WOMEN who are diabetic often complain about recurrent yeast infection. Endocrinologist Dr Michael Boyne told the Jamaica Observer that the key to reducing the incidence of yeast infection is managing and monitoring the sugar level.

“When I was younger and in medical school they used to tell me ‘oh, the sugar levels are high, the yeast and the bacteria have lots of sugar to eat’. We know it’s not that,” Dr Boyne said

“What happens is that the diabetes impairs your bodies immune functions, so immune function which should fight off germs; can’t fight off the germs and we all have germs on our skin that are suppressed, so they don’t trouble us,” Dr Boyne told the Sunday Observer. “But in the diabetic person, they are no longer suppressed, and they develop the yeast infections and other types of infections.”

Women who are diabetic therefore need to bring their blood sugar under control.

“Generally speaking, if the average blood sugar drops to about say nine or less, then the risk of those infections goes down,” said Dr Boyne.

To do this, the endocrinologist said a health management plan is necessary.

“They need a health management plan between them and their clinician, whether that’s their general practitioner, nurse practitioner, clinic doctor, private doctor, internist, paediatrition, who are helping them,” Dr Boyne explained. “They need to create a plan and generally the plan involves what I call, what the patient can do and what the doctor can do.”

Dr Boyne said on the patient’s side, they should be educated about what they should have, as part of their meal plans, they should be mindful of how physically active they should be, how much sleep they should have and reduce the stress. As well as they should be taught how to monitor themselves.

“So, when a patient is doing all of these, it really does a lot to keep their sugars down,” explained Dr Boyne.

He admitted that this approach is not always enough for many people and they may require help from their clinician that might mean prescribing medication.

“The type of medication will depend on the person and their overall health,” said Dr Boyne. “Because it might mean that a person may have heart disease, kidney disease, they may choose a different type of management than someone who has no such problems.”

He, however, pointed out that what some diabetics who require medication are doing is swapping their medication.

“One thing that some patients do, which is not quite right is switch one drug for another, if they think that their sugar is not well-controlled,” said Dr Boyne. “But generally speaking, what that has meant is that your diabetes has got a little bit worse, but what they really need to do is to combine them, not to switch one for the other.”

The endocrinologist reiterated that reducing the blood glucose level, and maintaining it, lowers the risk of infections recurring.

– Anika Richards