Female yeast infection

Excessive Moisture A moist, dark area is a breeding ground for yeast and bacteria, so keep your vaginal area fairly dry. Don’t sit around in a wet bathing suit after you go swimming, and don’t put on your underwear and pants if you’re still wet from your morning shower. Be sure to dry off carefully and thoroughly female yeast infection by patting the area gently or using a blow dryer set to low heat. Toilet Habits Well, it may not be pleasant to hear about, but the direction in which you wipe yourself after going to the bathroom can actually be a big factor in triggering your yeast infection. This is because the rectum is chock-full of bacteria that female yeast infection can spread to the vagina if you are not careful about your hygiene. Wipe from front to back to help avoid this unwanted migration. Sexual Activity 13 The yeast that causes a yeast infection can be passed back and forth by direct contact between sexual partners. This is especially the case for lesbian partners, although it is also possible female yeast infection to transmit an infection from a female to a male. If you or your sexual partner has an active yeast infection, treat it as you would any sexual transmitted disease and exercise caution. Okay—now that you know all about these common triggers, and now that you’ve given some thought to whether or not you yourself identify with any of female yeast infection these things, it’s time to understand what the symptoms are so you can determine whether or not what you have is really a yeast infection. 14 What Are the Symptoms? Many women make the mistake of assuming that any vaginal discharge whatsoever indicates an infection. Well, nothing could be further from the truth! The fact of the matter female female yeast infection yeast infection is that some discharge is perfectly normal! This is because the vagina is lined with membranes that secrete moisture. A healthy vagina will therefore produce a clear or milky-looking substance that is mucus-like in consistency, and which may dry to a yellow color.

As you may know from the countless TV commercials on this topic or female yeast infection from past experience, such medicine generally comes in the form of a cream that is inserted with an applicator into the vagina, or a suppository that you place in your vagina and that then dissolves inside your body. In certain cases, particularly for recurring infections that don’t respond to the treatments above, doctors may prescribe an oral treatment, in female yeast infection the form of a pill that you swallow. 21 To help relieve the symptoms that you are experiencing while waiting for those meds to kick in, you can also buy creams that are designed to help relieve the itching, burning, and inflammation. Option 2: Home and Traditional Remedies Now let’s talk briefly about the second route you can take, female yeast infection which involves bypassing most of the medical establishment’s prescriptions. We’re going to talk a lot more about this in the section on my multi-step home remedy, so for now let me just say that doctors often treat just the symptoms and ignore the root cause of diseases. Maybe this is why so few doctors are able to make their female yeast infection patients’ vaginal infections go away for good! As many women have discovered for themselves over the years, certain home remedies and lifestyle changes are actually vastly superior to prescriptions and OTC medicines when it comes to curing a yeast infection. In fact, in other parts of the world it is very common to use home remedies such as yogurt female yeast infection and tea tree oil to cure yeast infections. I personally find that yogurt is a fantastic treatment, but let’s say just for the sake of argument that the results of yogurt and, say, Monistat are just about equal. Now, which would you rather flood your body with: natural, organic, delicious probiotic yogurt, or the powerful and potentially dangerous drugs female yeast infection that make up natural cure for yeast infection Monistat? We’ll talk more about all of this later. Moreover, in the case of yeast infections, it’s not enough to inject a cream into your vagina and get the yeast under control there. It’s more important to understand why you developed a yeast infection in the first place. As I have female yeast infection discussed above, you should know that a yeast infection can be a systemic infection that affects your entire body and its functions, and not just 22 your vagina. So treating just the vagina is not necessarily the way to cure yourself for good! However you decide to treat yourself, it’s important to remember that you should avoid sex while female yeast infection you have an active infection. Penetration can drive the yeast cells deeper and deeper into the walls of the vagina, causing more irritation and prolonging the infection.

