Are you woried about your vaginal health level? Balancing vaginal PH level may be the answer you are looking for.
Your vagina has a natural way of keeping away the bad bacteria and infections. Experts call it vaginal PH balance. If you never really thought about it as a powerful way of defense, well.. you better start.
As I said, this important factor helps us defend against infections and it helps us keep a healthy pregnancy and hormone levels. So if it isn’t kept in a healthy range, it can have a pretty huge impact on our health and also on our sex life.
But what is a healthy or normal vaginal PH level?
In order for our vagina to remain healthy, it has to remain in the range of 3.8 to 4.5. So it has to have moderately acidic flora. Please know that as you get older or if you are menstruating this normal range changes.
So it usually stays somewhere around 4.5 during our reproductive years (15 – 49) except when you are menstruating. In this case, the PH level gets a bit higher than 4.5. This is also the case when you are at menopause. In this case, the vaginal PH gets a bit less acidic stabilizing somewhere near 5.
Why do my vagina need this acidic environment?
In order for your vagina to remain healthy, it produces fluids that contain acid. In this way, its normal acid-producing bacteria can survive and therefore can maintain chemical balance. This is the only way your vagina can protect itself from bad germs, bacteria, parasites, and fungi.
What do I have to watch out for in order to mantain a healthy vaginal PH?
As our vaginal microbiome is the one regulating the acidity and PH level, then we have to take care of it in order to not get off balance.
The microbiome consists of good bacteria named Lactobacillus. This species of bacteria secrete lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide which balances the PH in order for it to be more acidic. Considering the impact of these important bacteria, if a deficiency of these occur, the vagina flora will be affected and therefore the vaginal PH becomes out of balance, leading to the risk of vaginal infections.
Knowing this we will have to remove several habits which can affect the vaginal microbiome:
1. Don’t douche
Your vagina cleans itself in its own way. By “washing” your vagina with different products in order to make it smell better or because of something else you is just making things worse. So better don’t do any internal cleaning of the vagina.
2. Stop leaving in tampons too much
During our menstruation, our PH increases a bit leading anyway to a more infection-prone state. If you are keeping that blood in too much you’ll just increase the PH and ruin the natural balance.
3. Avoid antibiotics which aren’t realy necessary
Antibiotics have the effect of killing also good bacteria inside your system, therefore also the vaginal microbiome is affected, and therefore the vaginal PH. Check with your doctor and at least take also probiotics in order to protect your flora as much as possible.
How to mantain a healthy vaginal flora?
First of all, you can adjust your diet. Thru diet, you can help also to maintain a healthy flora but also a healthy immunity and overall body.
Choose to eat whole foods full of fibers, with low-glycemic-load and lots of nutrients. So eat more vegetables, beans, fruits, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Also fermented foods full of Lactobacillus help. Some of these are yogurt, miso, sauerkraut, kimchi.
Try also eating less sugar as this can affect bad yeast and bacteria levels in your body.
A second idea would be to take probiotics. Look for ones that are rich in Lactobacillus, especially with Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus acidophilus which can help your body a lot.
Courses that will help you understand how to have a cleaner diet:
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