Yeasts are single-cell living organisms which are neither animal or vegetable. They live on the surfaces of all living things, including fruits, vegetables, grains and your skin. They're a part of the "microflora" which contribute in various ways to the health of their host.
Yeast itself is nutritious, and small amounts of yeasts give bread its light texture. Yeast is a kind of fungus. Mildew, mold, mushrooms, monilia and candida are all names that are used to describe different types of yeast. And one family of yeasts, Candida albicans, normally lives on the warm, inner creases and crevices of the digestive tract, vagina and skin.
 |
| What Can Cause Yeast Infections In Women |
Healthy women have a natural community of Candida albicans organisms that live in all three locations. When your immune system is healthy, friendly intestinal bacteria like Bifidobacteria bifidum and Lactobaccillus acidophilus create a symbiotic system with the Candida albicans yeast cells that keeps everything in balance. But when this system gets out of balance, Candida albicans yeast cells rapidly overwhelm the friendly bacteria and can result in an overload with potentially serious effects. This condition and conditions resulting from imbalances of intestinal flora is sometimes referred to as dysbiosis.
FACTORS THAT PREDISPOSE YOU TO YEAST INFECTIONS
Prescription Medications
Yeast infections are especially apt to trouble you if you have taken repeated or prolonged courses of amoxicillin, ampicillin, Ceclor, Keflex, tetracychne and/or other broad-spectrum antibiotics during in-fancy, childhood, adolescence or since you've become an adult.
Antibiotics don't kill candida yeasts. Accordingly, if you took these drugs for acne (or for urinary, sinus, ear, chest or other infections), candida multiplied in your intestinal tract - and also in your vagina because the natural balance had been disturbed.
Other medications prescribed by your doctor may play an important part in causing yeast infections - specially the cortisone group of drugs when taken by mouth or injection, or when sprayed into your respiratory tract.
Sugar and Other Simple Carbohydrates
Sugars of many types promote the multiplication of Candida albicans in the digestive tract and play a major role in causing all of the health problems affecting women that I've discussed in this blog. Sugar quite literally feeds the yeast. Two of my consultants, gynecologists John Curlin and Don Lewis, have told me on many occasions about the effects of sweets on patients with dysbiosis: "If my patients control their intake of sweets and other simple carbohydrates, they'll do well. But,if they do not, their symptoms will return," says Dr. Lewis.
OTHER FACTORS
Nylon underwear and tights may make you more apt to develop genital yeast infections. Such infections are especially apt to occur if your skin or mucous membranes are irritated or broken. They may also occur in the mouths of people with dentures.
Hormonal changes, especially during the premenstrual phase of your cycle, also encourage yeast overgrowth and in the opinion of candida pioneer Dr. C. Orian Truss, women who take birth control pills are also more apt to be bothered by yeast-related problems. That has been my experience as well, although I am unsure why there seems to be a connection. However, two of my gynecologist consultants told me in 2002 that women may take some of the presently available birth control pills and not develop yeast problems - specially if they're controlling their diets and doing the other things they need to do to enjoy good health.
 |
| What Can Cause Yeast Infections In Women |
A YEAST INFECTION IS MUCH MORE THAN A VAGINAL INFECTION
In their scientific studies carried out over 25 years ago, Dr. Mary Miles and her colleagues at Michigan State University found that every woman with a vaginal infection had an accompanying overgrowth of yeast in her digestive tract. Based on the observations of scores of women I saw in my practice in the early and mid-1980s and the thousands of women who have sent me letters and e-mails since then, many women develop yeast-related disorders even though they had not been bothered by vaginal problems. To find out more, you can check out What Can Cause Yeast Infections In Women.