On Thrush Prevention (and setting health boundaries)

[SnakeLady]

I've started to write this in response to flavoured lube, but it since turned into a post on Thrush Prevention:

I didn't know they (lube) had actual sugar, I always assumed it had sweeteners. Don't they make a diet version?  

Please remember that sweeteners are nothing but a different form of sugar produced with no use of traditional cane sugar. Therefore anything claiming to be "sugarfree" is yet another form of sugar - and your body reacts pretty much the same to it.

I've got some books on Candida Albicans (main parasite responsible for an array of health conditions varying from thrush, IBS, leaky gut and ME to mention a few). They explain more in detail why sugar is best to be avoided. Apparently it feeds those very parasites in your system which leads you to suffer from thrush in the first place. A bit like when you add sugar to dough, and watch the bun expand...

Hence why you're better off cutting out as much sugar and yeast as possible, so that those parasites can die out. Also, the books list various ways of limiting your exposure to thrush. Read on, but beware that some of the suggestions may go down as a lead balloon here on SAAFE. Also, some steps may be very steep. Such as completely altering your diet and life style. So perhaps think of it as a gradual adjustment as opposed to total avoidance. If you can avoid it completely (or limit your exposure). If you can't, do what you can:

• Try to avoid taking antibiotics. They wipe out good bacteria in your gut, and thus making you even more susceptible to parasites. Since you've got less good bacteria to fight them off. This is why some of us get into vicious circles of thrush, then BV, then more thrush, BV, thrush, BV etc... All while doctors feed us more and heavier rounds of those magic pills meant to get rid of the problem...

• Try to cut out sugar and yeast in your diet.By sugar they mean: any sweets, sweeteners, fizzy drinks, sports drinks, dried fruit, even fruit altogether in some cases, refined carbs such as white meal, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice. Wholegrain varieties are fine, but go easy on potatoes - very sugary. If you must eat fruit try to eat berries or kiwis instead of highly sugary fruit such as bananas or grapes.
• Exercise regularly. Doesn't need to be high impact. It will help your body cope with demands that we put on it.
• Try to avoid sexual partners who appear to have thrush or fungal like symptoms. And by fungal symptoms they mean stuff like dandruff or athlete's foot...(Yes I know, very practical for Escorts)
• Try to avoid certain contraceptives. No, they didn't clarify which ones, but case studies have shown women being more susceptible to recurrent thrush when taking oral pills.
• Try to cut out alcohol, caffeine and smoking.As they all mess with the delicate balance of your system, making it harder for your body to get rid off any parasites.
• Limit your number of sexual partners. Yes, they really stated that - what a hoot! However, even I have to admit that they could be right. I've never suffered so many thrush and BV episodes since when I was working in brothels. And I was only working 1 - 2 days a week plus occasional cover days, so didn't work that often. But ever since quitting, I haven't had a single episode. Now it will be interesting to see what happens once I start working Independently again.

This could be a depressing list. But look at it this way. There are more hidden price tags behind our profession than meets our client's eyes. As we are generally more susceptible to infections and STI's when preventative measures such as contraceptives, flavoured lube or antibiotics give us unwanted side effects (like thrush, or BV). Well heck, even my incidents of common colds increased dramatically last Winter purely from kissing loads of strangers, to not a single cold this Year!

So for every wanker who thinks we should slash our fees, and offer as many "services" (read: take as many health risks) as possible... Do remind him that even increasing number of clients could in fact be taking a health risk. And that it could cost us more than it's actually worth.

After all, his income wouldn't suffer for every thrush episode he'd get. Or for every time he gets a new cold. Whereas mine certainly did. And that's before we even take into account risks of STIs, unwanted pregnancies, social prejudice, safety risks, etc.

  SnakeLady

[Anika Mae]

Please remember that sweeteners are nothing but a different form of sugar produced with no use of traditional cane sugar. Therefore anything claiming to be "sugarfree" is yet another form of sugar - and your body reacts pretty much the same to it.

Some sweeteners are sugars, some aren't. Aspartame is a compound of amino acids, so your body reacts to it in the same way as protein. Sucralose is based on sugar but it's a very difficult compound to break down; your own body certainly can't do it and I doubt there are many microorganisms that can. Both of these are also hundreds of times sweeter than sugar so that very small amounts are required, as is the case with most artificial sweeteners. So your body really doesn't react the same way to a diet coke as it does to regular.

