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Why won’t my candida heal?
I have suffered from candida infection for about a year now and treatment several times has not helped. What can I do?
Rachel
Dear Rachel,
Candida is a small organism that lives in the mouth, on the skin or even the vagina without causing health problems.
However some causes include diabetes, conditions that reduce immunity, taking contraceptive pills, pregnancy, long term treatment with broad spectrum antibiotics or steroids and using antiseptic soaps or lotions to wash the inside of the vagina. Some women get candida associated with menstrual periods. Though first regular sexual activity and oral genital sex promotes candida, it is not taken as a sexually transmitted infection.
Treatment, therefore, requires addressing the causes above. Unfortunately, when the cause cannot be found or addressed, one will treat candidiasis only for it to recur. Some women have used plain, sugar-free yoghurt (with or without honey), inside, atop of the vaginal canal (or even eaten it), only to feed other small vaginal organisms, worsening the discharge.
Nowadays, there is emerging candida resistance to the usual medications requiring a prolonged course of treatment or using a Boric acid capsule in the vagina (can be fatal if taken orally).
