12 Vaginal balancing strategies
Many women don't realize the health significance of keeping the vaginal environment balanced. All of medicine should be personalized and vaginal health is no exception. The field of genomic medicine, what your genes and what genes the bugs we have living with us, have has begun to make it's way into personalized disease management, and interestingly enough, this applies to vaginal health too. Individualizing your gyno care based on either the unique genes or the unique function of the genes in our system apparently also applies to the genes of the bacteria we harbor in our vaginas. In reality we have more bacteria, by far, than cells in our body. The behavior of the bacteria in our body is critical to our good health, as well as being critical to curing many diseases. Vaginal health is one example of an organ system that is only healthy if the right balance of bacteria is present. Bacterial Vaginoisis (BV) is an infection gets started when you lose the normal, healthy, vaginal lactobacilli. There are actually at least 100,000 bacterial colonies in the vagina, and we won't be able to cover all of them in a short discussion, but even 1% imbalance can be an issue. Lactobacilli species produce by metabolizing the sugars in the cells of the vagina and through this metabolism emit a small amount of hydrogen peroxide which then keeps the vagina very acidic. If the lactobacilli colonies decrease due to being over grown by other species the vaginal pH changes, becomes too basic (less acidic, the pH rises), and other bacteria, that are more hostile to vaginal health will flourish.
Here are some simple strategies that you can follow to keep your vaginal health in balance. At Women's Health Practice we have been a leader in clinical studies, the adaption of new medical technology, and testing that can help you answer questions important to your individual concerns. Here's a list of things you can discuss with your gyno to see if these will help you.
1. Acidophilus
2. Boric Acid tablets, has not been shown to treat BV, but can help keep pH balanced and decrease the number of episodes.
3. Avoiding antibiotics
4. Using condoms for sex
5. Douching? Or No Douching?
6. Gut balanc,. By taking in probiotics the natural, healthy, bacteria Lactobacillus, increases in numbers which is the ultimate way to normalize the health of the vagina and, in a study reported in BMC conducted by a group of researchers lead by PB Heczko, lengthen out the time until there is a recurrence. Probiotics are not right for every women nor every case.
7. Latic acid gel
8. Hydrogen peroxide
9. Providone-iodine vaginal douches
10. Ascorbic acid.