[SnakeLady]

Some sweeteners are sugars, some aren't. Aspartame is a compound of amino acids, so your body reacts to it in the same way as protein. Sucralose is based on sugar but it's a very difficult compound to break down; your own body certainly can't do it and I doubt there are many microorganisms that can. Both of these are also hundreds of times sweeter than sugar so that very small amounts are required, as is the case with most artificial sweeteners. So your body really doesn't react the same way to a diet coke as it does to regular.

You're probably right, there might be differences between sugars and sweeteners. But at as far as our bodies go, they think we are feeding them nutrition. It's just that we don't, as it's all empty calories. But our bodies think we must eat/drink more of the stuff, cause there must be nutrients somewhere, as we're still hungry. Or exhausted. And we don't realise that the reason we are still hungry or exhausted, is because of that Diet Coke or coffee we consumed an hour ago.

Plus some artificial sweeteners have been found by researches to be neurotoxins, meaning they can damage the brain and the nervous system. Not a great way to help your body to recover itself from parasites.

The very fact that when refined sugar (not to mention something even sweeter than sugar) hits your system, it causes our bodies to react in a roller coaster way. Sure, it's not a big deal if you just have a weekly chocolate cake, and eat fresh vegetables etc rest of the time. But it becomes a big deal when most of your food habits get replaced by meal deals from Pizza Hut topped with chocolate cake and Diet (or full fat) Coke. Or when you simply drink Cola on a daily basis.

The problem is that we so easily think that we only had one sugary treat at above mentioned Pizza Hut, when in fact our entire meal contained little else than refined sugars. And since it didn't contain adequate intake of protein, quality fats, minerals and nutrients, we get hungry and hangy about 1-2 hours later. Craving even more Coke and chocolate cake...

Add to this bouts of antibiotics, lack of exercise, exposure to chemicals be it in food, air or lube, caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes and there is no surprise why our bodies don't cope better with our demands. And instead let parasites take over and cause us to get sick.

  SnakeLady

[SnakeLady]

By the way, the books I was referring to are:

"How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy" by Paul Check, holistic health practitioner (who trains other health professionals as well as athletes and rehabilitation clients.

"Candida Albicans" by Leon Chaitow, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster.

"Beat Candida Through Diet" by Gill Jacobs, health education teacher and writer.

As always, some of the advice given in one book may clash with the other. But the reason I took much of the advice to heart was that I suffered a lot of problems regarding low immune system, recurrent colds, thrush and asthma.

Plus I was a total sugar and junk food addict, who'd rather eat ice cream than breakfast. But since reading up on nutrition I have managed to step by step overturn my old habits and to keep 2-3 stones off throughout the years.

And I used to have a daily sugar craving, ever since I was a child. Now I hardly even crave sweets, as I've learned how to stabilise my bloodsugar levels more harmoniously. Yes, such things are possible.

  SnakeLady

[Anika Mae]

Sure, eating a lot of artificial sweeteners probably does weird things to your metabolism and maybe possibly gives you brain tumours, but it's not sugar and it won't give you thrush. Yes if your diet's crap and you never eat vegetables your immune system probably won't be up to much, but saying "artificial sweeteners are sugar and sugar feeds thrush" completely obscures the point there.

[Alexxx]

Cotton knickers, not wearing tight fitting clothes and a well balanced diet seem to help too. I don't suppose our clients would be impressed if we answered the door in our big comfy knickers and pj's tho....

If I'm feeling like I may be getting thrush, I avoid using bubble bath and don't wash my hair/body whilst I'm sitting in the bath water so the amount of chemicals that could possibly irritate my lady parts is limited.

Kind of off topic but I urge everybody to stay well away from sweetners. Someone very close to me was  diagnosed with MS a couple of years ago. After 2 years of pill taking, brain scans etc etc, it turned out that it was actually Aspartame Poisoning. This mimics the symptoms of MS to the point where many people are misdiagnosed every year.
After cutting out all aspartame from their diet, the persons' symptoms ceased to exist. Really scary stuff. Considering we often choose diet drinks over high sugar drinks to avoid sugar, this choice can be more detrimental to our health.
Have a look for yourselves http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html
I speak from personal experience, not just hearsay.

Love Alex x