Brenda A woman named Talia went to her doctor for a urinary tract infection, something most women have dealt with at least once. Her doctor prescribed a common antibiotic, assured her it was safe, and sent her home with a standard course of pills. Three doses in, she couldn’t walk. Five months later, she was on hospice, unable to eat, unable to speak, weighing 60 pounds. She was 46 years old.
I watched Talia tell her story on my friend Dr. Lynn Hardy’s The Aging Games Podcast, and I sat there with tears in my eyes. What broke my heart wasn’t that her severe reaction was common, but that the system behind it is. Her doctor didn’t explain the risks when she prescribed a drug class that has carried FDA black box warnings since 2016 with warnings that say it should only be used as a last resort for uncomplicated UTIs. Talia trusted her doctor, as most of us would. She did what we’re all taught to do and the system failed her.
I’m not sharing Talia’s story to scare you. I’m sharing it because it illustrates something I’ve been telling people for a long time. And it reminded me of my own experience with a doctor who prescribed medication without telling me the full picture, and the years I spent cleaning up the damage. I know Talia and I aren’t the only ones with a story. I would bet you have a similar story.
My Story
Years ago, I was dealing with recurring yeast infections. My doctor prescribed Diflucan, an antifungal medication. He told me it would wipe out all my flora so my body could rebuild with healthy bacteria. That was his explanation. Wipe it clean and start fresh.
He didn’t tell me how my body was supposed to rebuild. He didn’t mention diet. He didn’t mention probiotics or fermented foods. He didn’t mention that without deliberate rebuilding, the fastest, most aggressive organisms would colonize first, and that meant candida. He put me on several courses of Diflucan over time, and each round set me further back. My body was trying to rebuild and the medication kept resetting my efforts.
What followed was years of systemic candida. My sugar cravings weren’t as bad as some people’s because I don’t generally have a sweet tooth, but the brain fog and fatigue were keeping me from being my best. I had recurring issues with diverticulosis and constant yeast infections. I had finally given up on getting help from doctors, so I determined that just like I healed my thyroid, there had to be a natural way to heal my gut.
I finally figured it out myself. I read, researched, and eventually found my way to oregano oil. I make my own by infusing dried oregano into good olive oil for six to eight weeks. It’s one of the most powerful antimicrobials in my apothecary, and it’s what I used, along with serious dietary changes, to clear the candida that multiple rounds of medication had exacerbated. I don’t blame the Diflucan for the candida. I already had that. But it took a situation I was in and rather than helping, it made the yeast systemic. The better approach would have been to change my diet and use natural antifungals like oregano, thyme, and rosemary, to name a few. But my experience has made it possible for me to help others, so it wasn’t wasted.
That experience changed the course of my life. It deepened my commitment to herbalism and it’s a big part of why I do what I do today. I know what it feels like to be handed a prescription and told it’s the answer, only to spend years undoing the damage.
The Cascade that Becomes a Dumpster Fire
Most people don’t realize that even when antibiotics and antifungals don’t cause a catastrophic reaction like Talia’s, they still do damage. They destroy your gut flora, which is the community of bacteria that keeps your digestion working, your immune system strong, and your skin clear. Once that community is disrupted, opportunistic organisms move in and candida is one of the most common.
Systemic candida doesn’t just sit quietly. It drives sugar cravings because yeast feeds on sugar. It creates brain fog because the toxins it produces cross into your bloodstream. It shows up in your skin as rosacea, eczema, and unexplained breakouts. It weakens your gut lining until food particles leak through and trigger inflammation throughout your body. Leaky gut isn’t a trendy term. It’s what I see in almost every client who comes to me after rounds of antibiotics or antifungals prescribed without a plan for rebuilding.
This is the cascade that turns into a gut dumpster fire. Medication destroys your flora, candida moves in, your gut lining breaks down, inflammation spreads, and suddenly you’re dealing with symptoms that seem unrelated but all trace back to the same root: a damaged gut.
The Client Who Almost Quit
One of my clients, Sara, came to me with severe rosacea, brain fog, and sugar cravings so intense she could barely get through a day without giving in. When we did her intake, the pattern was clear. Her candida levels were through the roof and her body was screaming for help in every way it knew how, mainly through her skin.
