Tag: Moist Environments

The Truth About Vaginal Yeast Infections

What is a Vaginal Yeast Infection?

This type of infection is very common; out of four women, three will get a vaginal yeast infection in their lifetimes. This condition comes about when a woman has too much of the fungus Candida growing in her vagina. While this fungus is always around, it can get out of control.

Signs that a woman is suffering from a yeast infection include pain when urinating, burning or swelling of the vagina and the surrounding area, and redness in the area. She may also have a white discharge from her vagina; this discharge will not have an offensive odor.

How Can I Treat a Yeast Infection?

There are many treatments on the market today that can help you leave your yeast infection behind. You may be able to use over-the-counter medications if your yeast infection is a relatively light case.

You should still visit a doctor to make sure that the infection is merely a yeast infection, and not an STD with similar symptoms. This may sound like a hassle, but it is worth it to protect your health! The doctor will probably examine the affected area and take a sample with a swab in order to identify what is causing the infection.

How Can I Prevent a Yeast Infection?

You can drastically reduce your risk for a vaginal yeast infection by simply keeping your body clean and dry. Yeast thrives in warm, moist environments, so you will want to change out of wet bathing suits and sweaty exercise clothes as soon as you are done with the activity. Wear cotton panties whenever you can, and avoid tightly-fitting underwear. If you are taking birth control pills, this may increase your risk of getting a yeast infection.

You should not use douches, because they get rid of the good bacteria that is supposed to kill yeast. Similarly, avoid feminine sprays and scented tampons. If you have diabetes, you must keep your sugar level under control; there is evidence that extra sugar in the urine can help feed the yeast and encourage an infection.

Other Important Facts

If you get yeast infections often, you may suffer from a condition known as RVVC. This stands for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis. Your doctor can provide guidance in getting rid of this disease, and will usually prescribe some type of medicine to kill fungus. You might need to take this prescription for up to half a year.

You should not try to diagnose yourself. If you take antifungal or antibiotic medications for a condition that merely mimics a vaginal yeast infection, you may be setting yourself up to experience a yeast infection that is very hard to kill.

If you can cut down on your intake of sugary foods, you might be able to avoid yeast infections. You should also stop taking steroids if possible.

Vaginal yeast infections can be tough to stop. However, with a little help from a doctor and a few precautions, you may be able to put these infections behind you.

What Causes Warts?

Warts of all kinds are annoying and some can even signal danger. It would be nice to prevent them. To have any chance of doing that, you need an idea of what causes warts.

All warts are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). This virus gets into the skin at a certain point and infects it. The cells in that area grow very rapidly. A wart is formed at that site.

Warm, moist environments are breeding grounds for many varieties of warts. Anyplace that is wet can be a threat. A shower or locker room floor can be a problem in this area, especially if warm water covers the floor. People can pick up HPV in swimming pools, hot tubs, and saunas.

Skin abnormalities give the virus a place to take hold. If you have an irritation or a rough spot on your skin, it can give rise to a wart. If you are a swimmer, you may have plantar warts because of the combination of the moist environment and rough or broken skin from the surfaces of the pool. Plantar warts get worse because pressure from walking on them pushes them into the skin.

You can also contract HPV at the site of a patch of broken skin. This can be a rash or a cut. It can be a hangnail or a fingernail that you have bitten off very closely. It can even happen with a scrape or a scratch.

You can get common warts following excessive handling, such as in a job, of meat or poultry. The same goes for fish. Working with these foods keeps the skin moist over a long period of time.

HPV also causes genital warts. They are considered a sexually transmitted disease. They can be spread through contact with the throat or the mouth occasionally. Usually, they are contracted through exposure to the genitals or the anus.

Once the HPV is in your system, the warts can be carried to any other place on the body. You do this by scratching or touching them. Then, when you touch another body part, the HPV is spread. If the strain you have is genital warts, the infected areas will be on the genital areas.

You may have genital warts for awhile and they may go away. If this happens, be careful. You can still spread genital warts even if you are showing no signs of the infection. Genital warts are highly contagious, so you should take precautions such as using condoms during sex.

The question may arise as to whether a mother can spread genital warts to a baby when it is being delivered. The answer is that she can, but only rarely. The only time this would be a concern is if the doctor suspects that the warts will bleed excessively. At that point, a cesarean section will probably be performed.
There are many ways that warts can be spread. Some of them have to do with the warm, moist environment that fosters their growth. Some have to do with sexual activity. However HPV is actually the only cause of warts.

Thermastor Dehumidifier

Using a ThermaStor dehumidifier will decrease the amount of humidity inside your home or workplace by taking the extra moisture out of the air. Too much humidity inside your home or workplace encourages mold and other allergens to grow and can cause the wood your home or work building was built with to decay and weaken.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, ThermaStor has been in business for 34 years. They are a leader in the industry with the technology for advanced high-efficiency heat transfer products, like their heat recovery water heaters. They offer a wide range of home and/or office dehumidifiers to make living and working more comfortable and restoration equipment for larger jobs of dehumidifying, “air scrubbing”, extracting water and drying by evaporation.

If you have allergies or asthma, a ThermaStor dehumidifier can help reduce the symptoms you experience by lowering the moisture in your home. Molds and dust mites thrive in moist environments so it would stand to reason that if you decrease the level of humidity in your home the mold and number of dust mites would decrease as well. Your symptoms may not disappear altogether but you may find significant relief from them.

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology recommends maintaining the humidity level in your home at or below 50%. Not only will this help decrease allergens it will also help prevent damage to exposed wood surfaces like floors and beams.

A dehumidifier can also help you save money on air conditioning. You know the difference between dry air and moist air. Moist air is heavy and can make it hard to breathe, dry air is cooler and a lot more comfortable so you can save some money on your electric bill.

Just make sure you have a good system set up to dispose of the water when the container is full by emptying it yourself or hooking up a hose that leads from the unit to a floor drain.

One thing you need to take care with is to buy the right sized humidifier for the job. A too small dehumidifier will not remove enough moisture from the air and may end up costing you more money on that electric bill because it is having to work overtime.

The best way to choose your dehumidifier is to measure the length and width of the space you will have the dehumidifier in and figure out the square footage. Make sure that the unit you buy will handle the area needing dehumidification.

If the square footage is at the upper end of the capacity of the unit you are looking at, it is advisable to choose the next highest capacity dehumidifier to be sure you are getting the coverage you need and that the unit is operating at peak efficiency.

If too much moisture is a problem in your home or workplace there is a ThermaStor dehumidifier that will work for you. Whether the space is large like a warehouse or small like a crawlspace ThermaStor makes a dehumidifier for the job. They even offer products that will handle the dehumidification of indoor pool and spa areas.