Women’s Health and Probiotics
Our food has lost most of what was good for us. Food that comes fresh from the ground should be loaded with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, probiotics, enzymes and antioxidants.
But even if you eat something “fresh”, odds are it lacks large quantities of what used to be considered really good food. It has been shown that “organically” grown food contains more nutrients and antioxidants than food grown under chemical conditions.
The term “probiotics” refers to dietary supplements or foods that contain beneficial, or “good,” bacteria that are similar to those normally found in your upper and lower instestines. These good bacteria also live in other place within our bodies, like our mouth, nose and vaginal area.
We would normally ingest these probiotic bacteria by eating raw foods. But in today’s world where large commercial farms grow most of our food, many women just are not getting enough raw fruits and vegetables to help resupply their bodies with the nutrients needed to fight off infections and disease.
Much like the intestinal tract, the vaginal environment is a finely balanced ecosystem and probiotics may also help vaginal problems. Probiotics have been shown to help with instestinal problems. Probiotic treatment that restores the balance of the good bacteria may be helpful for such common female problems like bacterial vaginosis, yeast infection, and urinary tract infection.
The dominant probiotic Lactobacilli strains normally make the vaginal environment too acidic for harmful bacteria and yeast to thrive. Your vaginal enviroment can easily be thrown out of balance by a number of influences that can include douches, chemicals, dyes, perfumes, antibiotics, spermicides, and birth control pills just to name a few.
Oral and vaginal administration of the probiotic Lactobacilli may help in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis or yeast infections, although doctors say there isn’t enough evidence yet to recommend it over antibiotics prescribed by doctors.
There is evidence that probiotics have been show to be helpful in boosting the general health of the body and with the following problems:
- Treat diarrhea, especially following treatment with certain antibiotics
- Prevent and treat vaginal yeast infections and urinary tract infections
- Treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Reduce bladder cancer recurrence
- Shorten the duration of intestinal infections
- Prevent and treat inflammation following colon surgery (pouchitis)
- Delay or prevent allergies in children
- Prevent eczema in children
More research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of probiotics. As with any dietary or herbal supplement, consult your doctor before starting any new treatment.
To learn more specifically about natural bacterial vaginosis treatment please visit that link today. Read more here about Bacterial Vaginitis (This article or website is not meant to treat any specific problems but simply to inform readers.)