I think I have been malabsorbing most of my life but only mildly. I had one of those touchy digestions where too much fat or too much fiber would give me diarrhea. For the most part I was pretty healthy though but as I got older I got fatigued really easily.

About 5 years ago I got a really bad flu and just never felt right after that. Increase diarrhea and fatigue and a cotinuing cough and a hypersensitivity to fragrances, cleaning products and lots of other weird things which would sometimes just wipe me out. It made it hard to work or socialize because even one person in the room with fragrance on would make me sick.

I went through a variety of tests and consultations and the only things wrong were the beginnings of osteoporosis and what looks like inflamation in my nasal mucosa but nothing that look infected. It was more like sunburn.

My internest suggested that I get tested for CD because of her experience with women who get osteoporosis fairly early (I am 52 so it isn't that early). I came up positive for CD and went gluten free. That help alot with the diarrhea but I was still and still am having problems with the odor sensitivity. The allergist is the one that suggested the connection to Candida. I also test really high on an antibody test for candida proteins.

At around that time I had a few really bad episodes of hives, one at hallowean after a candy pigout (probably induced a yeast explosion and subsequent die off) and two more after going on a candida diet and taking nystatin in what I think were die offs that occured over a few months. I got through it with antihistamines.

In Dec I went lc and have been keeping my carb counts to around 20g per day. I eat some cheese which I wasn't eating on the candida diet but I cook it first in order to make sure I'm not introducing any yeast. In fact I eat most foods cooked to avoid the same. I take a few supplements, vitamins and probiotics.

There is a good article about chem sensitivity and its relationship to CFS and some of the other related illnesses.

Here is the abstract and I can send the article on Monday if it interests you. Just let me know
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...2&dopt=Abstract