>My b-i-l, a physician, assures me that this is the case, and that it is
>therefore impossible that, for instance, taking acidophilus orally would
>decrease vaginal yeast infections.
>
>However, I am one of the zillions of women who can testify from personal
>experience that oral acidophilus do indeed seem to decrease vaginal yeast.

Elisheva, my underastanding of how acidophilus works in places of the
body it doesn't actually reach is this:

The body's immune system normally copes with a low density of yeast
that is there all the time. When resistence is lowered from other
causes (stress from a variety of sources, bacterial infection, being
'run-down', etc), you may get overgrowth of the yeast which
overwhelms the immune system and so causes symptoms.

Whenever there is a problem with yeast in the breast or vagina, etc,
there is always an overgrowth in the gut as well, as this is where
most of the yeast survives normally. By taking acidophilus, this
helps to greatly reduce the population of the yeast cells in the gut,
and allows the immune system to concentrate on controlling the yeast
in other parts of the body. Same goes probably for the oral drugs
used to treat yeast. (The use of the term 'systemic' is actually not
strictly correct when talking about thrush in the ducts and using
oral drugs to treat. 'Systemic' really does imply that it is in the
body beyond the gut and in the bloodsteam. I believe this causes some
of the confusion amongst some HCPs when we talk about this.)

If you can assist the immune system, it will once again control the
yeast - eg by medications, acidophilus, altering the pH in the vagina
(for vaginal thrush), or even just reducing the stress on the immune
system and allowing the body to function normally again. Often it
needs a combination of these. For those people who get recurrent
yeast infections, I would look carefully for an on-going source of
stress that could be causing the immune system to struggle. Sometimes
this is undetected food intolerance.

>
>Since experience persuaded me of this, 7 yeast-infection-free years ago, I
>have been looking for a good explanation of the mechanism for it, which
>perhaps might also explain the transfer into milk, if such transfer there is.

I don't believe that there is transfer like this.

>  Do yeast live in the blood???  Do lactobacilli move in the plasma????

I don't think so.
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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