Vaginal Discharge : Causes and Home Remedies

Vaginal discharge is term given to biological fluids contained within or expelled from the vagina. Most women experience vaginal discharge at some point over the course of their lives. Some types of discharge are caused by normal bodily processes, while others can be a sign of infection. Abnormal vaginal discharge can generally be recognized by a change in color or consistency that makes it look different from the normal discharge a woman is used to seeing.

Causes

Hormonal changes can cause vaginal discharge dryness and irritation in older women. You may need a prescription cream if the symptoms bother you. Any change in the balance of normal bacteria in the vagina can affect the smell, color, or texture of the discharge. These are a few of the things that can upset that balance:

.antibiotic or steroid use
.bacterial vaginosis, which is a bacterial infection more common in pregnant women or women who .have multiple sexual partners
.birth control pills
.cervical cancer
.chlamydia or gonorrhea, which are sexually transmitted infections
.diabetes
.douches, scented soaps or lotions, bubble bath
.pelvic infection after surgery
.pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
.trichomoniasis, which is a parasitic infection typically caused by having unprotected sex
.vaginal atrophy, which is thinning and drying out of the vaginal walls during menopause
.vaginitis, which is irritation in or around the vagina
yeast infections


Home Remedies

You should consult your gynecologist for the right cause of vaginal discharge. Once you are aware of the cause, you can plan to go for home remedies that can help cure various vaginal problems.

. Keep the vagina clean by washing regularly with a gentle soap and warm water.

. Take a tampon and dip it in yogurt. Insert in the vagina, twice a day. Continue this remedy for an extra day after your symptoms go away.

. Crush an aloe leaf and extract two tablespoons of the juice. Have it thrice a day with honey for two weeks after the periods are over.

. The recommended way to consume raspberry leaf is to pour 1 cup boiling water over 1 to 2 tsp. of the raspberry herb and steep it for 10 to 15 minutes.

. Dong quai can be taken orally by consuming powdered or dried root/root slices, fluid extracts, tinctures and dried leaf preparations.

. The recommended amount of fenugreek is 20mg taken three times a day with meals.fenugreek helps to relieve excessive vaginal discharge by stimulating the uterus and balancing out hormones

. Add a tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar, with honey to taste, to a glass of hot water. Drink it first thing in the morning.

. Insert 1 or 2 capsules of boric acid into the vagina and keep it there overnight for several nights. For some women the boric acid may cause burning and discomfort for the first few days.

. Take a tablespoonful of the dried rind of pomegranate. Boil it in half a liter of water. Strain and use as a vaginal douche.

. A few drops of tea tree oil poured on a tampon and inserted in the vagina can provide some relief.

. Dissolve 1 tbsp of potassium sorbate in 1 cup water. Insert a tampon into the vagina and pour this solution inside to be absorbed by the tampon. Keep it there overnight. Repeat this for several nights.

. Mix the juice of basil leaves and honey in equal proportion and take it in the morning and evening for two weeks.

. Boil a few guava leaves in one litre of water till the water is reduced to half. Cool it and strain it. Use the water for vaginal douches twice a day.



~sources : webmd.com/home-remedies-for-you.com~

A Sign of the Times

Every now and then, I venture out to go shopping at mainstream chain clothing stores. Although I find it onerous, there are certain things I can't get at thrift stores. For example, I can never find nice jeans.

The last time I set foot in these stores was about two years ago. It was tough to find pants my size at that time-- many stores simply didn't sell pants with a 30 inch waist. This year, it was even harder, since some of the stores that formerly carried 30W pants no longer did. I managed to find my usual 30W 30L size in two stores, but I had a bizarre experience in both cases. I put them on, and they were falling off my waist. Since my waist size hasn't changed in two years, and my old 30W 30L pants of the same brand still fit the same as they did when I bought them two years ago, I have to conclude that both stores have changed their definition of "30 inches". My new size is 28W 30L, which is tough to find these days.
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60 Minutes Report on the Flavorist Industry

A reader sent me a link to a recent CBS documentary titled "Tweaking Tastes and Creating Cravings", reported by Morley Safer.

Safer describes the "flavorist" industry, entirely dedicated to crafting irresistible odors for the purpose of selling processed and restaurant food. They focused on the company Givaudin. Dr. David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, makes an appearance near the end.

Here are a few notable quotes:

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New Review Papers on Food Reward

As research on the role of reward/palatability in obesity continues to accelerate, interesting new papers are appearing weekly. Here is a roundup of review papers I've encountered in the last three months. These range from somewhat technical to very technical, but I think they should be mostly accessible to people with a background in the biological sciences.

Food and Drug Reward: Overlapping Circuits in Human Obesity and Addiction
Written by Dr. Nora D. Volkow and colleagues. This paper describes the similarities between the mechanisms of obesity and addiction, with a focus on human brain imaging studies. Most researchers don't think obesity is an addiction per se, but the mechanisms (e.g., brain areas important for reward) do seem to overlap considerably. This paper is well composed and got a lot of media attention. Dr. Volkow is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The NIH is the main source of biomedical research funding in the US, and also conducts its own research.

Here's a quote from the paper:

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How to Eliminate Body Odor Naturally

How to eliminate body odor is very easy if we know his body odor is an unpleasant thing for us to feel it as well as our friends and relatives or any other person, body odor can also reduce our confidence in any activity, especially in keramain and mingle.

Here is how to eliminate body odor naturally:

Tomatoes
Tomato is a natural antiseptic that can kill a wide range of bacteria, including bacteria that makes the body less savory flavorful. As quoted Curebum, body odor can be lost with frequent drinking tomato juice. It is recommended to drink tomato juice three times a day. Tomato juice is not only drunk, but can also be mixed in the bathtub, as an addition to your bathing ritual.

Green Tea
Body odor can be caused by environmental factors, such as pollution, sun and dust. Body odor due to environmental factors can be addressed with materials that contain antioxidants. Antioxidants are good to beat the unpleasant smell on the body is green tea. Green tea also has a distinctive aroma. When diligent drink, then the fresh smell of green tea can come out of the body.

Celery
Celery leaves can fight body odor. The content of celery can fight the toxins in the body that causes body odor. So, do not forget to put the celery in your healthy diet.

Grass Juice
Certain types of grass can be used as a beverage. It may sound strange, but grass juice has been sold at beverage outlets at shopping malls. Reporting from Foodscout, the efficacy of grass juice is believed to overcome the unpleasant smell on the body