Pregnancy is a beautiful even a sacred thing. A woman body suffers many changes during pregnancy that helps the mother deliver the baby. But during this period of time vaginal secretions increases and from this various bacteria and fungus can profit. Candida finds this environment very prolific. The first signs of an infection (vaginal Candida) are a red and irritated vulva and a white, cottage cheese-like discharge. This fungal infection that appears in pregnancy is more dangerous because the body changes from this period of time are prolific to Candida: in this period hormonal changes that alter the acid/alkali balance are produced. So an acid secretion occurs, a secretion that represents the optimum environment for Candida to proliferate. In these conditions the infection can turn in to a chronic one.
Most women know that the best treatment for Candida cost in a course of antifungal pessaries or creams. This treatment is for the symptoms and not for the cause. Further more with prolonged use, this treatment can become ineffective. There is a way to cure the CAUSE. To apply this way we must first understand what a chronic infection means: for an infection to become chronic it must have an opportunity to develop. This can be represented by a poor host body immune system. There are many agents that can cripple an immune system: overuse of medications, particularly antibiotics and previous use of the birth control pill. Also foods that you are allergic to (that means that they have a lot of toxins) and of course stress are other two factors.
A week immune system will allow beneficial bacteria from the intestines to be destroyed. The principal role of these bacteria is to keep other dangerous bacteria or fungus to proliferate in the intestine flora. So without these bacteria to keep opportunistic yeasts like Candida in check, the intestinal flora will be colonized by the pathologic bacteria or fungus. Complications may appear because Candida can be associated with other pathological bacteria: the streptococcus bacteria. This is a very aggressive bacterium that increases risk of miscarriage and pre-term birth. Also it can lead to urinary infection or the inflammation of the amniotic sac.
If you want to avoid these infections the first step is to change your daily diet and life style. First of all you must avoid stress and allergic foods so your immune system can work properly and maintain under control a possible yeast infection. The second thing you must do is not to create for Candida a prolific environment: Candida loves lots of sugar and an acidic environment, so you must reduce sugar from your diet and introduce alkaline foods and eat whole foods with plenty of immune boosting like garlic, onions and olive oil. Also there are many foods that have the capacity to inhibit the fungus growth. Some of these foods are: kale, turnip and cabbage. Together with your daily diet there are some products that can stimulate its effects against yeast growth. These products are represented by supplements, vitamins (A, B complex and C) and even minerals like zinc, iron and magnesium.
There is another problem that must be avoided: antibiotics. In this period antibiotics must be avoided as much as possible because they have an harmful effect on the "friendly bacteria" in your intestines who keep opportunistic fungi to take control.
If taking antibiotics is unavoidable, make sure you also take pro-biotic in the form of acidophilus and bifid bacteria.
If you want to know more about Candida just visit this site. Find out more about Candida Albicans in our candida center.