How I Treat Vaginal Yeast Infections, Chronic UTIs and Bacterial Vaginosis with Chinese Herbs
- Sean Dugan
- Mar 15
- 14 min read
If you suffer from chronic vaginal yeast infections, UTIs, or BV (and if you are reading this there is a good chance you do) you understand the absolute misery and sense of helplessness these conditions can induce.
You’ve probably tried everything - gallons of cranberry juice, tampons soaked in yogurt, not to mention over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceutical remedies such as antifungals and antibiotics.
Let me guess: it just keeps coming back.
Why? We’ll get into that in a minute.
What I want you to know first is: Chinese herbal medicine can help.
I see many cases of UTI, vaginal yeast infection and BV frequently in my clinical practice, and over the years I have honed in on an herbal protocol that works again and again - and again.
It’s easy, it’s cost-effective, and it works.
So what is this heaven-sent combination of herbs?! Let's get into it.
A quick aside: If you don’t actually want to read this entire article, you can skip straight to the good stuff by clicking here to get started now.
Thunder and Earth: Herbs for Chronic Yeast Infections, BV, and UTIs
Magic in a Bottle: What are Thunder and Earth Pearls and How Do They Work?
Thunder and Earth: Herbs for Chronic Yeast Infections, BV, and UTIs
I was in graduate school studying Chinese Herbal Medicine when I was first introduced to Classical Pearls, a high quality Chinese herbal formula line. Classical Pearls makes many excellent products, but for the purposes of this article we will be talking about two of their patent forumulas: Thunder Pearls and Earth Pearls.
I was taught that Thunder and Earth Pearls are used to treat conditions such as parasites, worms and amoebas. They are excellent at treating these types of conditions, which I’ll get into later, but I found myself wondering if they might also be applied to similar and more common ailments such as fungal and bacterial infections, aka vaginal yeast infections, BV, etc.
At the time I had someone in my life who was struggling with recurrent vaginal yeast infections. She (like you) had tried everything, including extremely restrictive diets. The yeast infections still seemed to find a way back in.
Reading up on the formulation of Earth and Thunder Pearls, it struck me that they seemed like an amazing fit not just for parasites, but for other unwanted invaders and overgrowth - such as Candida albicans.
I told my friend to start taking Earth Pearls and Thunder Pearls, six of each every day.
The first thing she reported was that her bloating and irregular, loose bowel movements improved within days.
Within months, her yeast infections were under control.
Years later, I have given this protocol to over a hundred women dealing with chronic yeast infections with consistently amazing results.
And it isn’t just vaginal yeast infections that respond to the combination of Earth and Thunder Pearls.
I have used this protocol for treating fungal skin infections, like Malessezia, the yeast that causes seborrheic dermatitis.
I’ve used it to treat un-named rashes that hadn’t responded to fluconazole, steroids, or treatments from a host of dermatologists.
I’ve used it to treat chronic chelitis caused by candida, after five dermatologists, two functional medicine doctors, a naturopath, (and a partridge in a pear tree) came up short.
I’ve used it to treat severe fatigue, palpitations, and migraines directly related to toxic mold exposure.
I’ve it to treat bacterial vaginosis (BV) and ureaplasma - in one case after 6 rounds of antibiotics were unsuccessful.
I’ve used it to treat chronic UTIs many times over.
But wait, you might be thinking, how can two formulas treat all these different things? Yeast, fungus and bacteria? Surely not!
Surely yes! And I’ll tell you why. Yeasts, fungi and bacteria have a lot more in common than you might think.
Let’s dive into my favorite topic - the herbs.
Magic in a Bottle: What are Thunder and Earth Pearls and How Do They Work?
Let’s start with what a ‘pearl’ is.
Classical Pearls herbal formulas come in standard size 500 mg capsules. The word ‘pearls’ doesn’t refer to a special type of capsule. The name comes from the term ‘pearls of wisdom’. All Chinese herbal formulas have their basis in an older formula. We take the pearls of wisdom of our forebears and move forward, endlessly perfecting the art of herbal medicine.
What differentiates Classical Pearls from other encapsulated formulas is their high quality, unique composition, and a high concentration of herbs - they use a 10:1 herbal extract where most companies deliver only 5:1 extracts.
How Thunder and Earth Pearls work is an excellent question and does not have a short answer.
It can be challenging to understand how Chinese herbal formulas work without a background in Chinese Medicine; we use different medical theory, different language, and we look at the body from a fundamentally different view of how the world works. But this way of looking at things is extremely useful, and can make a baffling situation (such as when you have recurrent UTIs despite doing everything and anything to stop them) make more sense.
Thunder Pearls
Thunder Pearls is a complex formula based on the Ming Dynasty formula Jia Jian Su He Tang, originally developed for the treatment of chronic parasites in the digestive tract, this formula utilizes a treatment method called Gu Syndrome Treatment.
One of the most important things to understand about the Gu Syndrome approach is that it works because it’s based on the understanding that the body is a complex ecosystem. Regulating your microbiome is not as simple as “kill the bad stuff” and “introduce good stuff.”
The ancient herbalists who developed this approach understood that they couldn’t just blast your body’s flora with harsh antifungal and antimicrobial herbs that kill “the baddies.” These harsh “killing herbs” commonly have side effects that weaken your immune system and deteriorate organ function. I’m talking about herbs like Pau D Arco, black walnut, oregano oil, neem, berberine, wormwood, garlic, and goldenseal.
