Oh no. Not again. You squirm in your chair as you feel that itch, along with an annoying, burning sensation. Experience has taught you it will quickly get worse. Why does this keep happening? What can you do to prevent it?
What Causes Vaginal and Vulvar Irritation and Infections?
There are several causes of vaginal infections and vulvar discomfort.
- Chafing and other physical reactions
- Allergic Reactions and Reactions to Chemicals
- Bacterial Infections
- STDs
- Parasites
- Yeast Infections
Chafing
No matter how much you like the look, tight fitting clothes are not a great idea if they rub and chafe your nether parts. If those skinny jeans and those tight undies and thongs are rubbing you the wrong way, trade them for loose fitting alternatives. When the body’s flora is out of balance, damage quickly leads to infection. Skin irritation is damage to the skin. The skin needs to breathe without being in contact with toxic fabrics. Cotton breathes. Your nylon undies may be beautiful, but comfortably fitting cotton underwear helps air circulate and helps those delicate tissues heal. (Organic is best of course.)
Allergic and Chemical Reactions
Along with unnatural fibers like nylon, personal care and contraceptive products may be causing you problems as well. Soap, bubble bath, perfumes, douche solutions, vaginal lubricants, and contraceptive foam or creams are toxic and can cause irritation that leads to infection.
Soap and Bubble Bath
Stick with organic soap and consider unscented varieties until you have completely determined the cause of your problem. When you do use scented soaps, make sure the scent is from an essential oil, not a chemical cocktail. Aside from the current problem, you don’t want to slather your body with chemicals every day. Your skin absorbs whatever you put on it and draws it into your bloodstream.
Antibacterial soaps also lead to increased body odor because they kill the friendly bacteria on the skin that keeps the nasty bacteria in check. This is the same process that goes on in your gut. The friendly bacteria help keep your skin healthy. Quit killing them! After a few weeks of using organic soap, you’ll notice an amazing reduction in body odor provided you eat a diet of whole, healthy foods. And the gentle cleansing action of the right products will certainly help to heal irritated skin.
Read the label on your bubble bath or any other products added to your bath water. If it’s not free of sugar and organic, toss it. You’ll find that on the right diet and the fewer bath products you use, the better your skin will look and feel.
Perfumes, Sprays, Douches
Aside from perfumes included in soaps, many women spray or dab their under-regions with perfume, use douches, or use vaginal sprays. Stop. Just stop!
Your body knows how to cleanse itself. With few exceptions, you do not ever need to douche. If you think douching works as a contraceptive, think again. It doesn’t. So why would you ever want to rinse out your vagina with water and chemicals?
Do not use any perfumes or sprays. If you heal your body from the inside out (through a healthy diet) and wash with organic soap, you will not smell like your favorite flower, but you will smell great – like nature intended. If not smelling human is important to you, try essential oils.
Bacterial Infections
An amazing number of women were never taught to wipe from front to back. Wiping from back to front moves fecal matter into the vaginal area and the urethra, causing bacterial infections in the vagina and the urinary tract. While this is not at all likely when the body’s microflora is balanced, chances are if you’re reading this article your flora is not as healthy as it should be. Bacterial infections are said to be the most common vaginal infections, and many speculate that wiping incorrectly is the reason.
Anal to vagina sex without thoroughly washing first is also a cause of bacterial infection. If your lover argues that it is all natural and nothing to be concerned about, he’s wrong. Vaginas were not meant to handle feces, and feces, even from the healthiest body, can easily infect a vagina after the irritation of intercourse.
STDs
STDs such as trichomonas, gonorrhea, and chlamydia can result in vaginitis with a heavy foul-smelling discharge, or they may have little to no symptoms. If you are sexually active with multiple partners or have reason to suspect your partner may be, get tested regularly and use protection.
If you have any symptoms of vaginitis, it is always a good idea to rule out STDs.
Parasites
Like any other part of the body, parasitical infections are a possibility. Trichomonas, listed above as an STD, is a protozoan parasite. Other parasites that can cause problems include pinworms, scabies, and lice.
Yeast Infections
Yeast infections, caused by Candida, are an all too common cause of vaginal infections. These recurrent infections are usually treated with over the counter medication that may address the current infection, but never addresses the underlying cause. They’re also generally pretty slow to take effect.
