re candida yeast bloom fact or fiction in article rjifg bgm hsdndev harvard edu rind enterprise bih harvard edu david rind writes in article apr vms ocom okstate edu banschbach vms ocom okstate edu writes oxygen just like it does in the vagina as much stuff as there is in the lay press about l acidophilus and vaginal yeast infections i m really amazed that someone has not done a clinical trial yet to check it out i ve mentioned this study a couple of times now ingestion of yogurt containing lactobacillus acidophilus as prophylaxis for candidal vaginitis annals of internal medicine do you have a problem with the study because they used yogurt rather than capsules of lactobacillus even though it had positive results the study was a crossover trial of daily ingestion of ounces of yogurt there was a marked decrease in infections while women were ingesting the yogurt problems with the study included very small numbers patients enrolled and many protocol violations only patients were analyzed still the difference in rates of infection between the two groups was so large that the study remains fairly believable david rind david this study looks like a good one gordon rubenfeld did a medline search and also sent me the same reference through e mail since commercial yogurt does not always have a good lactobacillus a or bulgaricus culture a negative finding would not have been too informative this is often the reason why lactobacillus acidophilus tablets are recommended rather than yogurt i guess the next question is why would this introduction of good bacteria back into the gut decrease the incidence of vaginal candida blooms if the anus was not serving as a candida reservoir a fact that gordon r vehementy denys i see two possible theories one the l acidophilus which is a facultatively anaerobic bacterium could make it through the gut and colonize the rectal area to overgrow the candida this would not explain the reoccurance of candida blooms in the vagina after the yogurt ingestion was stopped though the other is that the additional bacteria in the intestinal tract remove most of the glucose from the feces and candida looses it s major food source getting lactobacillus acidophilus to colonize the vaginal tract where it is normally found would have a much better effect on the recurrance of vaginal yeast blooms though an acetic acid lactobacillus acidophilus douche has been used to get this effect but i ve not seen any such treatment reported in the medical literature this would be an example of physicians conducting their own clinical trials to try to come up with treatments that help their patients when this is done in private practice the results are rarely if ever published it was the hallmark of medicine until the modern age emerged with clinical trials it really raises a big question does the medical profession cast out the adventerous few who try new treatments to help patients or does it look the other way this particular issue is really a very simple one since no real dangerous therapy is involved even the anti fungals are not all that dangerous but there are some areas like edta chelation therapy where the fire is pretty hot and somebody could get burned it s really tough do i follow only well established protocols and then give up if they don t work that well or do it try something that looks like it will work but hasn t been proven to work yet my stand is to consider other treatment possibilities especially if they involve little or no risk to the patient getting good bacteria back into the gut after antibiotic treatment is one treatment possibility the other is getting l acidophilus into the vaginal tract of a woman who is having a problem with recurring yeast infections marty b
