subject: Personal Hygiene Products and Yeast Infections Should Not Mix! [print this page] Personal Hygiene Products and Yeast Infections Should Not Mix!
Yeast infections can be really uncomfortable and embarrassing. Where do yeast infections originate, and can you fix it with off-the-shelf products, or will this only make the problem worse?
All of us walk around with a certain amount of yeast and other micro-organisms in our body on a daily basis. This is not normally a problem since there is a natural balance in our body where the 'good' bacteria keeps the yeast (candida albicans) and other bad bacteria in hand. When the balance in your body gets disturbed, for example through a weakening of the immune system, or through taking too much antibiotics, it could lead to yeast infections where the yeast starts to grow and multiply uncontrollably.
One of the symptoms of a yeast infection is a discharge that smells bad. This can be extremely embarrassing, and together with the itching can make us really feel unclean. The first inclination is to turn to some personal hygiene products that claim to help clean us and take away personal odours.
The problem is actually that some of these products, including douches and special soaps, could contain chemicals that interfere with the natural balance of micro-organisms in the body. When you have a yeast infection, the skin becomes very irritated and the chemicals in these products could actually casuse additional irritations to the skin and can worsen the symptoms of the yeast infection considerably.
Instead of using commercial products that could irritate your skin and disturb the balance in your body, rather look at natural products that will assist with having anti-yeast and anti-bacterial properties. These products can easily be found over the counter at supermarkets and health stores and are not expensive.
Let us investigate some of these products.
- Yogurt contains pro-biotics, which are the good bacteria that helps to fight yeast infections and other bacterial infections and increases the immunity of the body. You should make sure that you eat the right type of yogurt - as plain as possible and make sure that it contains pro-biotics. Added sugar, fruits and colorants will definitely add to the problem since these are going to worsen your yeast infection due to the fact that sugar feeds yeast.
- Garlic can be used as a natural cure for yeast infections. Wrap a peeled clove of garlic in a piece of thin, clean cloth (cotton) and insert it into your vagina like a tampon for a couple of hours.
- Tea-tree oil can be purchased at health stores or on the Internet. Just please note that the oil should probably be diluted with a K-Y jelly since it can also cause irritations if used undiluted. Please note that tea-tree oil should never be taken internally (in other words, swallowed). It is meant for external application only.
You need to realise that using the off-the-shelf products products that are chemically based for personal hygiene you will be making the problem a lot worse than it could be. Investigate options for naturally treating your yeast infection problem, as this article showed there are quite a few available.
