Title: Does Sugar Cause Yeast Infections? | Health.com
Headings: Can Your Sugar Habit Explain Your Chronic Yeast Infections?
Can Your Sugar Habit Explain Your Chronic Yeast Infections?
Two gynecologists decode the connection.

Content: How to Ease Your Withdrawal Symptoms When You Quit Sugar, According to a Nutritionist
There’s actually a link between recurring yeast infections and the amount of sugar in your diet, says Jessica Shepherd, MD, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and director of minimally invasive gynecology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. “ When there’s too much sugar in the body, the immune system becomes suppressed and unable to ward off any bad bacteria; that can lead to an overgrowth of yeast in the vagina,” she explains. The key word is overgrowth. All women have yeast, or candida albicans, in their vaginal area; it exists symbiotically with lactobacilli, a type of bacteria. “ When those are both maintained, you’re fine,” says Lakeisha Richardson, MD, an ob-gyn in Greenville, MS. “ But when one grows more quickly than the other, that’s when you typically develop a yeast or bacterial infection .” But what exactly does the food you put in your mouth have to do with what’s going on in your vagina? Whatever we eat is broken down and ends up in our bloodstream so we can either use it or excrete it, explains Dr. Richardson.