On the same note, steer clear of tampons and remember to keep the area as clean and as able to breathe as possible. That means changing feminine pads frequently (at least female yeast infection every 4 natural treatment for vaginitis hours), wearing clean cotton underwear, and avoiding tight pants that stifle the area. 23 Over-the-Counter Treatment Products: Pros and Cons Over-the-counter, or OTC, treatments for yeast infections are incredibly common and are available in just about every drugstore or grocery store you go into. They are relatively inexpensive and widely available, so it’s female yeast infection no wonder that most women who think they have a yeast infection run out and buy one of the many OTC options. It doesn’t help that the airwaves are inundated with television commercials of pretty women complaining about yeast infections, then holding up boxes of drugs for you to buy. And flip open the pages of any women’s magazine female yeast infection and you’ll see plenty of print ads, too. Those companies want your money pretty badly, it seems! But buying an over-the-counter treatment is not always a good idea. First of all, if you have a vaginal infection that is not actually a yeast infection, trying to treat it with a yeast infection cream or suppository is not going to female yeast infection do you much good. Moreover, you could actually be increasing your body’s resistance to these treatments, so that when you need them later on they won’t work as well. Treating yourself for a yeast infection when you don’t actually have a yeast infection is, well, just no good for your body at all. Moreover, OTC medicines are not meant female yeast infection for every woman. If you are under the age of 12 or you are pregnant, avoid OTC medicines and consult your doctor about treatment options. The same goes if you are breastfeeding—drugs in your system may be secreted in your breast milk. This is true even if you are using a topic drug and not one that you take female yeast infection orally, because topical medicine is absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream. 24 Fungicidal creams are perhaps the most readily available OTC treatment options. Monistat is the best-known name, and you’ve probably seen their commercials on TV or in magazines. Monistat and other similar creams contain an antifungal drug called tioconazole. When you insert this antifungal cream into female yeast infection the affected area, it will go to work attacking the yeast. Usually, creams come in a package with several applicators. You put the cream in the applicator and then insert the applicator into the vaginal area and apply the cream as directed. The cream will stay “up there” for some time. You must repeat this process anywhere from 1 female yeast infection to 10 times, depending on the kind of cream you buy (1-day treatment, 3-day treatment, or 7-10-day treatment).

Also, the hormonal changes brought on by diabetes may also be a factor in the incidence of yeast infection. Antibiotics and Other Prescription Drugs 11 Antibiotics are meant to kill off certain elements in the body that are causing disease female yeast infection or discomfort. While antibiotics may be recommended to you by a doctor, you should keep in mind that they kill off bacteria indiscriminantly, the good along with the bad. Since good bacteria actually help to keep yeast in check in a normal, healthy vagina, taking antibiotics can lead the way to a yeast infection. In fact, yeast infections are female yeast infection quite common in women who have recently had a round of antibiotics. Even if you took antibiotics as a child and you are now a young adult, your body could still be “out of whack” as a result! Feminine Hygiene Products As you can probably imagine, douching too often or leaving a tampon in place for too long can female yeast infection wreak havoc on the delicate PH level of the vaginal environment. chronic yeast infection The vagina has a natural acidity level that the body regulates on its own. You do not need to “clean” it out using douches or feminine sprays, and you should not do anything to compromise it. Remember, feminine hygiene companies are trying to make money female yeast infection by selling their products; don’t buy into the hype. Your vagina, when kept healthy, will regulate itself and does not require external “cleansers.” Tight Clothing “Choking” your crotch with a tight pair of jeans or a pair of nylon stockings is a surefire recipe for a yeast infection. This is because tight clothing suffocates the vaginal area and does female yeast infection not allow it to breathe. This in turn results in a change to the level of acidity “down there.” 12 On the same note, synthetic fabrics are not a good choice for underwear, because they trap the air against your body, not allowing it to circulate and breathe. Avoid synthetic underwear, nylons and pants, all of which can trigger female yeast infection an infection. If you must wear nylons on occasion, just try not to wear them every day. Give your body a chance to breathe. This is especially important in the summertime, when the hot, humid air can make the situation down there even worse.

There are several common causes, and some of them are easier to deal with female yeast infection than others. The thing they all have in common is that they derive from a change in the acidity of the vagina. As I mentioned earlier, the acidic environment is what normally keeps the yeast in check. So if something happens that changes that healthy level of acidity, yeast can really have a field day, multiplying without a limit female yeast infection and therefore causing an infection to occur. Certain causes are natural events you have no control over. For example, menstruation, pregnancy, and diabetes can all lead to yeast infections. Steroids and birth control pills can also be a trigger; so can antibiotics, which disrupt the natural environment of the vagina by killing off good and bad cause of yeast female yeast infection infection bacteria. Other triggers have to do with things you could easily change in your everyday life. Wetness or irritation around the genitals is a major factor, so you should always avoid wearing too-tight underwear and wet bathing suits, or using vaginal products (douches, sprays, etc.) that irritate the delicate vaginal area (much more on this later). In fact, female yeast infection something as seemingly harmless as taking a bubble bath after a stressful day at work could actually be triggering your uncomfortable, itchy condition! 10 Now let’s discuss each of the major causes in greater detail. Pregnancy and Menstruation When your body goes through a massive change like pregnancy, or when it undergoes a monthly flux in hormone levels, your female yeast infection vagina does not escape unscathed! Pregnancy and your period can both cause the level of acidity in your vagina to change, and that, as I’ve explained above, can trigger an infection to occur. Stress Anything that stresses your body—from the everyday stresses of your job, for example, to a lack of sleep to a poor diet to that irritating female yeast infection relative who’s coming over for dinner—can raise your chances of developing an infection. This is because stress lowers the body’s resistance to infection and weakens the immune system. Therefore, getting plenty of sleep, having proper nutrition and staying calm can all help you avoid a yeast infection. Diabetes and Obesity There is some evidence to suggest that consuming foods female yeast infection high in sugar and drinking lots of alcohol can trigger yeast infections due to the high sugar content in the urine. (And yeast overgrowth can actually be a cause of weight gain!)