We started a paleo-based clearing protocol with herbal support. We addressed the gut first because that’s where everything begins. I gave her a meal plan, herbal recommendations, and daily check-ins to keep her on track.
And then she hit a wall.
A few weeks in, Sara was struggling. She was tired of the restrictions, missing the foods she used to eat, and wondering if this was really going to work. She wanted to switch to a different plan, one that would let her eat more of what she craved. I understood the impulse. Candida clearing is hard because the yeast itself drives the cravings. When you stop feeding it, it fights back, and that fight feels miserable. She also told me that she was terribly moody, and this was the key to why the protocol wasn’t working.
She admitted she wasn’t eating breakfast and she was eating later at night. This was causing her sugars to wildly fluctuate and low blood sugar drove her cravings and caused crankiness. Once we established how important it was for her to eat a high protein breakfast within an hour of waking, she was not only back on track, but smooth sailing. At one point she said, “I could eat this way forever!”
What happened next is something I’ll carry with me in my practice for a long time. Her skin cleared. The rosacea that had covered her face for years was gone. Her brain fog lifted. Her cravings disappeared, and she started catching her own food triggers without me having to point them out because she had learned to listen to her body again.
Sara did the work. I pointed her in the right direction and the plants and food did the rest. But the turning point was the moment she almost quit and chose to keep going. That’s where healing lives, in the hard part.
Here’s Sara’s own words. And her before and after photos. She’s not even finished the protocol yet, but I would call this a resounding success!
From the beginning, Brenda made something that felt really overwhelming feel possible. I was honestly scared to start because the protocol felt big and unfamiliar, but she explained everything so clearly, helped me understand what was allowed and what wasn’t, and made it feel manageable.
What meant the most is that she didn’t just help me at the start, she stayed with me through the hardest part too. I fell off for about three weeks and had seriously decided with myself that I wanted to stop, that it was just too hard. I even told her that, and she really stayed with me through that moment, helped talk me out of giving up, and got me back on track. I’m so grateful she did because I’m really happy I didn’t quit.
It’s obviously not an easy protocol, but with Brenda’s help I felt like I could do it, and in a way that felt joyful, and now I actually feel motivated and excited for each day.
The herbs have also been incredibly helpful, and it’s so obvious that she’s not only incredibly knowledgeable, but also deeply compassionate and someone who genuinely loves helping people.I’m so grateful I decided to do this with her guidance, because I truly could not have done it without her.
What I Want You to Know
I’m not anti-medicine. If you’re in a medical emergency, you need to be in a hospital. If you need surgery, you should get surgery. But for the everyday conditions that most of us deal with, like UTIs, gut issues, skin problems, recurring infections, and the cascade of antibiotic damage, there are options that don’t carry the risk of destroying your body’s ability to heal itself.
If you don’t have medicine quality oregano on hand, you can purchase some here. This is an affliate link, which is a good way to support my work by purchasing from a company I believe in and trust. You can also purchase oregano tincture, which would be great for infections (but don’t apply this topically as it contains alcohol).
Oregano oil, thyme tea, cornsilk, goldenrod, and unsweetened cranberry aren’t obscure treatments from some far-off land. These plants grow in fields and gardens all over the world and natural treatments using them have been prescribed for centuries. Hippocrates used oregano and Dioscorides used thyme. These are some of the plants I write about in my upcoming book, The Mediterranean Herbalist, because I believe everyone deserves access to the knowledge our grandmothers used in their daily lives.
Ask what you’re being prescribed. Ask if there are alternatives. Only take antibiotics if there are no other alternatives. Many of these infections can easily be treated with herbs and other natural medicine, including diet changes. And if you’ve already been through the cycle of medication and damage, know that your body isn’t broken. It needs rebuilding, not more prescriptions.
Talia’s full story is on The Aging Games Podcast. Please watch it and share it with someone you care about.
If you or someone you love is dealing with the aftermath of gut damage, know that the path back to health is simpler than you might think. It starts with food, herbs, and a willingness to listen to your body. That’s where I started, and it’s where I always begin with my clients.
Your body can heal. It just needs the right tools.
