I decided to see a naturopathic physician (N.D.) about the recurrence. She suggested I start by eliminating added sugars from my diet. The idea is that if you get yeast infections again and again (as I seem to be doing), the yeast is systemic in your body, living in the digestive tract and other places. So even when you clear the yeast out of the vagina, it is only a matter of time til they re-populate. Since yeast eat sugars, by cutting added sugar out of my diet, I am hoping to starve the yeast out of my body. (If just cutting added sugar does not work, I can try more extreme diets, like no sugar period and no foods with yeast, but let's take this one step at a time). In addition, the N.D. gave me some high potency probiotics to take orally. She says they are higher quality than the kind available in grocery stores. She also asked me to apply the probiotics vaginally until 3 days after the yeast infections goes away. I told her I had successfully treated with boric acid before, and she said she was fine with me using that again, so I am.
This was my first time seeing an N.D., and I have to say on the whole she gave me a lot of practical advice, mostly stuff that I expected. Unexpectedly, she wanted to do a chiropractic adjustment to my back and give me some cranio-sacral therapy, which she describe as restoring the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid. I've never heard of that before, but while she was doing it, I definitely felt some tension in my gut release. The N.D. took more time with me than any M.D. ever has, and I liked that. I appreciate it when my doctors try to understand me and listen to what I have to say, so I will probably go back for a follow up appointment in 3 months.
The new no-added-sugar diet is hard. I ate a lot of sweets over the holidays and started to crave them every day. Now I am trying to satisfy myself by eating more at meals and using a sweet-tasting lip balm. But for the first three days or so, I've been successful.
