Sunday, October 30, 2011

Important Facts About Treating Your Yeast Infection

By Angel Kinney


Perhaps millions of women attempt to diagnose their possible yeast infection and then treat the condition on their own. In the majority of cases, you might have actually been dealing with a vaginal yeast infection and your treatment method was successful. Thinking you can successfully self-diagnose and self-medicate a vaginal infection is a false belief that can have potentially dangerous results. Are you familiar with all the other conditions that have the same, or similar, symptoms? No? Then the probability of you making the wrong diagnosis is very high. The fact is that people who do this are playing with a little bit of fire. The problem is, the symptoms of a yeast infection, as well as other infections, aren't clear-cut and can mimic each other. I hope this makes it clear why it's important to visit your clinic or health care provider and get a correct diagnosis and treatment. It's good to know that remedies for yeast will not be similar to treatments used for treating head lice or other infections like mites.

There are activities you should refrain from doing when you are treating a vaginal yeast infection. One of the first things you should do is refrain from having sexual intercourse. Your vaginal tissues have already been compromised by the yeast infection and sexual intercourse could cause more damage. And then, there's also the real possibility that it could hurt. It's important not to irritate this area more than it already is because there's a very real chance you can spread the infection. Regardless of what you might read, using tampons is not a good way to treat a vaginal infection. The problem with tampons is that they are very absorptive and could actually absorb the medication you are using to treat your vaginal yeast infection and hinder your treatment.

Oral thrush is the name given for a Candida albicans infection in the mouth and often occurs in children. As a rule, oral thrush requires a liquid prescription drug, such as Nystatin, which is an antifungal. The method of use involves saturating the entire mouth cavity with the liquid and then swallowing it. Just remember that you do not want to try to treat oral thrush yourself. This is definitely a condition that requires the services of your medical treatment professional. Sometimes doctors have other methods of treatment in mind and that might be the case with your doctor. One precaution with oral thrush is to not try to remove the white patches from your tongue, lips, or inner cheeks. This can lead to bleeding. Also, the condition will become much more painful if you attempt to scrape it off.

Boric acid capsules have been used many years as a natural home-remedy for a vaginal yeast infection. It's a good choice to try if the antifungals you have been using haven't worked well. However, one important word of caution for pregnant women is to "not" use these boric acid vaginal suppositories. It bears repeating: If you show any symptoms that appear to be the beginnings of a yeast infection, vaginal or otherwise, and you are pregnant - go to your OB/GYN immediately. On a related note, we urge you to consult your doctor, even though we reported on this alternative treatment, because an unresponsive condition may not be Candidiasis in the first place. You might diagnose yourself as having a yeast infection when, in fact, you have something else entirely. It seems that the more you try to educate yourself about the various treatments and symptoms of yeast infections, the more you come to realize that it's a lot more complicated than it appears. There are times when a yeast infection clears up quickly and other times where it doesn't seem to respond to the medication at all.

Internal or oral treatment for yeast infections is a bit trickier than treating an infection on the skin or even the genital area. Your doctor will have to monitor your treatment if you require any of the oral medications. The main group of drugs, as we stated above, that are used for antifungal treatment are the ergosterol inhibitors, which includes the azoles. This medication acts on the cell wall structure of the yeast. With the azoles Miconazole, Itraconazole, and Clotrimazole, the ergosterol is hindered from ever forming correctly and, with Amphotericin B, the ergosterol is bound up and causes leakage. Either way, the cell dies. Azole medications are very specific in their action on the yeast cell wall and will not interfere with human cells. Yeast infection treatments are almost always very effective and safe to use. It's important to be concerned if you have a yeast infection when you are pregnant, as we talked about previously. But there are other yeast infection situations that should concern you also - such as a suspected yeast infection in a baby or child. If you get an accurate diagnosis from your doctor for the symptoms you are experiencing now, you will stand a better chance of making a correct diagnosis the next time you have the same set of symptoms.




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