If 7 the acidity decreases, however, an infection can develop and the yeast will start growing out of control. When yeast begins to multiply, a yeast female yeast infection infection, or candidiasis, begins. There are many reasons why normal yeast may begin to multiply out of control—from moisture to lifestyle to disease to prescription drugs you may be taking to irritation—and we’ll get into those causes in greater detail in the next section. For now, however, just keep in mind that not all cause of vaginal yeast infection female yeast infection vulvar itches signal a yeast infection. Read through the “Symptoms” section of this guide carefully to determine if you have this condition; and if you are unsure, as always, consult a physician. If you do have a yeast infection, you’ll probably be experiencing any or all of the following: • White discharge that is thick and “cottage-cheesey” • Itching female yeast infection around the vaginal area • Swelling or inflammation of the area around the vagina • Pain during sex Perhaps this is your first time experiencing a yeast infection—but more likely it’s been an ongoing saga in your life. Many women will experience chronic yeast infections due to elements of their lifestyle that can trigger this nasty little condition. And female yeast infection even doctors are not always able to successful treat infections on the first go. Yeast is very hardy and can be difficult to get under control, especially if you don’t do your best to remove any external triggers. Thankfully, we know a lot more about yeast infections today than we used to, and we also know that prescription drugs female yeast infection and over-the-counter medicines 8 (which don’t always work) are not our only options. The rest of this guide is devoted to helping you determine whether you’ve got an infection and, if so, how you can safely and effectively bring your body back to its healthy, energetic state. 9 What Causes a Yeast Infection? So now you know what differentiates female yeast infection a yeast infection from other vaginal infections—the presence of too much yeast! But you may be wondering: if it is normal to have some yeast in the body at all times, then why does the body get out of whack sometimes and let that yeast grow out of control? In this section we’ll discuss the main reasons why yeast female yeast infection is likely to grow too quickly.

Eat lots of leafy greens to keep your intestinal tract clean and in superior shape, and consume plenty of fruits and other veggies. Also, be sure to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, which is one of the easiest ways to maintain all of your body’s essential functions. 39 Foods to female yeast infection avoid: • Processed cereal, especially sweetened cereal • Soda and sweetened fruit drinks • Honey and sugar • Products containing white flour • Salted, cured meat (sausage, bacon, etc.) • White rice, pasta, white bread • Fermented foods, like pickles • “Moldy” food, like bananas and mushrooms • Coffee and caffeinated tea Step 3: Strengthen Your Immune System It’s female yeast infection not just what you eat or what you apply to your skin that can help stave off future infections. It also depends on your state of mind and whether or not you take the time to keep your whole body in good shape. Modern medicine so often fails to take into account the externals, such as whether you are female yeast infection getting enough sleep, how much stress is present in your daily life, whether you exercise regularly, and so on. Well, I’m here as proof that all of these factors play a huge role in how healthy your body is—and, therefore, how susceptible you are to vaginal infections and other diseases. Yeast infections, especially when they recur, are a sign female yeast infection of a weak immune system, so you should not stop at simply treating the symptoms. Instead, you have got to reassess your body’s health and its ability to ward off disease and further infections. You’ve got to make some changes so that you get your body yeast infection cure back into good shape. 40 Do yourself a favor and female yeast infection make your health a priority in your day to day schedule. It’s so easy to slack off and let your body go, but if you do so you are really compromising your health in many ways. Eating lots of sugar does not just result in obesity; it also lets the yeast run rampant throughout your system, causing depression, blurred female yeast infection vision, irritability, skin conditions, slow healing of cuts and scrapes, insomnia, and so on. Eat right, and exercise regularly, because these things will improve your health and reestablish a healthy, strong immune system. Establish a routine for yourself, and then stick to it. Pick a physical activity (or activities) that you truly love, so that you’ll feel inspired to female yeast infection do it. Vary things up to make it interesting: try yoga one day, jogging the next, cycling the third day, and so on. You will also need to eat right and introduce vitamins and supplements into your diet. Why? Because otherwise it is nearly impossible to get all the nutrients that your body needs for you to nurse yourself female yeast infection back to health. So pay attention to the following information about essential supplements. You can find them all at your local health food store: Essential fatty acids: One common misconception that lots of people have is that fats are bad for you and should be eliminated from a healthy diet. Not so! Certain fats are actually “lubricants” that keep female yeast infection the body’s systems functional, and so you’ve got to make sure you’re getting enough of the essential fatty acids. I’m not talking about the kind of fat that comes in a candy bar, of course—I’m talking about the fats you get from fish, avocados, and supplements.

