Yeast infections and urinary tract infections (also called UTIs) are the bane of women everywhere.
In every grocery store and corner drug store you see almost and entire isle devoted to curing these two common female ailments; products like Monistat, Vagistat, Azo Yeast and Azo Cranberry, Cystex and Vagisil line the shelves, yet the list goes on. There are even douches that claim to treat your yeast problems.
If you want the advice of a medical professional, go to your gynecologist or your primary care physician. They’ll most likely give you a round of antibiotics and tell you to report back when it’s all clear. They will of course do tests and take swabs, making sure that it is actually a yeast infection or a UTI.
As if we women wouldn’t know what’s wrong with our own bodies.
Everywhere we go, we are assaulted with propaganda that tells us we must go to a health care provider for the simplest of things; that we are unable and ill-equipped to deal with it on our own. That to do so would be to risk “misdiagnosis” and set ourselves up for worse infection and complications that would not have been there if we had first consulted the “professionals.”
All of this is a sad misconception, one that is truly hurting us instead of helping us. We have become dependent upon products that wreak havoc on our systems (not to mentions our pocket books), and we have almost lost the ability to think and care for ourselves as a result.
Don’t believe me that those products can truly harm us? Here’s an example: back in the 1950s, women were told to use Lysol as a douche to counter the “foul odor” the vagina naturally emanates to make themselves more desirable to their husbands (yes, the very SAME Lysol that you use to clean your counters and doorknobs that contains bleach). Today, no woman in her right mind would get that stuff anywhere near her vagina. But sixty years ago, it was recommended. And by who? Health care professionals.
Yet there is some good news: the truth is getting out. Women all over are beginning to reclaim their natural rights to take care of their own health and well-being. We are taking control, and it’s about time. We are remembering our roots, beginning to take pride in being well-informed women—women who can take care of our own selves, thank you very much. Mother Nature is experiencing a revived interest in her remedies and cures for what ails us, and it is this revival that signals better health for both our bodies and for the planet as a whole.
The following are several time-tested natural remedies for yeast infections and UTIs, followed by the why’s and how’s of their effectiveness.
White Vinegar
White Vinegar is cheap and is by far the best remedy I have found to treat your run-of-the-mill yeast infection. Yeast infections occur when there is an overgrowth of the natural flora that is present in the vagina, and the vaginal environment is too base to suppress it. In order to correct this imbalance, you need to lower the pH of the vagina to be slightly more acidic so it kills the extra flora.
Take a regular syringe (about 10 ccs worth will do; 10 mL is it’s equivalent in measurements) and keep it strictly for this purpose. Sterilize it before use by dousing it in rubbing alcohol and letting it dry so you don’t make the infection worse.
Take a small cup and fill it with four tablespoons distilled water and between one and two tablespoons white vinegar, making between a 50/50 and a 75/25 water/vinegar solution. Obviously, the more vinegar you add the more acidic the solution would be. I would recommend starting with the 75/25 solution. If improvement is not seen by later that same day, then increase the ratio to 50/50.
