pharmaceutical links

it's not without some some trepidation that i include this information about the pharmaceutical world. see, there are 2 kinds of sites that fall under this category. first are the sites that have straightforward information about various drug treatments for vaginal yeast infections, that are usually written for doctors and pharmacists. but there are also a few sites that exist to promote sales of particular products, and those sites scare me. because, although it's easy enough for most of us to realize when we are being snowed about normal, every-day products (is anyone really naive enough to believe that they could just add water to a brown powder and get something that tastes like coffee?), it's a lot harder to tell when the drug companies might be BS'ing us. and it's not just the big, slick, western-style biomedical corporations that you have to watch out for; several people have written to tell me that they've shelled out quite a bit of money for natural or homeopathic yeast remedies from their local natural foods store or pharmacy, only to find that the stuff didn't work or made the problem worse. 'nuff said. here are the links ... buyer beware.

one supposed yeast treatment that's sold over the internet is AquaFlora. i know it sounds crazy, but the stuff is nothing other than pure Candida albicans (yeast) and water. the makers claim it cures yeast infections in "just weeks." woo. i've had a few people write and tell me that they tried other homeopathic treatments, like YeastGard, and it made things worse. but hey, if you want to try it, don't let me stop you.

another potential yeast treatment that i don't know much about is called Kolorex, and is derived from a new zealandish herb called Pseudowintera colorata, also called Horopito or the pepper tree. until recently i'd never heard of it, but i received an email from a company called Forest Herbs Research Ltd that contained a lot of information about the stuff. if you live on the other side of the planet, you can order it from several kiwi companies, including KiwiHealth and Forest Herbs. in the US, you can buy it from Sullivan Creek, a heavily christian, montana-based company. it all sounds plausible, but like i said, i don't know anyone who's tried it. if you have and would like to offer a testimonial, drop us a note.

there are a few websites hawking colloidal silver as a "natural" antibiotic and antifungal, and even a few where you can buy a generator to make your own. i don't know; although colloidal silver is generally considered by the American government to be relatively safe, the Australian government disagrees, and exposure can cause definitely darken your skin and eyes. since i don't know anyone who's used it, i wouldn't mess with it, but again it's up to you.

i suppose it's no surprise that there's a massive, slick page devoted to extolling the virtues of Monistat, the best-selling yeast infection treatment in the US. Monistat is made by Ortho Pharmaceuticals, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, the largest home healthcare corporation in the world. J&J grossed over $27.5 billion in 1999, and you can bet they don't want to lose any ground. (because of the extremes to which they take this attitude, michael moore named the CEO of J&J one of the 10 worst in America in his 1997 book "Downsize This.") so when they say "the monistat yeast infection resource center is dedicated to providing you with the yeast infection information you need," you can guess what they mean: they have a website dedicated to telling you how great Monistat is, and to convincing you that you really do have a lot of choices about how to treat your yeast infection, because there's about a zillion forms of Monistat on the market. the one useful thing thing that you can't find anywhere else is an article comparing topical treatments (ie, suppositories, like Monistat) to systemic ones (ie, pills); it really is true that topical treatments have fewer side effects.

of course, now that Monistat has a website, the Bayer corporation had to get into the act. yes, it's true, there's now a Femstat 3 homepage. and don't be fooled by the fact that this site isn't as overbearing as the Monistat site; Bayer is a massive international corporation, and with over $30 billion in sales in 1998 it can hardly be considered an underdog. finally, Roche gained permission more than 2 years ago to market a 1-day version of Femstat in the US, but so far it doesn't seem to be on the market and i haven't found a slick, corporate website for it yet.

Terazole (terconazole) is a prescription-only 3-day yeast suppository treatment that, of course, has a website devoted to hocking it. check it out. if you want Physician's-Desk-Reference-level, technical information about the product, check out this page from the Rx List.

Pfizer, the maker of Diflucan, has a glossy, corporate-looking website to promote their product. scaaaaary. they they also have some more serious, physician-oriented product information on the web.

last but not least, Purdue University has some serious pharmacological information on a bunch of antifungals, including miconazole (Monistat), chlotrimazole (Gyne-Lotrimin), and ketoconazole (Nizoral).