ITP- Possibly caused by Candida? or Leaky gut

I was diagnosed with ITP in January.. I am having some intestinal issues (chronic constipation, bloating, etc) some of which could be possible side effects of the medicines I've been on (xanax, prednisone.) Prior my diagnoses of ITP, I was given a prescription of antibiotics (Sept 2011). Several weeks later I started to have symptoms of a yeast infection, which is very common for me to get after a round of antibiotics. After doing a self culture lab, the test was negative for yeast. (Although I could've done the test inaccurately) I was still having symptoms and went to my family physician who prescribed a WHOPPING 3 servings of Diflucan. I thought that was strange, and I only took 2 of the pills. A couple of months later, I am in the hospital diagnosed with ITP. I am wondering if it is possible that I may have Candidiasis that was caused by the antibiotics, (which might explain some of my intestinal issues) and that it may have turned into Leaky Gut Syndrome, where the toxins, food particles and debris have passed through the lining of my intestines (due to the spread of Candida) and entered the bloodstream.. I have heard that this will cause an auto immune reaction. I am on the Candida diet, waiting for a confirmation from a stool analysis to come back. Has anyone ever heard of this or is this a possibility? Or am I crazy (my hematologist, the allergist and family doctor would agree that I am).
Heather

Heather:

All I could do is gander a guess. It could have been the antibiotics or the Diflucan that triggered the ITP, or a combination of all of the above. Sometimes it can be a cascade of issues that trigger autoimmunity in a predisposed individual. Most people never really know what the real cause is. Sometimes it's just an accident waiting to happen.

Hi Heather.. well pretty much the samething happened to me. I was diagnosed Feb. 10,2012 with ITP.. 3 weeks before I had a UTI and took antiobotics (cephalexin) for 7 days..( I also had blood work done then and my platelets were good.. 170,000) a week later I got a yeast infection ( I always do when I take antiobotics). So I bought some of the suppositories (3 day) for yeast infections at Walmart.. only took 2 of them.. it cleared and then a week later I got all the bruising and went to the ER and found my platelets were 25,000.. Thats when they said I had ITP.. I also have issues with my stomach feeling blotted and alot of pain.(which I thought might be a enlarged spleen)have alot of acid reflux also. Well they did a CAT scan of my stomach and didn't find anything wrong with my spleen ..only had gas in my intestines and a cyst on my ovary. They did a bone marrow scan also and everything was ok but I had low iron , so now Im on iron pills for that. This is all new to me because I wasn't on any meds but birth control before all this started. Im on a high dose of prenisone and I hate all the side effects.. The bad part is there is no answers to how you get ITP and I just hate not knowing if this is something I will have to deal with the rest of my life>> ( Im hoping and praying mine could be acute and just be a one time thing) ( I know very big wishful thinking..lol)

Yes, that is the part that drives me crazy too! Not so much as to what caused it, but how to fix it.. It's like a needle in a haystack. Whats worse, is that medical doctors are not concerned with how you got it, they just treat the symptoms and they don't dig very deep to discover any underlying problems. I've heard that it can be caused by antibiotics, birth control, otc medicines, exposure to environmental chemicals, etc. Anything can trigger it, but it doesn't happen over night. You may want to try a stool test like I did. My results came back and I was right about the candida and leaky gut, but it wasn't as severe as I imagined. I am working with April Bowen (a homeopath in California). My goal is to fix this mess and keep my spleen! I've heard that hair analysis testing can be helpful also. I know what you mean about the prednisone side effects!! They are awful. I am down to 5 mg now and thankful. They did not help my platelet count at all. Plus I was taking other drugs to cover up the symptoms from it. Ugh! What is your dosage now? Is it helping? I hope yours is acute too

My story is very similar to all of you who went on a antibiotic and then months later developed ITP I was on a Z-Pak and afterwards coincidentally or not I started developing a very slow but gradually falling platelet count over a 3 month period..I don't know if this is all just coincidental or not but very strange just the same..

I agree with Sandi on this; "Most people never really know what the real cause is. Sometimes it's just an accident waiting to happen.".

With the help of a friend, my wife and I found a research article from Jordan that suggests a possible correlation between ITP and Candida. The report costs $33 I believe from content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Doi=329901. See my posts and responses by searching elsewhere in the PDSA forum (cyclefiend1123)

Andy
Tucson, AZ

Hello, My name is Pam and I was diagnosed with ITP at the age of 13 and it disappeared at the age of 15 but since then I have had nothing but complications in with many other health problems that could be connected to the ITP if Doctors would investigate it more. I had ITP in 1983-1985 and I have always been one to get sick quickly and the Doctors said it could be because of the high dose of prednisone I was on. Since ITP I have had IBS, gastroparesis, got giardia, roundworm, ulcers, hiatal hernia, hypoglycemic, and bad gas. I have had colonoscopies’ (mainly due to brother having rectal cancer young), endoscopies, and 5-10 days worth of diflucan pills many times, diagnosed with candidas, autoimmune low, and get sick on a regular basis. I am also allergic to milk, soy, and eggs now. I can only contribute my current / past health problems to when I had ITP and was on 80 mg of prednisone a day for almost 2 yrs. I wish doctors would study more on the effects of ITP later in life to better assist people on how or why more illnesses will present themselves later in life. Anyone who has ITP should be aware of the future problems that can arise to avoid countless / useless tests (like I had) and maybe have doctors look more into how to treat these symptoms’ for life not just until the problems seem to go away. Mine have never gone away and I have yet to find a Doctor who will take the time to do more studies on my illness and how to treat them as a life long illness.
I have learned to avoid sugar, alcohol, milk, eggs, and foods high in yeast. I also take vitamins and refrigerated probiotics but I still have really bad stomach and intestinal pain. I just signed up for this site and hope to find some answers from some of the posts here. I also hope my story might help people in the future with other health problems.

Have you been tested for H.Pylori? That can be a common cause of stomach problems.

My H Pylori test was negative