Natural treatment for yeast infection
One OTC treatment option you may consider are suppositories. Suppositories are individual doses of treatment cream or medicine encapsulated in a thin gel coating. When you place the capsule in your vagina, the warmth of your body will dissolve the coating and release the medicine. Pros of OTC treatments: • You can buy it yourself without a natural treatment for yeast infection prescription or doctor’s consultation • The price is generally not too expensive, usually around $10-$15 per box • Application is generally pretty easy • They usually come with another cream to control itchiness on the surrounding skin Cons of OTC treatments: • If you don’t have a yeast infection the creams can increase your body’s resistance to anti-yeast treatments natural treatment for yeast infection • The creams are messy and can “ooze” out of the proper area • They are not suitable for pregnant women or young girls • They contain oils that break down the latex in condoms and other physical birth control methods 25 If you or your doctor decides that it is right for you to use an OTC medicine, natural treatment for yeast infection you can certainly give it a try. Many women do report rapid relief from these treatments. But the catch—isn’t there always a catch?—is that these treatments usually work only temporarily. You can use up a box and have a week of relief, only to get a new infection next week. Again, this is because these drugs treat the symptoms natural treatment for yeast infection and don’t identify the triggers in your lifestyle. They are not a comprehensive treatment plan. So give them a whirl if you must, but if and when your OTC doesn’t prevent another bout of infection, consider giving my home remedy a try. 26 Prescriptions Treatment Products: Pros and Cons When you visit your doctor to get a prescription treatment, natural treatment for yeast infection you’ll be subjected to a physical examination, including a visual inspection of the area and a genital swabbing for lab cultures. Once your doctor looks at the sample and determines the presence of a yeast infection, there are several prescription treatment options he or she may present you with. We’re going to go over those options here. Keep in natural treatment for yeast infection mind that prescriptions treatments for yeast infection are really just stronger, more powerful versions of the drugs that are present in OTC treatments. It’s like turning up the volume or switching to level “High” on an air conditioner—these drugs have greater intensity. But that doesn’t mean they are better at curing the root problems. Moreover, they have a greater natural treatment for yeast infection likelihood of provoking adverse reactions. And any time you put strong drugs in your body, you are natural treatment for yeast infection upsetting the delicate balance of your biological system. If you opt to use a prescription treatment, it is in your best interest to read up on them beforehand and to know that all medicines are not necessarily natural treatment for yeast infection helpful—and that some, in fact, can make your condition worse. I know of some women who took prescription drugs for yeast infections and who were cured for a time—but whose infections came back later, and with a vengeance. After that point, conventional medical treatments stopped having much of an effect on the infections at all. In this section we’ll natural treatment for yeast infection take a look at some of the most common prescription treatment and whether or not they’re all they’re cracked up to be. As you may know from the countless TV commercials on this topic or from past experience, such medicine generally comes in the form of a cream that is inserted with an applicator into the vagina, or natural treatment for yeast infection 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 the form of a pill that you swallow. 21 To help relieve the symptoms that you are experiencing while waiting for those meds natural treatment for yeast infection 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, 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 natural treatment for yeast infection 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 patients’ vaginal infections go away for good! As many women have discovered for themselves over the years, certain home remedies and lifestyle changes natural treatment for yeast infection 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 and tea tree oil to cure yeast infections. I personally find that yogurt is a fantastic treatment, but let’s say just for the natural treatment for yeast infection 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 that make up natural cure for yeast infection Monistat? We’ll talk more about all of this later. Moreover, in the case of yeast natural treatment for yeast infection 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 discussed above, you should know that a yeast infection can be a systemic infection that affects your entire body and its functions, and natural treatment for yeast infection 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 you have an active infection. Penetration can drive the yeast cells deeper and deeper into the walls of the vagina, causing more irritation natural treatment for yeast infection 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 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: natural treatment for yeast infection 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 no wonder that most women who think they have a yeast infection run out and buy one of the many OTC options. It natural treatment for yeast infection 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 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 natural treatment for yeast infection 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 do you much good. Moreover, you could actually be increasing your body’s resistance to these treatments, so that when you need them later natural treatment for yeast infection 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 for every woman. If you are under the age of 12 or you are pregnant, avoid OTC medicines and consult your doctor about natural treatment for yeast infection 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 orally, because topical medicine is absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream. 24 Fungicidal creams are perhaps the most readily available OTC natural treatment for yeast infection 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 the affected area, it will go to work attacking the yeast. Usually, creams come in a package with several applicators. You put the natural treatment for yeast infection 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 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 natural treatment for yeast infection 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 or discomfort. While antibiotics may be recommended to you by a doctor, you should keep in mind that they kill off bacteria indiscriminantly, natural treatment for yeast infection 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 quite common in women who have recently had a round of antibiotics. Even if you took antibiotics as a child and you are natural treatment for yeast infection 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 wreak havoc on the delicate PH level of the vaginal environment. chronic yeast infection The vagina has a natural acidity level that the natural treatment for yeast infection 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 by selling their products; don’t buy into the hype. Your vagina, when kept healthy, will regulate itself and does not require external “cleansers.” natural treatment for yeast infection 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 not allow it to breathe. This in turn results in a change to the level of acidity “down there.” 12 On the same natural treatment for yeast infection 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 an infection. If you must wear nylons on occasion, just try not to wear them every day. Give your body a chance to natural treatment for yeast infection 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 than others. The thing they all have in common is that they derive from a change in the acidity of the vagina. As natural treatment for yeast infection 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 and therefore causing an infection to occur. Certain causes are natural events you have no control over. For example, menstruation, pregnancy, and diabetes natural treatment for yeast infection 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 infection bacteria. Other triggers have to do with things you could easily change in your everyday life. Wetness or irritation around the genitals natural treatment for yeast infection 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, something as seemingly harmless as taking a bubble bath after a stressful day at work could actually be triggering your uncomfortable, itchy condition! natural treatment for yeast infection 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 vagina does not escape unscathed! Pregnancy and your period can both cause the level of acidity in your vagina to change, and that, natural treatment for yeast infection 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 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 natural treatment for yeast 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 high in sugar and drinking lots of alcohol can trigger yeast infections due to the high sugar content in the urine. (And yeast natural treatment for yeast infection overgrowth can actually be a cause of weight gain!) |
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