Understanding Thrush
Thrush is a common infection that affects men, women and children. People often consider it an infection that affects only women, but that is only the case with vaginal thrush. In men, it can cause issues such as jock’s itch, and in everyone can cause skin rashes. Here, we’re going to explain a bit more about this infection. By the time you reach the end of this article you should have a much better idea about the causes of thrush, how you can reduce the risk of infection and how you can deal with the infection once it happens.
What Are NOT the Causes of Thrush?
This might appear as an unusual title, but we thought that we’d better explain what thrush ISN’T. There are many misconceptions about thrush and its causes, and people can feel very uncomfortable with the thought that they have thrush. Common misconceptions about the causes of thrush include:
1.Lack of hygiene: some people hear the word ‘infection’ and assume that thrush is caused by a lack of hygiene. This is not the case at all, and, in fact, over cleaning can lead to thrush because you’re cleaning away the good bacteria that you need to tackle the candida overgrowth.
2.STD: other people believe that thrush is a sexually transmitted disease. Although it can be passed from person to person by sexual intercourse, it’s unlikely. Furthermore, you may ‘catch’ thrush, but not develop any symptoms because your body has a strong enough immunity to fight it off.
What Are the Causes of Thrush?
Thrush is always caused by a yeast infection. We call this yeast candida. So, when you hear people talking about candida infections, they are talking about thrush infections; and when you hear people talk about thrush, they’re talking about candida infections. The terms are interchangeable.
Candida is a microorganism that we classify as a yeast in the scientific community. It often lives on the skin without causing problems. However, sometimes the balance of the body falls out of whack and the yeast infection can proliferate. This happens when we don’t have the required number of good bacteria required to tackle the candida and eliminate it or at least keep it at low levels.
Thrush is more common in people with a compromised immune system and people that have recently taken antibiotics.
What Makes It More Likely To Develop Thrush?
We touched on the fact above that a strong immune system will usually deal with any thrush infections. So, we’re going to consider some of the ways that you can help your body fight off any such infections:
1.Don’t wash too often in intimate places, and if you do, don’t use any harsh chemicals that may kill off your own body’s micro flora (i.e. the friendly bacteria).
2.Hormone changes: you might notice that you’re more susceptible to thrush when you’re approaching your period. There’s not much you can do to prevent this, but the combination pill can help, as can taking a supplement such as evening primrose.
Treatment
There are many treatments available for thrush, but the most effective is oral thrush medication pharmacy. The medication contains the ingredients to kill off the candida infection. Oral thrush medication pharmacy will work every time, but it takes a few days for it to become effective. So, in the meantime, you can treat the symptoms by using live yog hurts or topical creams.
