Thrush in Adults

Thrush is medically termed as candidiasis. Thrush is whitish and velvety in appearance. If you scratch it, you will find red tissue deposits under it. This tissue bleed quite easily even on mild irritation. These are the main symptoms of thrush in adults.

Thrush in adults or children can be either acute or chronic. In both the cases, it needs to be treated effectively as it can easily spread to other parts of body that may include many vital structures. Though medical treatment is almost a necessity in treating thrush, you may take help of some home remedies, if not to cure it, then prevent its occurrence in future. But before you jump to treatment for thrush part of this article, take a quick look at some of the possible thrush causes.

Causes of Thrush in Adults

Small amounts of candida is almost always present in your body, especially on the skin and in the digestive tract. The population of candida is kept under check by the immune system of your body. When your immune system gets weakened and fails to keep the candida population under control, it causes candidiasis or thrush. Some conditions that can weaken your immune system are when you take steroid medication, or if you suffer from AIDS, malnutrition and you are receiving chemotherapy treatment for treating diseases like cancer, etc.

Young children and adults above 50 years of age usually have poor immunity, and hence, are at greater risk of developing thrush. The common places of occurrence of thrush are vagina, mouth, etc. The chances of thrush occurrence increase if you are a diabetic, taking antibiotics for a long time and have poor fitting dentures.

Treatment of Thrush

Most of the time, the appearance of the affected area is enough to indicate thrush. However, the doctor may conduct certain examinations to confirm the presence of thrush. These examinations usually include microscopic examination of mouth scrapings and culture of mouth lesions.

The immune system of your body usually restores the healthy balance of the micro-organisms back on your body, and thus, treats thrush within a couple of week's time. You can take non-prescription acidophilus capsules to bring down the population of candida on your body. This helps a lot in treating thrush in adults as well as children. A natural way to get the same effect is to eat a cup of yogurt daily.

In case of oral thrush, you should use a soft bristle toothbrush to clean your teeth. This will prevent any damage to the affected tissues in the mouth due to physical irritation. Rinse your mouth with 3% hydrogen peroxide solution 2-3 times a day. This will assist your body in controlling the candida population and therefore, will treat thrush. You may use an over-the-counter antifungal mouthwash to treat oral thrush.

In case of vaginal thrush, keeping a clove of garlic in the vagina will help a lot in killing candida and bringing down its number under check. You can use non-prescription antifungal topical creams on the affected part to cure thrush in the vagina. Vinegar is another home remedy for treating thrush in vagina. Apply it on the affected part and leave it on for half an hour. Wash it off with plain water. Do it twice a day to treat vaginal thrush in adults. Make sure that you are not using plain white vinegar as it assists fungal growth. Also, never ingest vinegar directly as it is quite strong and may damage internal tissue. Always have it mixed with some other foodstuff.

Drink plenty of water to cure thrush at home. Water helps in detoxification. It will flush out toxins and excess of nutrients. Fungi require sugar for growth and reproduction. When there is lack of sugar, candida will find it tough to grow. As a result, you will get relief from thrush from any part of your body. Finally, follow a healthy diet to strengthen your immunity. This may treat thrush forever.

You should use the suggested home remedies regularly for at least a week. If you find your condition improving, then continue with the same. But if you do not find significant recovery from the thrush, then you should pay a visit to your doctor immediately. Seeking medical attention is very necessary as untreated thrush can lead to serious complications. The risk of complications increase particularly when your immune system is poor. Some examples of serious conditions caused by prolonged thrush are esophagitis, endocarditis, endophthalmitis, meningitis, etc. The basic reason behind all these disease conditions is the spread of candida to these organs from the original place of occurrence.