A fresh garlic clove can easily cure a yeast infection. The trick is
to catch the infection early. A woman who suffers from frequent yeast
infections knows the feeling well. The first day, she feels just a
tickle of itchiness that comes and goes. The next day, or sometimes two
or three days later, the vaginal discharge starts to look white and
lumpy like tiny bits of cottage cheese. By this time, she has a
full-blown yeast infection and the lips of the vagina are often red and
sore
.
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If a woman can pay attention to the first tickling of the yeast
infection, she can use the following treatment. Take a clove of fresh
garlic and peel off the natural white paper shell that covers it,
leaving the clove intact. At bedtime, put the clove into the vagina. In
the morning, remove the garlic clove and throw it in the toilet. The
garlic often causes the vagina to have a watery discharge. One night's
treatment may be enough to kill the infection, or it might have to be
repeated the next night. Continue one or two days until all itchiness is
gone. The reason that the treatment is done at bedtime is that there is
a connection between the mouth and the vagina. The moment the garlic is
placed in the vagina, the taste of the garlic travels up to the mouth.
Most people will find this strong flavor annoying during the day, so the
treatment is recommended for nighttime.
If the infection has advanced to the point that a woman has large
quantities of white discharge and red sore labia, it can still be
treated by garlic but with a higher dose. Use a dry tissue to remove
some of the discharge, then take a clove of garlic and cut it in half.
Put it in the vagina at bedtime and repeat this for a few nights. If
there is no improvement, she might consider a conventional
over-the-counter treatment because it is a shame to suffer for many
days. Remember that a woman should never douche during a vaginal
infection. Yeast loves water and any water will make it grow faster.
Any cut in the clove makes the activity of the garlic stronger. Thus,
the more of the inside of the clove that is exposed, the higher the
dose. Each woman should learn the dose that works best for her, from the
lowest dose, an uncut clove, to a clove with one or more small
fingernail slits, to a clove cut in half.
If a high dose of garlic, a cut-open garlic clove, is inserted in a
healthy vagina, it will often "burn" the healthy skin. When the woman is
suffering from an advanced yeast infection, the skin is already red and
"burned" and the garlic cures the infection by killing the yeast. Then
the skin repairs itself. By the way, veterinarians have been using
garlic to heal infections in livestock for many years. If drug companies
could patent garlic and make money off of it, they would be advertising
it everywhere!
Garlic has been shown in vitro (in laboratory petri dishes) to kill
bacteria also. In some important research done in China (1), garlic was
shown to inhibit the growth of all of the following microorganisms: Escherichia
coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium
phlei, Streptococcus faecalis, Bacillus cereus and Micrococcus luteus.
Researchers found that garlic lost its antibacterial activities
within 20 minutes of being boiled at 100° C. At the Maxwell Finland
Laboratory for Infectious Diseases in the Boston Medical Center,
researchers examined the use of garlic for ear infections (2). They
found that fresh garlic was bacteriocidal, killing even the dangerous
bacterium Streptococcus agalactiae (commonly known as Group B Strep) but is heat- and acid-labile and loses activity when cooked or taken by mouth.
Group B Strep (GBS) can kill newborns, most commonly premature
babies. Current U.S. protocols call for culturing women toward the end
of pregnancy to see if they are GBS carriers, since newborn strep
infections occur more often—but not exclusively—in babies of women who
culture positive for beta-strep. About 15 to 30 percent of women carry
the beta-strep bacterium, the vast majority without any symptoms,
although at least two women with GBS vaginitis have been documented (3).
The risk of contracting GBS by infants probably increases with the
quantity of GBS in the birth canal (4). Between 1–3 in 1,000 babies
develop beta-strep infections after birth (5). Many of these infections
may be iatrogenic, caused by the hospital protocols. The strep bacillus
originates in the anus. When the membranes are ruptured, fluid washes
down and out of the vagina—until someone checks the cervix. Every time a
cervical check is done, the examiner may carry GBS up on his or her
gloved finger and deposit it on the cervix. Inserting an internal
electro-fetal monitor electrode or an internal monitoring catheter also
opens a pathway for bacteria to enter. Any of these scenarios could also
explain why length of time after rupture of membranes correlates with
infection rate. No randomized controlled studies have been undertaken
comparing women with no vaginal checks or internal monitors to women
with frequent vaginal checks. Intrapartum prophylaxis with intravenous
antibiotics, preferably targeted on GBS-colonized parturients with risk
factors, is, at present, considered the "new standard of care." However,
its efficacy and safety at preventing early-onset infection is still in
debate. [Editor's Note: See "Facing the Challenge of Group B Strep" in Midwifery Today,
Issue 63, Autumn 2002.] Vaginal chlorhexidine disinfection during
labour in GBS-colonized women may, in addition, offer a minor
contribution to prevention. Chlorhexidine is a compound with
plaque-inhibiting effects and available only by prescription in the
U.S.* Its side effects include staining of teeth, restorations and the
tongue, bitter taste and other disturbances, such as dryness of the
mouth and development of oral ulceration (6).
A fresh garlic clove inserted into the vagina for one or two nights
will also, most likely, reduce the colonization of the vagina with GBS,
with no known side effects, besides garlic breath. But none of the
funding agencies or drug companies are interested in providing support
for research—likely because the product could not be patented.
Chlorhexidine vaginal gel or wash reduces GBS colonization, so the idea
of using local measures is not too radical. But at this time, a clinical
trial in the U.S. to demonstrate efficacy of these topical methods will
be almost impossible, given the established standard of care
(intrapartum antibiotics) established by the CDC. So garlic experiments
to reduce neonatal GBS will have to take place outside of the U.S.
Garlic protocol:
- Break a clove off of a bulb of garlic and peel off the paper-like cover. Cut in half. Sew a string thru it for easy retrieval.
- Put a fresh half in your vagina in the evening before you go to sleep. Most women taste garlic in their mouths as soon as it is in their vagina, so it is less pleasant to treat while awake.
- In the morning, the garlic may come out when you poop. If not, many women find it is easiest to take it out on the toilet. Circle the vagina with a finger, till you find it. It cannot enter the uterus through the cervix. It cannot get lost, but it can get pushed into the pocket between the cervix and the vaginal wall.
- Most people will taste the garlic as long as it is in there. So if you still taste it, it is probably still in there. Most women have trouble getting it out the first time.
- For easy retrieval, sew a string through the middle of the clove before you put it in. You don't want to get irritated. Be gentle. Don't scratch yourself with long nails.
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