How To Prevent Vaginal Infections
Diet is the basis to health and the key to preventing almost every disease. Feed the body the nutrients it needs to function at an optimum level. Detoxify the body to reduce the chemical and toxic load that interferes with proper metabolism and endocrine function. Exercise to move the lymph and aid the immune system. Ground yourself, soak in sunlight, and get enough sleep. Add a little joy to your life and you have the perfect combination.
The truth is, your vagina has its own ecosystem, much like and always influenced by the gut. Just like your gut, your vagina has a natural balance of bacteria, yeast, and other microflora. If you do something that sends that balance out of whack, you pay the price with an overgrowth of “bad” bacteria, yeast, or other nasty intruders such as a parasite or a virus. And one of the interesting characteristics of “bad” bacteria is that they don’t seem to mind co-mingling with parasites and fungi. Healthy bacteria doesn’t like to compete with anything that doesn’t belong. Healthy bodies have healthy immune systems in large part due to a plethora of beneficial microflora. People with balanced, healthy flora are not prone to infections. If they do become infected, infections are mild and quickly resolved.
So if you are a woman who is prone to vaginitis, your overall health needs a boost. Sugar is probably a factor. Sugar feeds Candida, bacteria, viruses, and parasites. If your gut is filled with an overgrowth of Candida, this yeast will affect your vagina and may also cause athlete’s foot and patches of infection on your skin. Dairy, drugs, and alcohol are also factors, and mercury toxicity promotes fungal growth and other infection as well. (Vaccines, mercury fillings in the mouth, too much contaminated seafood, etc.). Physical health and mental health begin with gut health, as the gut houses much of the immune system and produces neurotransmitters essential for healthy brain function and mood.
To regain your health, stop eating sugar and dairy (specifically, don’t consume pasteurized cow dairy) and eliminate artificial flavors, colorings, preservatives, MSG, GMOs, trans fats, and most of the processed food in your pantry. Eat whole, fresh, organic foods, mostly produce, and mostly vegetables. Shoot for 80% raw. If you achieve this goal, your diet will be filled with nutrients and enzymes and the prebiotic foods that restore gut health.
What Not To Do
Avoid Antibiotics
Just as oral antibiotics wreak havoc on the gut microbiome, they will affect the vaginal bacterial balance as well, resulting in an overgrowth of Candida.
Avoid Alcohol
Alcohol can wash away almost all of your gut flora, the good guys and the bad guys. The problem is that it doesn’t kill Candida spores (almost nothing does). So while it seriously damages the entire digestive system, it leaves behind all those Candida spores to go to work on the damage. In addition, alcohol raises your blood sugar levels and now you have a large amount of sugar in the blood traveling around ready and waiting to feed Candida as they evolve from their spore form.
No More Yogurt
With one exception, Bio-K plus, yogurt is not a great probiotic. Stomach acid is designed to kill bacteria. When you eat yogurt, you end up with dairy and sugars in the gut that feed whatever is there to feed. Good bacteria love produce. The bad guys love sugar, dairy, and damaged cells. That’s their food. Limit the fruit and cut out anything else that feeds them.
How To Naturally Treat a Vaginal Infection
As mentioned above for prevention, a truly healthy diet is essential. First and foremost, eat right. A sugar binge can cause exponential growth of a yeast, bacterial, viral, or parasitical infection. With supplements and the right diet, a vaginal infection can typically be cured within a few days.
If you suffer from reoccurring vaginal infections it’s time to get serious about fixing the gut. See Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases for more on gut health. Below are a few supplements that can wipe out any vaginal infection fast, and we recommend treating for all typical types of infection (bacterial, fungal, parasitical) even if you think it’s just one, because when the body is prone to infection there’s always more than one type of infectious microbe just waiting for its opportunity to flourish.
Be sure to check out the further reading section as well, and along with supplements, follow the information here, Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included, for a powerful and fast detox protocol. Just following the guidelines for the detox will in most cases eliminate all infection, balance everything, and get the body completely well, typically within a week or two, but supplements radically speed up the process.
Recommended Supplements:
- Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse (kills parasites, heals the intestinal walls, sets up hospital home for healthy flora)
- Formula SF722 (the best for killing Candida and other fungal functions, also kills other nasty flora and parasites)
- Floramend-Prime by Thorne (a strong probiotic designed to pass through the stomach acid, take separately from supplements that kill flora)
- Undecyn – Thorn Research (specifically formulated for vaginal infection)
