Oral Yeast Infection

I’ve had an oral yeast infection – thrush – and it was horrible.

I remember feeling like “God – what can I drink that will take this disgusting taste out of my mouth….” and nothing would. You’d have a hot drink, cold drink whatever and within 10 minutes you’d have the same awful taste and a feeling of “raspiness” – is the only way I can describe it – on your tongue. I remember thinking my tongue actually felt swollen – I’m not sure if it actually was but certainly when you look in the mirror you can see a very rough looking white surface on your tongue. Luckily at the time I had some naturopath friends how put me right with a great oral yeast infection natural cure that worked and worked quickly.

So what is an oral yeast infection and how do they occur in the first place? Thrush, like all yeast infections is caused by Candida fungi – a yeast overgrowth.

Candida albicans, these fungi can growth within your mouth when your body looses it’s ability to keep the natural balance of yeast, in any area of the body, including the mouth, but areas that are moist and warm are particularly vulnerable. Hence vaginal yeast infection, but also can be the groin region, the anus and even less “personal” areas such as armpits and hands. This growth in the mouth leads to white flecks (which may also have red bounds around them) and can taint the mucus-membrane coats within the mouth. Not that I tried it but apparently if you grate the white surface to try to get rid of it, this will leave behind a bleeding surface – would recommend doing that.

Yeast and The Good Guys

Yeast exists in all human bodies and is kept under check by “good” bacteria in our digestive systems known as lactobacilli. These “good guys” hold yeast in check and actually help the yeast to go about their natural day to day functions within the body. Apparently they help produce certain vitamins for the body such as the B complex. This balance can become upset for a number of reasons (which is talked about on other parts of the site including here) but in short if the good bacteria balance becomes upset, candida yeast are able to flourish and turn to a very vigorous and aggressive fungus. Its not so much the presence of the fungus that is the issue but that fact that the yeast fungus then release toxins into the bloodstream that can then travel and infect lots of different areas of the body and have all sorts of ill effects on your health.

This can then permit the yeast contagion to spread to other parts of the body, such as thrush in the mouth.

For more information on oral yeast infections click here but basic symptoms include;