has mentioned probiotics to you. Often times fungal infections are caused by an imbalance in intestinal flora which leads to candida that can spread to other areas in the body like reproductive organs and such. Bowel cleansing is a great idea, as is cutting the sugar, but replenshing the gut with beneficial is the only real way to solve the issue. You can find probiotics in your health food store, or look into homemade kefir if that suits you (its very economical and the most potent probiotic I have used). Also, it may get worse before it gets better for two weeks or so as the infection dies off...

Now I am raw vegan, so jackierr, are probiotics raw? I would even question about tea and boiling the water - Doesn't it kill the tea if it's over 118 degrees?

Anyway, for Brysn:

Today I had:

1 and a half pints of Blueberries
Half of a watermelon
1/4 of a grapefruit - I really hate the taste but heard it has antioxidents.
4 rasberries (it was a bad batch, had to throw out)

That was it so far. Went to sleep at 10, got up at 9 AM, been up ever since. Might have an apple. What am I missing from todays diet? Do I need to make a salad or something with some lemon sprinkled on it, and maybe some tomatoes? Any suggestions for a salad per day?

I usually eat 6-7 small meals every day as well as drinking 2 gallons of water. My first meal is always fruit, then raw granola, or fruit as a snack, salad for lunch, granola for a snack and a smaller salad for dinner. If I'm hungry at bed time, a few carrots and celery sticks, and some almonds. YOu can put almost anything in salads. My lunch salad is usually lettuce, green pepper, avacado, red onion, fresh cilantro, basil, and garlic. Drizzle that with lemon juice and a 1/2 tbsp of olive oil blended with parcley and oregano.

Just had a big salad with one chopped tomato, lemon juice (two lemons squeezed into a cup), and one cucumber. What else should I add to make it more of a greener salad? I know that I need to eat more greens - That's good in fighting fungal infection / candida.

I'd go for fresh baby spinache, green pepper, kale, olives....... If it's green, eat it.lOLOL! ! If you add some fresh herbs to your lemon juice for your dressings, it'll add a better flavor and not quite the sour tang from the lemon.

How about Sundried Black Olives? Those are so good! And the Greek Olives from Natures First Law is also fantastic! A lot of sodium though. I sure do love them though.

Anyway, yeah, I am going more simple for the time being, so I can actually go ahead with the Master Cleanse and my friend is doing it with me for a few days to be supportive. She is 5' and weighs 180. Imagine the weight she'd lose if she did it for a week or two. She barely eats anyway, so I figured it'd be good for her. I turned her onto raw fruits, etc, which is good.

yep! last year at this time I weighed 260. I'm at 180 now. I dropped 11 pounds in 7 days on master cleanse. Not too shabby! It's good that your friend is that supportive! You'll both have good experiences from this, you'll see!

This is what my friend who has been raw for 10 years said... Seems like it's a high in fat type of program...

I have been thru this. The cleanse that you are doing is fine. And your plan to eat more greens is good too. A good diet is a glass of water upon rising, wait an hour or longer if you want, then have some juicy fruit like mango or orange (mangoes now), or watermellon (I have half a large one). Mid morning or early afternoon is a banana coconut smoothie- even with some greens in it. Lunch OR dinner (I usualy eat one OR the other- just not hungry at all) is the creamy almondaise kale (the one you get) or avocado kale ora big salad with either avos or almonds or just a killer dressing. That is it. You can have a veg juice for dinner if you want even more concentrated nutrition. Then once a week or twice a month, eat very light SAturday or Sunday- or just have veg juice (still can have fruit in morning) on those days. It is a good idea to go on a water fast for five days once a year too. Other than that, that is all there is to it. once in a while you can have some dehydrated snacks- they wont kill you- but I prefer just the basics myself-- some dried fruit or nuts. Cashew and almond butter - small amounts is not bad. Balance it with more celery for example. Celery is so good.

But this change you are on now is going to be a good rest for your system. Together with more rest- you will boost your immune system. Remember how mandataory (not optional) getting rest from 10 PM to 6 AM is. Those are the best hours. To heal you must go to sleep at 9:30PM. That is a fact- The healing hormones only work best from 9:30 until about 1 AM or so. After that- you can think you are "sleeping" but the "computer is not shut down" -- it aint gonna heal man!

The diet sounds fine, but I question the sleeping from 10-6 thing. If he is an active person, the extra fats from the nuts and avacado will be burned off through out the day. I try to eat that kind of stuff earlier in the day so that I have all day to burn it off. Since it is natural fat, it isn't as damaging as, say, butter would be. It also depends on how much of it you're eating, too. Moderation plays a big role with nuts and seeds. I eat almonds through out the day to cut food cravings, but no more thatn 1 cup per day.

Take a look at putting in your daily menu into fitday to see 1) how much fat, and 2) did you get enough calories? For what you wrote about, it was low fat. But were there enough calories for you? It looks like what you ate may have only been about 800 calories or so, and I wouldn't be surprised if you were hungry after that. A good rule of thumb in terms of how much calories is 100 calories times you weight - so if you weigh 140 pounds, that 140 * 100 or 1400 calories.

By the way, take a look at eating quantities of greens like a pound of greens. Say like an entire head of romaine lettuce or an entire stalk (the whole plant, not just 1 piece) of celery. I like to eat my romaine plain. But you can also look at incorporating these greens into green smoothies - smoothies made from fruit and greens.

Getting the 11 hours of sleep is great! In the beginning you made need a lot more sleep as your body heals. Please give yourself as much sleep as you can handle, this will be very healing for the body.