My best recommendation is to take the bull by the horns and female yeast infection prevent the infection at its root cause—your diet. You need to change the way you eat in order to change the way your body is reacting. By eating healthy foods you will boost your body’s ability to stay healthy, and by avoiding “bad” foods you will be depriving yeast of the things they need to thrive and multiply. When female yeast infection you do that, voila—your infection will disappear! I’ve already explained how wonderful yogurt is as a topical treatment. Well, it works wonderfully as a part of your anti-candida diet, too! So don’t just apply the yogurt topically—eat it, too! The same acidophilus that will help in a topic application will also aid on recolonizing your GI tract and reestablishing female yeast infection a good balance of bacteria and yeast. You can also buy acidophilus in capsule form in health stores. If you don’t particularly like yogurt, it may be easier for you to swallow it in pill-form. Whichever vehicle you choose, rest assured that you are on your way to better health. In clinical trials, women who ate yogurt with acidophilus female yeast infection every day had a significantly lower incidence of recurring yeast infections and a lower amount of candida in the body. Try eating at least a cup a day and see how it works for you. Another duel-purpose treatment is garlic. I mentioned above that garlic may be used as a suppository, but it’s also practically a miracle food and female yeast infection you should consume lots of it. Chop it up in your salad, bake it and smear it into a veggie “dip,” eat it raw, make garlic soup—however you like to eat it, just eat it! 38 This tiny bulb is packed with so much great stuff, and it works amazingly well to stave off infection and fight fungi. If female yeast infection you suffer from frequent infections, make garlic part of your regular diet and I guarantee that you will start to feel better. So now you see, you can actually eat your way to better health! Aside from yogurt, there are plenty of delicious, nutritious foods that will help your body get back to an optimal state of health and female yeast infection prevent the recurrence of disease. Foods to eat regularly: • Cranberries • Onions • Oats • Fish • Lentils • Cottage cheese and unsweetened yogurt • Unsalted nuts • Brown rice • Brussel sprouts • Chicken • Eggs • Soy milk • Herbal teas and pure water Make these a part of your regular diet! Eat organically vaginal yeast female yeast infection infection whenever you can. In general, to beat your infection you must maintain a healthy diet that is low in sugary food (which yeast thrives on) and low in breads (again, anything “yeasty” is a feast for the yeast in your body).

Simply buy ointment base and then gather up some chickweed. Squeeze the chickweed to produce juice, female yeast infection then mix the juice and ointment, stir well, and apply to the affected areas. If you don’t want to make your own ointment, you can easily find chickweed ointment at the health food store. • Boric Acid Boric acid pills (available at health food stores or pharmacies), used as suppositories, can be a very powerful treatment for those particularly female yeast infection strong infections. Try using two capsules a day—and again, make sure that they will easily dissolve inside your body. (Some women do have reactions to boric acid, so proceed with caution. Don’t overdo it!) • Tea Tree Oil Tea tree oil is systemic yeast infection widely used in other parts of the globe to fight off yeast infections, and female yeast infection it works great because of its antifungal properties. In fact, tea tree oil is often used in the U.S. to successfully control athlete’s foot, dandruff and acne—why not try it “down there”? It works effectively but gently, and it actually smells wonderful and very refreshing. For the easiest possible method of treatment using tea tree oil, go to a female yeast infection health food store and purchase tea tree oil suppositories to use instead of 36 those OTC or prescription drug suppositories. Or you can buy the oil itself and apply a few drops to a lubricated tampon, then insert as normal. • Colloidal Silver When consumed or applied topically, colloidal silver appears to have the effect of killing off parasites female yeast infection and one-celled organisms, including fungi and bacteria. It seems to support the immune system and help repair damaged tissue. Colloidal silver may be used to treat yeast infections in the form of a douche. Mix the silver (1 tablespoon) with a full glass of water (8 ounces), then use the solution as a douche, to cleanse vaginal area. You female yeast infection will probably feel almost immediate relief from your symptoms. Colloidal silver is a suspension that contains pure silver floating in pure water. The atoms of the silver are electrically charged so that they are suspended in the water and do not all clump up at the bottom. Colloidal silver is readily available on the internet and in health food female yeast infection stores. Look for high-grade formulations, made from an electro-colloidal or non-chemical method of production. Also look for products that are slightly golden or yellow in color, and no darker. Avoid products that need to be shaken. * * * Okay, so now you’ve got the symptoms under control, and you’ve cured your vaginal infection—at least for the time being. female yeast infection Now it’s time to address the underlying cause….it’s time to: Step 2: Adopt a Low-Carbohydrate Diet 37 Now, as I’ve already said, yeast doesn’t just live in the vagina. It also lives in the mouth and the digestive tract, and the trick in treating a yeast infection and preventing it from reoccurring is to get the excess yeast to female yeast infection die off and to reestablish the right balance. You can’t just do this by treating your vagina topically!

