Home Remedies For Thrush

Home remedies for thrush should be used whenever there are creamy white lesions, usually on your tongue or inner cheeks.

Oral thrush is the fungus "Candida albicans" and manifests as it accumulates on the lining of your mouth. Thrush can be treated at home and should not be viewed as a disease, but rather as a need to build the immune system up again.

The lesions can be painful and bleed some when you scrape them. Oral thrush can spread to the roof of your mouth, your gums, tonsils or the back of your throat.

Oral thrush can affect anyone, but it's more likely to occur in people that have compromised immune systems, like babies, people who wear dentures or those who use inhaled corticosteroids. If you have a weakened immune system, symptoms of oral thrush may be severe and difficult to control.

In the beginning, you may not even notice the symptoms of oral thrush. Signs and symptoms may develop suddenly and persist for a long time, before you realize what it is.

Home remedies for thrush should be started as soon as you notice any of these symptoms:

- Loss of taste
- White lesions on your tongue, cheeks or roof of your mouth, gums and tonsils
- Lesions with a cottage cheese-like appearance
- Pain
- Bleeding if the lesions are rubbed or scraped
- Cracking or redness on your mouth (especially denture wearers)
- Cotton feeling in your mouth

In severe cases, the lesions may spread into your esophagus. This is called Candida esophagitis. When that happens, you may experience difficulty swallowing, or feel like food is getting stuck in your throat. Another good reason to implement home remedies for thrush as soon as possible.

Babies may be fussy, irritable, and have trouble feeding. The infection can be passed back to their mothers during breast-feeding.

Women need to use home remedies for thrush when they experience the following signs or symptoms:

- Red, sensitive or itchy nipples
- Shiny or flaky skin around the nipple (areola)
- Pain during nursing or in nipples between feedings
- Deep stabbing pains within the breast

Home remedies for thrush will strengthen the immune system, since oral thrush and other Candida infections occur when your immune system is weakened. Anytime you have to take antibiotics, your good intestinal flora is damaged. Your immune system can also be damaged from disease, drugs like "prednisone," (Prednisone is used to treat allergic disorders, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and arthritis) or anything that disturbs the natural balance of your bodies microorganisms.

Normally your immune system works to repel viruses, bacteria and fungi, but sometimes, when the immune system has been weakened, these protective mechanisms fail, which can allow an oral thrush infection to invade.

Home remedies for thrush will help weakened immune systems from related diseases like HIV/AIDS. The human immunodeficiency virus or (HIV) causes AIDS. Repeated signs of oral thrush may be the first sign a person has HIV.

Use home remedies for thrush if you've been receiving treatments for cancer, like chemotherapy and radiation.

Both the disease and treatments increase your risk of having a Candida infection like oral thrush.

Home remedies for thrush should be started also, if you have untreated diabetes or the disease isn't well controlled. When your saliva has large amounts of sugar, which encourages the growth of candida, you may develop thrush.

I recommend home remedies for thrush for vaginal yeast infections too. These infections are caused by the same fungus that causes oral thrush. Even though a yeast infection isn't dangerous, a pregnant woman can pass the fungus to their baby during delivery.

You don't want your baby to start out with "oral thrush."

Some people insist that the extract of grapefruit seed is one of the best home remedies for thrush that you can use.

Grapefruit seeds contain certain chemicals that act as anti microbial agents. The grapefruit seed extract actually works as a "natural antibiotic."

The recommended dosage is one teaspoon of grapefruit seed extract, with a glass of lukewarm water, twice a day.

Unrefined raw coconut oil has also been said to be an excellent home remedy for thrush. A compound known as caprylic acid is the benefit of raw coconut oil, which is a strong antimicrobial agent.

Simply apply a small amount directly on the areas of the body with thrush symptoms. Raw virgin coconut oil is also excellent for diaper rashes, as well as thrush of the mouth areas.

Since home remedies for thrush and home remedies for yeast infections have the same "causes and affects," the need to balance your good intestinal flora is the same.