Sunday, December 23, 2007

Tidbit- Yeast Infections

Tidbits will be posted randomly, with whatever short tips or ideas I think of. Today's tidbit came to mind because I am taking an antibiotic right now. So while it's on my mind, I'll post it as a tidbit.

Why do we get yeast infections, and why are we more likely to get them while taking antibiotics?

In your body you have a very delicate balance of good bacteria and yeast. If the balance is messed up in any way one of the two can take over causing an infection. Antibiotics kill the bad bacteria and the good bacteria. When the antibiotics kill off the good bacteria, the yeast takes over, colonizing in unpleasant area.

There are two ways to treat a yeast infection. One- kill off as much yeast as possible. Killing yeast is fairly easy to do with an over-the-counter cream (Monistat or whatever is cheap). Two- add good bacteria to your body. You can do this by eating yogurt or taking acidopholus pills straight (available in any grocery store's vitamin section).

2 comments:

Jocee Bergeson said...

I had a yeast infection when I lived in Korea and b/c I didn't have a clue how to get a perscription, I tried drinking tons of cranberry juice. I literally drank GALLONS and GALLONS of this stuff every day (which I had to purchase on the army base...not convenient at all) and it didn't help ONE BIT....oh, that wasn't fun.

Carrie said...

Isn't thrush a form of yeast infection you get when you are breast feeding? I had trouble with that with my last baby . . . miserable. The doctor told me to get Monistat, but the pharmacist told me to get athletes foot cream. He said it would work just the same, and it did, for about a quarter of the price.