How To Reduce Your Risk of Yeast Infections

As previously mentioned, many personal and genetic attributes affect your likelihood of suffering from recurring yeast infections. Some of these factors are within your control, and some are not. Today, let's focus on some major things you can do to reduce your risk of realizing you have yet another yeast infection.

1. Antibiotics. A major factor in contributing to yeast infections, partly because antibiotics are so over-prescribed today, and partly just because antibiotics wipe out the good bacteria present in your body, too. Candida is able to grow unchecked, and soon you have another yeast infection.
2. Spermicide. Many women have reported increased yeast infections when using condoms with spermicide on them. While birth control is always laudable, consider alternate pregnancy prevention techniques.
3. Wet and/or warm undergarments. Warm, moist areas are the ideal breeding ground for a yeast infection. To combat candida, change your underwear at least once a day. Take off your bathing suit bottoms immediately after you are finished swimming, and don't put on damp underwear or pants.
4. Stress. As with many physical ailments, part of the cause of yeast infections is due to stress. Remember to relax, and that the best, most effective long-term cures for yeast infections tend to be holistic cures, and not just applying anti-fungal medication after the symptoms start.

No matter how many yeast infections you have had in the past, it is never too late to try a new approach. Obviously, anti-fungal medications do nothing to prevent future yeast infections, or why would you be on this website?

It's time to look beyond yeast infection as a cause, but instead as a symptom that something in your body is not right. Hopefully, with a little attention to safe, natural cures, you will be able to say goodbye to yeast infections forever!

Who Is At Risk for Yeast Infections?

Candida albicans is a widespread organism with worldwide distribution. It is normally found in small amounts in the vagina , the mouth, the digestive tract, and on the skin without causing disease or symptoms (approximately 25% of women without disease symptoms have this organism present.)

1. Sexually active people. The best way not to have to worry about getting yeast infections this way is not to have sex. But if you do have sex, using a condom will help prevent transmission of yeast infections, just as it helps prevent transmission of more commonly sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection, and helps prevent pregnancy. Teens should always use a latex condom if they have sex, even if they are also using other forms of birth control.
2. Pregnant women. Signs and symptoms of a yeast infection are more common during pregnancy, although there are little data to know if yeast infection is always the cause.
3. Uncontrolled diabetes. Those with diabetes have too much sugar in their system, which is the food of the bacteria in yeast infections. Likewise, if you are diagnosed with a yeast infection, you would do well to lower the sugar in your diet, and thus get rid of the yeast infection faster.
4. People taking antibiotics. Antibiotics, such as penicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, and amoxicillin, are used to treat and prevent infection by killing and inhibiting the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics can also increase your susceptibility to yeast infections, as you well know, because they change the vagina's natural pH, which is normally slightly acidic, and kill off healthy bacteria. A change in acidity creates or allows for an overgrowth of yeast.

No matter what the cause of your yeast infection, there is a quick, easy cure to yeast infections that can help bring an early end to your yeast infection quickly and painlessly. Especially if you have used over-the-counter or prescription medications before, and yet again, you have a yeast infection. Try a natural approach; I can't recommend it enough.