Bacterial Vaginosis

I will reply to this, but first can you tell us how old you are and where you are at in your menstrual cycle/menopause?

Hi Bird,

Thanks for giving us a little background and I hope you feel better soon.

I want to begin by making it very clear to our readers that choosing to restore the natural microbiology of the vagina/bladder/bowel is a personal decision and done at your own risk. We do not prescribe honey, vinegar, or homemade probiotic foods, but rather help women understand that true health extends beyond the body and into the natural environment in which we live. Hippocrates’ dictum, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” could not have been more accurate.

Your case suggests that lactobacilli never had a chance to become established in your vagina and bladder. In order to colonize, all bacteria must adhere to organ walls. The heavy-duty PAC you are taking not only prevents pathobionts from adhering, but beneficial species too. Taking a cranberry supplement or D-mannose on a regular basis is similar to taking regular antibiotics in that they prevent restoration of natural microbial communities. Your symptom of dryness is confirmation that no lactic acid-producing bacteria are present. The symptom of itching suggests candida, which cultivate a more alkaline environment. Tougher, meaner drug-resistant bacterial species from your gut may also be present.

If your doctor was remotely informed, her proper response after looking under the microscope would’ve been, “Oh my! you have no lactic acid producing bacteria!” But of course she must practice medicine and continue to irresponsibly prescribe antibiotics.

Overwhelming scientific study suggests that the vaginal probiotics probably won’t help because they won’t become established as a natural ecosystem. They won’t become established because they are not native to your body and your environment. I suppose they might make the vagina more acidic, which might allow a more beneficial community to develop. At your age, without vaginal honey the microbial community that develops in both your vagina and bladder is coming from your rectum.

Of course the medical establishment would say that honey attracts bad bacteria, which is patently untrue.

If you leave a bowl of flour (an oligosaccharide like honey) and water in a warm spot in your kitchen, and feed it with more flour and warm water twice (or even once) a day, in seven days you will have healthy, lactobacillus-filled sourdough. If you continue to use and feed it, the starter will last indefinitely. The mixture is filled with natural yeast and beneficial bacteria. It never becomes putrid or rotten with pathogens. This is the true miracle of life on earth, which so few people realize.

The exact same thing is true for honey (or natural glycogen in our reproductive years) and the vagina. Like flour, honey is a prebiotic that will attract the beneficial species from your own environment.

That said, I’ve often wondered about the microbial environment of a penthouse on the 47th floor of a high rise building in the middle of a polluted city, or any number of other unnatural places. For me, it is a spiritual practice to cultivate as natural an environment as possible living in a city as well. We are our microorganisms and if there is any truth to life beyond death, I bet it is bacteria and viruses that transmit our consciousness into the next world. Life creates the conditions for itself.

Anyway, I don’t know whether the kefir will help, as it too is a foreign probiotic that is not native to your environment. Perhaps it will become so with regular ingestion, I just don’t know.

All of this is wonderful, organic alchemy that every woman needs to work with on her own. I can only give guidelines gleaned solely from the microbiology literature. Honey and vinegar are natural medicines for the post-menopausal vagina/bladder and whether they will work for any particular woman depends on a multitude of factors. Clearly, true health does not come from pills or prescriptions.

Christine

I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you to stop taking the pills. I can only lay out information and let each woman decide for herself.

The microbiome of the bladder basically mirrors that of the vagina. When we create vaginal health, we create bladder health. Researchers have tried instilling probiotics into the bladder, but they do not persist. Nature requires that lactobacilli must migrate from the vagina to the bladder to become autochthonous, or native.

I keep a squirt bottle of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 filtered water in the bathroom and apply to the vulva when necessary. Three or four squirts are sufficient.

All probiotics, oral or vaginal, are allochthonous, or non-native to the body’s microbial niches.

UTIs can be very serious, especially when the bladder is infected with enteric superbugs. However, I never worry because I’ve created a wide circle of protective health around me, as described in The Miraculous Self-Healing Vagina.

I was working outside a couple of years ago moving tubs of plants and other heavy labor, went inside to wee-wee, and was shocked to feel the symptoms of UTI, something I hadn’t felt in decades. I realized I had been 48 hours without vaginal honey. To my utter amazement, I immediately applied honey and the next time I peed the symptoms were gone, never to return.

I think it’s great that concentrated cranberry and d-mannose products are available for UTI, but the scientific literature suggests a steady diet of them is not conducive to long-term bladder health.

I’ve often wondered if drinking a tall glass of warm sea-salt water might also be safe and effective treatment for new-onset UTI. Pathogenic species hate salt, but lactobacilli seem to love it (think sauerkraut). Nature is so miraculous!

Then there are going to be women who develop raging UTIs that must be responded to medically. This is why every woman needs to become intimately familiar with her body, her food, and her natural environment in order to trust her body and separate the wheat from the chaff.

After 36 years of living, 2 births, hystorectomy I am finally listening to my body and becoming aware of my surroundings.