Vaginitis, or inflammation of the vagina, is not an uncommon complaint. The three most common causes of vaginal inflammation are discussed below.
1. Atrophic vaginitis: This type of vaginitis is most common in peri-menopausal and menopausal women. Older women have declining estrogen levels. Testosterone is another prime reason why it may occur. If you have atrophic vaginitis, your estrogen levels should be checked.
The DUTCH (dried urine test comprehensive hormones) is a very useful test. It will look at all the different hormones in your body, including the sex hormones (e.g., estrogens and androgens) and the stress hormones. This test measures the levels of the three different types of estrogen.
Estrogen has a very interesting effect on the cells lining the vagina. Estrogen keeps those cells moist and plump and allows for proper lubrication. Estrogen is required for sexual maturation of the sexual organs and keeps you in great shape until age reduces its production in the body.
2. Irritant vaginitis: Irritant vaginitis is an inflammatory response to a chemical irritant. Irritant vaginitis can occur at any age. The chemical can originate from personal care products or clothing. If you think you have irritant vaginitis, visit your OB/GYN. This doctor can work with you to determine if the vaginitis is irritant or due to another cause.
I recommend that you only use natural personal care products and lubricants to reduce the risk of irritant vaginitis.
3. Infectious vaginitis: Infectious vaginitis is very common in women ages 15 to 40. Ninety percent of infectious vaginitis is accounted for by bacterial vaginosis (VB), trichomonas, or Candida. VB is the number one cause of infectious vaginitis. Risk factors for VB include improper wiping, which allows unfriendly bacteria from the GI tract to colonize the vagina.
One of my favorite quotations is from Thomas Edison: “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile in life: first is hard work, second is persistence, and the third one is common sense.” When it comes to treating Candida, I believe it is common sense to track your symptoms. Having a record of your symptoms over time helps you discover what is and isn’t working in your treatment plan. Based on that information, you can tweak your treatment to ensure you meet your recovery goals.
In my years working with clients, I have come to realize that many people do not have a system in place for tracking their progress. For example, they don’t do before and after testing, and they don’t follow their symptoms over time.
Many people I see say after a month, “I don’t feel any better,” but when we explore it further, we discover that some improvements have occurred. The “big problem” that initially brought them to my office may not have improved much, but there have been other improvements. These improvements don’t get noticed because symptoms aren’t being tracked.
On page 134 in my Candida Crusher book, there is a very handy chart called the Candida symptom tracker. I suggest using this chart to rate your symptoms at least every two weeks. In the chart, write down the symptoms that you are trying to address with treatment. For example, that may include fatigue, bloating, constipation, headache, and a variety of other symptoms seen with Candida infection. Rate the severity of each symptom using a 0 to 3 scale. “O” means the symptom is absent, “1” indicates a mild symptom, “2” a moderate symptom, and “3” a severe symptom. People most often come to see me for their grade 3 symptoms, but when I explore further, they also have several mild (1) or moderate (2) symptoms. Make sure you date your symptom scores so you can see the changes over time.
By establishing a symptom baseline before starting treatment, you can track your progress. The tracking chart will tell you in black or white whether your symptoms are getting better, getting worse, or staying the same. The patterns of improvement revealed in the symptom chart allows you to tweak your treatment plan in response to the progress you are making. You can make changes in your diet, your supplementation, and your lifestyle based on how your symptoms are changing over time.
Treatment for your bladder infection should be customized based on your age and gender. However, there are general recommendations that hold for anyone with urogenital infections.
1. Look at your diet: Are you consuming alcohol or bladder irritants such as coffee, citrus, or chocolate? Are you drinking enough water? You should be drinking at least six to eight glasses of water per day.
Are you dehydrated? Sweating a lot without enough replacement of the water loss can leave you dehydrated. If your urine smells strong, it may be because you are dehydrated.
Get your diet sorted out. If you have bladder problems, I suggest lean proteins, legumes, and maybe a few almonds per day.
The low allergy phase of the Candida Crusher diet discussed in my book is the most appropriate for bladder infections. This diet means eating lean proteins such as fish and chicken, lots of green leafy vegetables, and plenty of water. Do not have any soda or citrus drinks. As you start feeling better, you can also add some good, sour, high-quality Greek Yogurt to your diet.
Don’t eat any junk food when you are trying to recover from a bladder infection.
2. Supplements and health foods: Cranberry juice works well for bladder infections. Look at the kidney and bladder herbal formulas available at your local health food store. These products go through your urinary tract and help stop infections. Talk to a knowledgeable staff member at the health food store about teas that can help with kidney and bladder function. I consider herbal teas to excellent additions to your daily routine. I suggest that you have two to three cups of tea per day.
Vitamin C is also helpful. Black currants are an excellent source of vitamin C, having more than five times the concentration of the vitamin than oranges.
D-mannose is a supplement that can be useful if the bacteria E. coli is causing your bladder infection. D-mannose is a type of sugar that can help pull E. coli out of the body.
3. Lifestyle: Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep to ensure your adrenal glands are working correctly. Without enough rest, you’re not going to recover.
