Monday, April 6, 2015

Yogurt

Hypothesis: eating a giant bowl of plain yogurt short-circuits a flare.

Evidence: 3 confirming instances.

Question: whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I had a UTI, so I started shoveling yogurt in to stave off a yeast infection while taking antibiotics, and every time I've done a big shovel mid-flare, the flare has fizzled out.

Maybe this is a fluke.  I've definitely shoveled yogurt in before.

Standing here at work, hardly wanting to move because I overindulged in jelly beans and other bunny things at Easter, I chugged milk and nothing happened.  I almost never drink milk.  When I do, it's a pain reflex, like, reduce the acid or something.  I don't know.  Milk seems like it can fix pain, right?  Like it'll put out the acid burning my vulva.  But no, no.

So I shoveled in some yogurt because milk will give me a tummy ache and I'm still on antibiotics anyway, and now I'm sitting here hovering around a 4 pain-wise.  Maybe even a 3.  Instead of hot-burny, my vulva feels ringy-cool.  This all makes sense to someone out there.

I know better bowels mean less pain, but I've never observed a direct, near-immediate link between yogurt and my pain before.  Sugar and my pain, yes,  Immediate.  So.... yogurt is the anti-sugar?

Of course it is.  But immediately???????

Whatever.  Now that my birthday's passed and there are no candy holidays until Halloween, I'm off sugar.  Honey and maple syrup are still okay unless I find that they trigger me (mixed evidence).  Most fruits are not okay.  So I will be feeling better just from that change.

This is the end of my very quick blog post that is the equivalent of running up to all my vulvodynia friends and shouting my new amazing news!  Unfortunately, I have no in-person vulvodynia friends to run up to.  Hi out there!

4 comments:

  1. What kind of yogurt are you eating please? Brand?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stonyfield plain lowfat yogurt. I chose it in part because it has L. rhamnosus in it, which is good for women's health. But also because I like it :) You might have to just play around with brands if you find that one doesn't work. I still don't know why it aborts my flares... maybe it has an effect on my urine.

    Just checked it out on Wikipedia:

    "The clinical health effects of L. rhamnosus GG have been widely studied. Both L. rhamnosus GG and L. rhamnosus GR-1 appear to protect the urogenital tract by excreting biosurfactants to inhibit the adhesion of vaginal and urinary pathogens."

    I think Fem-dophilus is a probiotic with L. rhamnosus in it as a main culture. I used to take it regularly. Maybe I need to restart it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That bit from Wikipedia needs a citation over there, though. FYI.

      Delete
    2. Here's an article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1016/S0928-8244(02)00465-0/full

      Delete