Supplementing with B complex could help treat complicated cases of vaginal candida infections. [Photo: Bigstock]

B complex supplement helps fight candida

24 February, 2017

Natural Health News — Taking vitamin B supplements alongside conventional treatment can help treat cases of complicated vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), according to new research.

VVC, a fungal infections caused by Candida species, is the second major cause of vaginitis in women after bacterial vaginitis. Around 75% premenopausal women are infected with VVC at least once in a lifetime. Of these around 5% will go on to develop into recurrent VVC.

Writing in the journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, researchers from China noted that antifungal agents like nystatin and fluconazole are common treatments for VVC.

“But the complexity of complicated VVC contributes to different degrees of drug resistance in the clinical course of treatment,” they said. “Therefore, the combined use of vitamins and anti-fungal agents is proposed to improve the cure rate of VVC.”

What you need to know

» VVC, a fungal infection caused by Candida species, is the second major cause of vaginitis in women after bacterial vaginitis.

» A new study from China has shown that adding a B complex supplement to conventional treatment significantly improves the chances of recovery.

For their study the researchers from that First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, recruited 158 VVC patients and randomly divided them into three groups. Group A was treated with suppository and oral antifungal agents; Group B was treated with suppository and vaginal cream and Group C was treated with suppository, vaginal cream and oral vitamin B complex.

At the end of the 4 week treatment period, women in group C showed more improvement, (92.73%) than those in Groups A and B (73.47% and 79.63% respectively).

Overall, in terms of the recovery the supplement group also performed better: 72.73% compared to 61.22% (Group A) and 62.96% (Group B).

An animal study of the effectiveness of supplementation, conducted at the same time, also showed that the mice given B complex improved significantly. In particular the inflammatory response in the supplemented animals was much lower.

The researchers concluded that vitamin B complex elevated the curative effects of standard treatments and could be an effective adjuvant therapy for VVC.