4. CanXida products: If you have recurrent bladder infections, get a swab done to identify the microorganism causing the problem. If you discover that yeast is part of the problem, consider taking CanXida Remove and CanXida Restore. These products can help treat infections that occur throughout the body, not just in the gastrointestinal tract.
About 50% of people have a parasite -often without knowing about it.
I’ve noticed an increased incidence of parasites. People are moving around the globe, and people are traveling long distances much more than previously. This results in the transmission of microbes, including parasites. My clients with parasites don’t always come from third world countries. I’ve seen people from Europe with parasites. I’ve seen North Americans with parasites. When it comes to treating a suspected parasite infection, the smartest thing you can do is assessment. You need to know what infection you have and the microbial counts. A comprehensive stool test is the way to do it. If you don’t want to do that, do a parasitology test using either one, two, or three samples. These tests are a great way to assess what is going on inside. Ask your primary doctor, naturopathy, or chiropractor for a proper parasite assessment.
You want to know what parasite if any, you have. It’s also essential to assess your level of beneficial bacteria. Do you have nil growth? Do you have a high level of beneficial bacteria? What about a bacterial imbalance? Your bacterial counts are important to understand before you embark on treatment.
If you’re not going to assess before you treat, you’re on the ocean without a map. You have no idea where you are going.
Having determined the nature of the infection, you can then start to follow my treatment recommendations.
1. Eat the right kinds of foods: You’re not going to get rid of parasites if you eat junk food and drink alcohol. You should be alcohol-free for several months in your quest to clean your gut up. Also avoid soda, orange juice and the like. If you want a refreshing drink, have fresh water, herbal tea, or some sparkling water with lemon juice in it. Be careful about what you drink. Avoid sugar, artificial color, flavors, and sweeteners.
Avoid a diet high in refined carbohydrates. I suggest cutting back significantly on your bread intake. Don’t eat take out. Eat your own food.
High protein diets work well with parasites. Look for lean protein like fish, chicken, eggs, tofu, and tempeh. Throw some legumes in there as well. Many kinds of protein will improve your health.
If you can, grow some of your vegetables. Eat green leafy vegetables like spinach and broccoli. Other good choices are tomato, endive, lettuce, and spring onions.
2. Include antimicrobial foods in your diet: Fresh garlic, fresh ginger, fresh turmeric are excellent antimicrobials. Coconut products – oil, creams, and the meat itself – are all going to help you significantly. Fresh herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary are all antimicrobial. Grated carrot, grated beet, and pumpkin seeds also have antimicrobial effects.
3. Add cultured foods to your diet: I’m a big fan of a little bit of sour natural Greek yogurt. I’m not a fan of kefir when digestion is very disordered. I’ve had too many clients who have added homemade kefir to their diet and made them feel much worse. You can include kefir in your diet when you are feeling much better.
Also, be careful with sauerkraut. This fermented food can cause a histamine reaction. You can experiment with a small amount of sauerkraut juice but go very slowly.
4. Follow a healthy lifestyle: You need to have excellent sleep habits. You won’t recover if you have poor sleep. Get adequate rest. Don’t over-exercise. Make sure you enjoy your job.
5. Add the appropriate supplements to your daily routine: Add five to ten drops of grapefruit seed extract into your water.
CanXida Remove is particularly good for treating parasite infections. CanXida Remove contains powerful anti-parasite, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial ingredients such as cloves, oregano, grapefruit seed extract, neem, and garlic. CanXida Remove contains multiple ingredients in a sustained-release form.
CanXida Restore contains six probiotics and seven enzymes and works beautifully in connection with CanXida Remove.
Take one Remove capsule to start with and then work up to taking one capsule at every meal. Stay with that for 3 to 4 weeks, then take a break, and then do another 3 to 4 weeks of CanXida Remove.
Take a couple of CanXida Restore in the morning and a couple in the evening.
CanXida Rebuild is a multivitamin with an antimicrobial background. Take a CanXida Rebuild once a day for about six months.
If you follow the steps I have outlined, count on it taking three months to eradicate the parasites from your body.
When you start a parasite cleanse, you need to be careful that you don’t embark upon an overly aggressive treatment regime. There is no need to go hardcore and be a parasite superhero. I’ve seen grown men cry who have gone too hard, too fast when treating their parasite infections. These men ended up experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, and severe headache.
If your investigations show that you have a major problem with parasites, you need to tread very lightly. If you have only a minor problem with parasites, your treatment regime can be more vigorous.
The side effects of an overly aggressive parasite treatment protocol include headaches, weakness, fatigue, bad body odor, bad breath, sleep problems, vivid dreams, and nightmares. These side effects are the result of pushing your body too hard.
When parasite treatment is too quick, the immune system must manage a big load of parasites. The immune system creates chemicals to mop up the parasites, but these chemicals can also cause the side effects listed above.
My recommendation is to take the “nice and easy” approach to parasite cleansing. Don’t jump right into the deep end. You have plenty of time to get healthy. By starting slow, you will save yourself a lot of distress down the road.