to wonder how a diet low in yeast can cure thrush

[stubbornstains]

So, I'm currently suffering from feral fanjo fauna, and trying to nuke them with Canesten. I've been looking at old threads about thrush on MN, and notice that a lot of posters recommend a diet that cuts out (are you ready for this?) bread, all alcohol, all sugar, all dairy (don't know why dairy- in for a penny in for a pound I suppose) , mushrooms, Marmite, and anything else containing yeast. So. Leaving aside the fact I'd probably rather have thrush than give up all that lot, how would it work? Taking bread as an example: yes, it's made with yeast. But when you bake it, you kill the yeast. Then you eat it, and it goes into your stomach, which is full of hydrochloric acid, presumably killing any yeast organisms which may be alive within (although thinking about it, obviously stomach acids don't kill all organisms, otherwise how would anybody get food poisoning?). So.....is there any science backing up this type of diet, or is it all bolleaux?

If coconut oil and tea tree cured whatever your itch was, you didn't have thrush to begin with.

Logic is as powerful a tool as research.

I used to get thrush once every 6 weeks and it would last a week. I was ill with it. I tried the diet and it didn't work. Out of the blue, it just stopped. I don't even get thrush after being on antibiotics any more. At the time of getting thrush regularly, I was seen by 2 gynaecologists, 2 dermatologists and at the sexual health clinic. They all agreed in the actual facts that most people have posted up thread. The diet is bollocks. Thrush is horrible though, so you have my sympathy.

I don't think anyone on this thread is denying the possibility that diet can affect the immune response, but ampersand's 'evidence' was blatant bad science and really needed to be challenged.

Please please please don't do anything with Colloidal Silver.

Some brilliant, sane explanations on here.

I so would love my friend to read this thread. She has diagnosed herself candida (as she calls it).

She has eliminated so much from her diet, bought a candida cleanse (seemingly not FSA or FDA approved) at great expense from the internet and is currently blaming everyone's ailments on candida and driving me slightly nuts.

I'm a practice nurse. I see lots of women suffering from "thrush" and I'd say half the time they don't have thrush at all. We swab persistently itchy cases and 9 times out of 10 there is no growth at all, either bacterial, fungal or otherwise.

Most have vulvovaginitis.

I was swabbed multiple times and the doctor confirmed it was thrush. Coconut oil contains lauric acid which breaks down fungal walls and is present in some over the counter thrush treatment. Tea tree oil is antifungal.

It could be a coincidence. Perhaps my immune system cleared it at the same time I used it. I would always recommend giving it a go though ad it's cheap and easy and recurrent thrush makes you uterly miserable. I would have tried anything to make it go away.

Def thrush here because there is no mistaking the white cheesy discharge and swollen vulva. It's a pain in the arse to live with.

There is no scientific evidence that excluding yeast and fungi from the diet cures thrush. Candida infections can become systemic and affect multiple organs but this only occurs when people are seriously immunosuppressed, for example if they are on certain long term medications or have An illness that affects the immune system such as HPV. There is no evidence that candida routinely causes 'leaky gut' It's all quackery. Candida is a fungus that under certain conditions (such as in response to hormone levels, stress, or if there is an imbalance of the normal vaginal flora) switches from a 'yeast' form ( this is the form that co-exists happily in our bodies) to a 'hyphal' form which can grow through the walls of our cells and causes the symptoms of thrush. So an antifungal such as clotrimazole will deal with both forms.

HPV= HIV!

Oh no. If you dosed it up with Canesten last night, your fanjo is now an acid vat. Your gentleman friend will not thank you for it and if DH's ongoing trauma +10 years after that one time is any indication, he will never forget it, either

Bloody hell. Thank God I didn't read this before I went out last night! I'm imagining Mr Cote pulling out screaming, gazing at his smoking willy in disbelief

Luckily, everything went well and there are no incidents of penile acid burn to report. Yet another thing in favour of condoms, I guess

Make sure your husband is treated as well otherwise you'll pass it back and forth to each other

Ain't got no husband

Gentleman friend uses condoms, so I guess that's not a problem....

It's not complete rubbish, although I am no expert. I'm Type 1 diabetic I'm more prone to thrush when my blood sugars are high. This is more likely to happen when I'm eating lots of sugary stuff/not controlling my levels properly. The more you eat carby and sugary things the more likely you are to have lots of blood sugar spikes. I don't know how exactly it works but the nurses always say it's a common side effect of higher than average sugar levels, much the same with cystitis.

(And I know everyone isn't diabetic, just speaking from my experience. It could be a possibility for someone who eats a lot of carbs )

Science is the new religion and beware to never question its devotees!

I am both a scientist and an open minded person who understands that current science does not have the final answers to things. As everyone with an elementary understanding of Philosophy knows.
but, enjoy your nasty comments science bullies, I shall not put my foot on this thread again, what a nasty bunch of bullies you were to the PP.