Terazol is available by prescription in a 7-day or 3-day dosage, which you administer as you would any other cream, using an applicator, and it is also available in a suppository form. Pros: 30 • If you choose the 3-day version you’ll spend less time treating your infection • More powerful (and more effective against fungus) than OTC treatments Cons: • Messy • Again, contains oils that can break down latex • May cause some side effects, including body pain and headache 31 My Safe and Effective Multi-Step Home Remedy So now you know: OTC treatments are rarely all they’re cracked up to be, and prescriptions treatments may have some very undesirable side effects. Moreover, running out to buy a treatment every time you get a yeast infection can recurring yeast infection be very costly—especially if the treatment you’re using is not effective or, what’s worse, even triggers further infections! Wouldn’t you rather treat your vaginal yeast infection with natural, home remedies that cost nothing or close to nothing, that won’t cause adverse reactions like some drugs can, and that are readily available to you? And wouldn’t it be great if your treatment plan included suggestions for small but vastly effective lifestyle changes that could actually prevent you from getting infections again in the future? (Now what doctor is going to take the time to sit you down and talk about your lifestyle and how it affects your vagina?!) My multi-step home remedy is both super safe and extremely effective. The medical establishment likes to promote its pharmaceutical options because that’s how they make the big bucks, but this treatment plan is, in my opinion and the opinion of thousands of other women, far superior. Let’s put it this way: it works by tackling your yeast infection at its root, not just by treating its symptoms. My treatment plan takes into account all the factors of your life and how things like stress and diet might be causing your infections—and that kind of comprehensive approach is how you can effectively cure yourself. Intrigued? Well, I’m about to share with you my multi-step home remedy, from start to finish. I promise you, it works! I know from personal experience! So 32 if you’re frustrated by your recurring or persistent infection and you’ve tried everything else, don’t give up! This is going to be the last treatment plan you ever need! Step 1: Get the Surface Problem Under Control If you’re suffering from a yeast infection, you’re probably going nuts from all that itching, burning and swelling. So your main priority is to get those symptoms under control. Well, there are several very easy and effective ways to do that that don’t require any prescription drugs or a trip to the doctor’s office. All they require is a trip to your fridge, supermarket or health food store. The following are several highly effective and readily accessible natural treatments you can use to help relieve the surface itching and redness of a yeast infection. • Yogurt The single most common home remedy for relieving the symptoms of a yeast infection is yogurt. That’s right—yogurt! But not just any yogurt—I’m not talking about the banana-strawberry flavored low-fat stuff. I mean unsweetened, plain yogurt that contains live cultures and—this is very important—acidophilus. Acidophilus is the good stuff that lives in the intestinal tract and that keeps everything in working order. This is the stuff that is going to help keep the yeast under control. Given current trends toward (somewhat) healthier eating, you may be able to find this kind of yogurt in your local grocery store. If you can’t, however, try going to a health food store. To give yourself a simple and effective yogurt topic treatment, use the yogurt the same way you’d use a vaginal cream. Use a syringe (with needle 33 removed) to squirt the yogurt up there, or make your own yogurt “suppository.” It’s easy: all you have to do is to freeze the yogurt so that you can easily insert it into your vagina. Try putting yogurt into plastic tampon applicators or regular old cream applicators and then freezing them. Another great trick I’ve heard about is to use a plastic glove: put yogurt in each of the fingers and freeze. Then, when you’ve got your yogurt “suppositories,” insert them for some nearly instant relief. Plus, a side benefit of freezing the yogurt is that the coolness will help soothe the heat of the inflammation in the vaginal area. Leave the yogurt in for a good long while, perhaps while you’re sleeping, and repeat once or twice in a day. Keep this up until your symptoms start to abate.