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Yeast Infection Diets: Prevention And Treatment
It's a medical controversy: do yeast infection diets really work? Just by changing your eating habits, can you prevent and even help treat a yeast infection? The answer depends upon who you ask. People who promote health through proper eating habits will most likely say yes, yeast infection diets can both prevent and treat the infamous and annoying candida vaginal yeast infection. Practitioners of homeopathy, natural medicine, herbalists and nutritionists feel strongly that through yeast infection diets, doctors' visits, vaginal creams, pills and suppositories can become a thing of the past. If you ask your physician about yeast infection diets, some will advocate healthy eating to at least help prevent candida fungal over-growth in the vagina, but others will not be receptive to these "non-medical" alternative practices.
Examine The Facts About Yeast Infections And Diets
Vaginal yeast infections are caused by an over-growth of the candida fungus. This extensive flourishing of the fungus is caused by the medicinal use of antibiotics and steroids, irritation from clothing that's too tight in the crotch area, and wearing swim suits and underwear that's too warm and damp. Candida thrives in a warm, damp environment. Taking steroid and antibiotic medications disrupt the ph-factor of your vagina, allowing the candida yeast to run rampant.
An undisputable fact about yeast infection diets is that they are based upon regulation of the vagina's normal ph-factor. This means that yeast infection diets are comprised of foods that are alkaline in nature rather than acidic. If you have a candida infection, your goal is to decrease the acid in your system and increase the alkaline level. Foods high in acid like tropical fruits and tomatoes, say natural health practitioners, can worsen a yeast infection. To re-set or maintain the alkaline level in your vagina, eat proteins and carbohydrates like fish, chicken, pasta, bread and rice. This type of yeast infection diet gives you the food groups that you need to maintain over-all health.
Herbal medicine practitioners advocate yeast infection diets to prevent and treat candida over-abundance. In addition, they recommend the use of herbal supplements in conjunction with the diet. Echinacea, olive leaf, lapacho, and usnea are the herbs most often recommended by herbalists.
As part of a yeast infection diet, daily use of cranberry juice or herbal capsules is quite controversial. Cranberry products are readily available in drug and health food stores. The quandary is that, as a fruit, cranberries are naturally acidic, not alkaline. So how do they restore and maintain the appropriate alkaline ph-factor in the vagina? Wouldn't the acidic cranberry just make a yeast infection worse? Herbal practitioners believe that cranberries have a very low acid level and contain other enzymes that are useful in ridding the vagina of an over-abundance of candida yeast. Many yeast infection diets do include the daily use of cranberry products.
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