Are Home Remedies for Yeast Infection Symptoms Effective?
By: John Cielo
Submitted: 2010-10-21 10:26:34 | Word Count: 627
All over the world women (and men) are searching for natural remedies to treat their yeast infection. But why is this? What's wrong with mainstream drug-based creams, lotions, pessaries, sprays, etc?
To explain why I think this is, it's necessary to go over what causes the symptoms of a yeast infection, and, what triggers the infection in the first place...
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By now, you may know that your yeast infection symptoms, are caused by a naturally occurring fungus in your body called Candida albicans. Even although we all have this fungus, it doesn't always flare-up into an infection simply because the body's friendly bacteria manages to keep it in check.
But sometimes the good bacteria haven't enough numbers to do this job effectively and you end up with an imbalance in your body, allowing the Candida fungus to grow and spread, thus causing the yeast infection symptoms.
So now we come to the mainstream treatment that you have probably used already or are using right now....
This form of treatment is the usual route that your doctor will take, with the medications being available over-the-counter or prescribed. And, it has to be said, that they seem to work over time. Except that, of all the women who have at least one yeast infection in their lives, around 50% will have recurring infections. So if the drugs are any good, why is this figure so high?
The answer to that could lie in that; (1) they can have pretty nasty side effects, so that some women (and men) can't take them; (2) over time the fungus can become drug-resistant; and (3) they only address the symptoms, not the root causes / triggers for yeast infections.
What are these underlying causes / triggers? Well, these are things like, diabetes, lowered immune system, antibiotic or steroid overuse, being overweight, contraception, stress, poor diet, etc.
This is why people are increasingly moving towards natural home remedies for the symptoms of yeast infection. But are these effective, and if so, why? Well let's look at several of the most popular home remedies...
NATURAL YOGURT
This is very popular and is applied to the affected area and /or consumed. So what? Well, plain natural unsweetened yogurt, with no fruit and no other additives, contains live cultures which are good bacteria. And it so happens that this bacteria is able to fight the Candida fungus in your gut and at the local infection site.
RAW GARLIC
Once again this can be applied locally and / or eaten. Garlic has proven natural antibacterial and antifungal properties which makes it an ideal and effective home remedy for yeast infection.
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR
Unbelievably, this turns out to be an effective home remedy too. Once again, it can be applied topically as a douche and / or consumed. It has the ability to re-balance your body pH, which is a condition that helps to prevent fungal growth. But it needs to be raw, un-distilled and unpasteurized.
Many women have successfully used these natural remedies for yeast infection. They could do the trick for you too. Now, I haven't discussed here how to prepare and use them, the purpose of this article was only to look at whether home remedies for yeast infection symptoms were effective or not.
