Hi Heidi, I have a burning question about sports training and racing nutrition for endurance athletes.



Okay, long preamble: I am a type O secretor female who trains about 11 hours a week for triathlon with races about 6 hours long.



I have found that a home-made gel with organic brown syrup, honey, cherry juice concentrate with white tea works well for training and racing. I also add some probiotics, B-vitamins and a tiny amount of licorice extract to the mixture.



I used to train and race with cherry juice and bananas but found that they simply had too long a G.I. Plus recent research from McMaster University confirmed what I suspected. Male athletes can store a reasonable but limited amount of glycogen but female athletes are very limited in their ability to store glycogen. As a result, women are ill-served by a high-carb diet and should instead eat lots of sugary substances while training and racing.



My problem is that I am very prone to candida (lots of childhood antibiotics etc etc) and even though I have followed the BTD very closely for at least 4 years, I still get candida when exposed to moulds. I recently spent several weeks in a very musty place in Europe (couldn't be helped) and the problem has recurred.



My question (finally!) is will the gel syrup (with probiotics) aid and abett the yeast if only used while training intensely (e.g. a three hour bike ride followed by a half hour run)? And if so, can you suggest a work-around?



My feeling is that before the recurrance of candida, my body could cope with the training gel because the system is so hot under those conditions and the sugars are being utilized immediately. I am very BTD compliant the rest of the time. Any other training/racing tips are much appreciated. Cheers, Nadine.



Hallo, Nadine!



I'm not sure your candida refluorescence is due to the mold exposure. Rather, I think your immune sentinels went to work on the molds, leaving certain aspects unprotected in the interim. One big strong immune system can only do so much at one time. In that scenario, it is likely that a combination of travel foods with the stresses of travel, and the additional challenge of the moldy environment, added up to a candida insurgency.



A thought: for the sugars in your mix to be metabolized, whether immediately or after, they still first must hit the old digestive tract tissue. That process starts in the mouth. My personal theory is that your candida/training food issue must be resolved on the level of immune vibrancy. Lend an ear:



For one full week of training (not leading up to a race, but in training sessions after a meet or at least 4 weeks before), substitute vegetable glycerine for the rice syrup and the honey: 1/2 the volume of veg gly that you used in rice syrup/honey. Reduce this amount by 1/2 again, and fill that volume with fresh pineapple juice. And add a teaspoon of acerola or solid rose-hip concentrate C. Hot work in hot weather likes hot-climate fruit -- and pineapple and cherry are very 'fast' sugars, where the banana requires significant work to process the starch element, so may not have produced the desired effects. Veg gly is slower, but may surprise you in the endurance department.



In addition to the probiotics you add to your mix, take PolyFlora-O at the therapeutic level until the candida has acquiesced to "the Village" again, and for two months afterward. Then, continue at the lower dosage. Also take PhytoCal-O at the therapeutic level all during your racing season, and do the doctored water technique (squeeze of lemon and/or pinch of sea salt) for 1/2 the water you consume daily. Your mineral loss during steady training and eventing periods is stupendous compared to those of us who just walk around!



Finally, tell me that you sleep early and wake refreshed .... and that you REST and LAZE AROUND on a regular basis. ;-> C'mon, tell me! ;-D I don't want to hear that you do a little light mountain-climbing to relax! Your schedule matches the hunter-gatherer who expended tremendous physical resources chasing down game. In her spare time between hunts, believe me, she had blissfully NOTHING to do... and to take full advantage of the patterns of that inherited physiology, so should you.



Give me some feedback on how these suggestions work for you. And enjoy the summer competition season, darlin'! Burn 'em up!! :-D

Here is a reader question/answer on tetanus in Mothering Magazine that just came out:







The treatment for a previously unvaccinated person is given along with information about the other ingredients of the tetanus vaccination. ~ Lynne



Hey, this is great stuff, Lynne. I've often wondered how I got away with traipsing around the farm and environs for the first nine years of my life, getting the occasional cut and even stepping on a rusty nail or two, and coming away with not a single tetanus infection (or parasite). My mother and father were both raised by their grandparents in rural or small town areas, and (homemade) soap & water, along with iodine and 'cleavers,' were the medicines they depended upon for injuries. The horses, cattle and kids got pretty much the same treatments. :-)



Funny how modern naturopathic medicine is populated with such old-fashioned remedies of one sort and another. Maybe it's because great naturopaths are so devoted to truth-in-healing, they keep using what works best - despite the loss of all those Greek cruises they might have been treated to for promoting a pharmaceutical alternative.



Much appreciated, Lynne! And how's the StarBoy doing? Probably taller than me now... :-D