Yeast infections and Yogurt,
Getting the acidophilus you desperately need

Yeast infections and yogurt go hand in hand. Your overwhelmed with bad bacteria. Let's introduce what you seem to be lacking, the acidophilus.
Making your own yogurt is easy. If you're lactose intolerant, or can't get your hands on some natural yogurt, try cabbage.

Any type of milk (cow, goat, whole, skim, non-fat, even reconstituted dry non-fat milk, yak, buffalo or whatever is handy) will work. There is some debate on which milk is the best for yeast infections some say goat, or would you believe it, some say yak.

I have no idea where to get fresh yak milk.

Anyway...

This yogurt will keep for 10 days in the refrigerator. It makes 5 cups.

You will need:

A quart jar

A thermometer that shows 100F (38C) to 300F (149C) (like a candy thermometer)

A large spoon

Large bowl

Some type of lid or covering like saran wrap or foil.

A double broiler and

Some sort of incubator (Oven, thermos, ice chest, heating pad...)

Besides knowing that for managing yeast infections, yogurt supplies the acidophilus you need to help either systemically or vaginally, here are some things you should be aware of.

A) You do need some starter yogurt.
Buy some unflavored at the market or a starter culture at the health food store (but that's more expensive) I just buy some 'natural' unflavored yogurt when I feel a yogurt phase coming on.

B) Use pasteurized milk.
It's important to use pasteurized milk, because what you need is good bacteria. For yeast infections and yogurt, your looking to get some acidophilus. Not more of the overwhelming bacteria from your chosen critter.
You can pasteurize at home by using a double boiler.
[If you have never used one before, the water goes in the bottom and is heated. The inner pan is where you put your milk and it's heated from the water in the bottom pan.]

HOW TO PASTEURIZE
Pour your milk into the top pan, stir it for even heating, and heat until it's 165F (73.88C). Immediately cool the milk down by take the inner pan out and setting it in ice water.
Stir it to get even cooling. Then put it in the refrigerator in sterilized containers.
[To sterilize: pour boiling water into your container, wait a minute, then pour the water out.]

C) It takes about 4 hours to incubate.
The longer you let it incubate, the more tart and acidic it becomes. You can add some honey if you want it sweeter.

INCUBATION METHODS

[[GOAL - KEEP TEMPERATURE BETWEEN 108F (42C) AND 112F (45C) DURING INCUBATION]]

1. Thermos method.
Good for small amounts. Pour hot yogurt mix into thermos and about 4 hours later open the lid and set in the refrigerator for quick cooling.

2. Heating pad method.
Fill a container with the yogurt mix, wrap a towel covered heating pad around the container. Set on medium, and leave it on your counter. Unwrap in about 4 hours and chill rapidly.

3. Another no electricity method.
Convert boxes/coolers/plastic bins into a heat retaining cooker. For example:Take a couple cardboard boxes and place about 3 inside each other. In between each layer, line foil (shiny side inward) and crumpled up newspaper for heat retention.
You'll need about 4 jars of hot water [140F (60C)] in there to heat it up sufficiently.
When you add the yogurt containers, make sure that the yogurt containers and the hot water jars do not touch.

4. With a stove. Most dependable.
For this you'll need an oven thermometer. Heat it to the higher side. 150F or so. You need enough leeway for when you open the oven door and the heat escapes.
Put the containers in the middle/upper part because you don't want it to get too hot on the bottom when the heat comes back on.
Shove the yogurt in and keep an eye on the thermometer. Keep it between 108F (42C) and 112F (45C). Four hours later, bring it out , let it sit in ice water (stir for even cooling) for a quick cool, and plop it in the frig.

HOW TO MAKE YOGURT AT HOME

Replenish the starter culture every four or five batches. For treating yeast infections, I would say keep it strong. Every four batches.

1 quart (.94 liters) pasteurized whole or low-fat milk. To that, add 1/4 cup (59 milliliters) non-fat dry milk powderor

1 quart (.94 liters) pasteurized skim or reconstituted non-fat dry milk, add 2/3 cup (78 milliliters) non-fat dry milk

1/4 cup (59 milliliters) unflavored cultured yogurt from the store

2 to 4 spoons of sugar or honey (optional)

1/2 package (1 teaspoon) unflavored gelatin (if you want your yogurt thick)

In the double boiler, stir the milk and the powder together. Add the gelatin honey or sugar if you want it. (but if your doing this for an infection cure, I'd bypass the honey/sugar and gelatin)

Do NOT boil, but stir and heat the milk to 200F (93C). Keep it at that temperature for 10 minutes.

Place the top of the double boiler in cold water until it's 125F (51C). Temp falls rapidly from here, so that is why I said this point. Take the pan out of the cold water when it reaches 115F (46C).

Take 1 cup of the warm milk and blend it in with the yogurt starter culture. Add/stir it into the rest of the warm milk when it reaches 112F (44.5C)

Immediately pour your mixture into your sterilized container, cover and place into the incubator of your choice. Close the incubator door.

Incubate about 4 hours.

Congratulations. You have yogurt.

Now you can help yourself get rid of your yeast infection by introducing acidophilus via yogurt. Yogurt popsicles are a wonderful way to take it.

Refrigerate immediately. It should keep for about 10 days if your frig is 40F (4C) or lower.

That's a lot simpler then you thought it would be wasn't it?

When I began treating my own yeast infections and using yogurt, I was surprised to find out how simple most of this stuff was to do myself.