Since we are all doing the anecdote thing, mine is that I have had periods of eating lots of carbs and sweet desserts and they did not at all coincide with a very long period of recurrent thrush.

I am both a scientist and an open minded person who understands that current science does not have the final answers to things

We do not need to be open-minded about basic biology. We do not need to question very very basic scientific knowledge. There are certainties, and it is incredibly arrogant of you to suggest that you know better, because you are open-minded and philosophical.

Glad to see that all that dismal candida don't-eat-yeast claptrap is still around. It was 'big' back in the 80s, everyone was excitedly diagnosing themselves with 'candida' and not eating bread, beer, sugar and whatnot.

Problem is all carbs become sugar in the body, including quinoa and buckwheat and all the rest of the 'OK' to eat foods. This is GCSE Biology. No degree required at all.

How do people fall for it? I just had a look around the internet, and it is FULL of websites selling people diet books, supplements, and dear lord, the most insanely expensive, squeezed from virgins, coconut oil. (One thing I know a lot about is coconut oil - I had a business in that field for some years. Peeps, you are being seriously, cynically, maliciously ripped off with those cold-pressed coconut oil prices.) Does the expense of all this have something to do with the fact that people feel better from whatever it was they felt in the first place? THAT is is a well documented effect, and perfectly scientifically backed up. It is called The Placebo Effect.

Sidge - isn't vulvovaginitis an umbrella term for uncomfortable fanjo (whatever the cause)? It is not another condition. Makes me wonder that if HCPs are confused, what hope is there in getting rid of it?
This is a very mean spirited thread - really bullying. Posters were just trying to help .

bitethedust well yes I suppose it is, it's an umbrella term for inflammation of the vulva and vagina. What I'm (clumsily!) trying to say is that if you can eliminate any infective reason, or eczema, or lichen sclerosis, or whatever then what you're left with is generalised inflammation.

But not thrush. The problem is that women assume they have thrush when they have vulval or vaginal itching and treat that repeatedly (or try spurious elimination diets) without seeing someone for the problem.

I am highly suspicious of the whole coconut oil thing haffiana. Suddenly it's this amazing superfood. Is this because olive oil is now not expensive enough?

Actually coconut oil is genuinely an unusual oil because of its medium-chain fatty acid profile. And there is a difference in the way that medium chain fatty acids are digested and metabolised, compared to other vegetable oils such as olive oil which predominantly contain long-chain fatty acids. So in certain instances there are indeed possible health benefits/implications.

However this is a property of all coconut oils. Cold pressed oils are no better in this respect than a hot pressed oil. Cold pressed oils are borderline palatable because they are very (rather nauseatingly so) coconutty in flavour and for this reason were traditionally used for cosmetic products rather than as food.

Hot pressed oils are more neutral in flavour, and are readily available in Asian and Afro-Caribbean stores for around £2 for 500g or so. Some supermarkets also sell this stuff under the KTC brand. These are traditionally refined oils, ie hot pressed, not bleached or deodorised as the websites selling overpriced virgin oils would have you believe. They undergo no further refining other than filtering to remove coconut solids. They still taste very mildly coconutty, but pleasantly so.

The refined and bleached stuff is used widely in the manufacture of soaps, detergents and some deep-frying oils where the presence of the impurities that cold- and simple hot-pressed oils contain would be problematic. This oil is flavourless, and also pleasant to use as a cooking oil.

Cold pressed oils contain a certain amount of coconut solids that the other grades do not, and for this reason should not be used for frying as these burn and degrade into something definitely unhealthy! Again, the sellers of the 'virgin' oils would have you believe that these extra non-oil bits have special health benefits and properties. Maybe they do, but eating a small square of fresh coconut will give you exactly the same -and more- benefits at a fraction of the price. If the websites twatting about 'candida' had any real scientists within 10 miles of them they would not be drivelling on about the benefits of 'raw' oil over any other grade. It all becomes part of the strident, emotional mumbo jumbo of the candida story.

Then we come to price. The price of cold pressed oil as sold to consumers is a massive rip off. I used to import cold-pressed oil for use in luxury skin care items, and I can assure you that the price is not that much greater than for traditional, hot pressed oil.

I used to get horrific thrush. It would flare up during my period and for a week or so after then never fully go away before the next period set it off again.

Donkey's years ago I started using a Mooncup and have only had one bad bout of thrush since then which when I got an early period while on holiday cupless and had to use tampons again.

I haven't heard of this being a common Mooncup experience but it certainly worked for me.

My dad felt non-specifically unwell for a while and saw a naturopathic quack and was diagnosed with 'candida'. He was always very science skeptical (which hasn't been hereditary, his offspring are the opposite because nothing he and my mother said was logical to anyone scientifically literate). Anyway, he spent some money on a 'cure' only to die from metastatic cancer within 6 months.