The reason you have a chronic infection isn’t simply because you just got unlucky. Everyone is exposed to pathogenic organisms all the time. Candida albicans, for example, is a normal component of a healthy human microbiome. The problem is that the conditions in your body allow for the pathogenic organism to grow out of control.
Harsh killing herbs do not create a positive change in the conditions of your body’s ecosystem. In fact, they often make the conditions worse. So after some time goes by the invaders just come raging back.
So instead of using that approach, ancient Chinese herbalists developed Jia Jian Su He Tang, which uses herbs with gentle antifungal and antibacterial actions. These herbs are gentle enough to not cause damage to you, but the pathogenic organisms like yeast and fungi don’t like to be around them and they ultimately decide that your body is not a suitable host.
It's a little like sprinkling cayenne pepper on your birdfeeder to deter squirrels, rather than blowing the squirrels away with a shotgun - and accidentally breaking your living room window in the process. Squirrels do not like eating cayenne pepper, but birds are unaffected by it. This is an example of an elegant solution, which is exactly what the Thunder and Earth pearls protocol is.
This category of gentle antimicrobial herbs includes herbs like:
Jin Yin Hua, Lonicera
Zi Su Ye, Perilla leaf
Bai Zhi, Angelica pubescens
Next, the creators of Jia Jian Su Ye Tang added herbs that strengthen your immune system so your body is better at defending itself. In Chinese Medicine, we call this tonifying Qi, Blood, Yin and Yang. These herbs help you recover from the damage and long term strain that chronic infections cause and improve your body’s innate ability to identify and eliminate pathogens.
This category of tonic herbs includes herbs like:
Huang Qi, Astragalus
Dang Gui, Angelica sinensis
Bai He, Lily bulb
Huang Jing, Polygonatum
You might think biofilm is a modern concept, but it’s not. For much longer than people have been around, there’s been microbial slime (biofilms) growing on river rocks. Ancient herbalists understood this as well (or better) than we do today. So they used herbs to break down biofilms, phlegm and mucus that chronic parasites use to protect themselves. In my experience treating patients who have been put on “biofilm disrupting" supplements and haven’t seen any results - these herbs do it better.
This category includes herbs like:
San Leng, Spaganium
E Zhu, Zedoaria
Finally they topped it all off with a few more herbs aimed at suppressing pathogenic yeast, fungi, bacteria and parasite with a little more oomf than our gentle friends above. These herbs are used at low doses, and are still mild enough to be taken long term.
This category includes herbs like:
Ku Shen, Sophora
Guan Zhong, Dryopteris
She Chuang Zi, Cnidium
Ding Xiang, Clove
Earth Pearls
Earth Pearls is based on Wu Ji San, a formula from the 12th century which addresses common problems with digestion. In Chinese Medicine, the digestive organs belong to the Earth element, hence the name. Earth Pearls is used to address problems with digestive motility, assimilation, and accumulation of metabolic waste known as Dampness and Phlegm in Chinese Medicine. I use this formula in my clinic for treating chronic diarrhea, constipation, weak and sensitive digestion as well as yeast infections, UTIs and BV.
Earth Pearls work not by attacking the pathogenic agents themselves (fungus, yeast, bacteria, parasite) but by changing the conditions in the body so that these pathogens cannot thrive. This formula is full of warming, aromatic herbs that dry and drain Dampness. These terms might sound too poetic to be involved in medical practice, but they are just as functional (more so, in my experience) as the term ‘antifungal’.
Think about fungus. If you were looking to pick a bushel of mushrooms, would you go to the wet woods of coastal Washington or the sun-blasted salt flats of the Nevada desert?
Fungal infections need moisture, and they need carbohydrates. In nature, fungi thrive on decaying matter like leaves and wood. In your body, human-adapted fungi and yeast thrive on sugar, carbohydrates, and metabolic excess. Bacteria function in a similar way.
So, what do we do? We change the terrain.
The lead herb in Earth Pearls is Cang Zhu, red Atractylodes. Though this herb is known for its antifungal properties, it is nothing like berberine, goldenseal, or other common herbs you will have read about as antifungals. It’s not antifungal because it kills stuff. It’s a warming, metabolism-stimulating, piercing aromatic herb that dries Dampness. It helps regulate blood sugar, improves your digestion’s efficiency so there isn’t metabolic excess forming a swamp for fungus to thrive in.
Most of the popular antifungals are bitter, cold-natured herbs. Bitter and cold herbs can actually create more Dampness, even if they have antifungal properties! What we need to shift the body ecosystem in the right direction is herbs that are warming, aromatic, and spicy to pierce through Dampness and turn the fetid swamp into a healthy flowing river (or a healthy vagina, vulva or urethra, as the case may be).
The combination of Thunder and Earth is full of warming, drying, aromatic antifungal herbs like Cang Zhu, Bai Zhi, She Chuang Zi, Zi Su Ye, Fu Ling, and Hou Po.
Aromatic, Dampness and Phlegm-transforming herbs in Earth Pearls include:
Cang Zhu, Atractylodes lancea is an especially important herb with itching symptoms
Fu Ling, Poria, drains Dampness and promotes fluid metabolism
Ban Xia, Pinellia, transforms Phlegm and breaks down biofilms in thick mucus
Gan Jiang, Rou Gui, Hou Po, and Chen Pi stimulate and strengthen digestive function
Overall, Earth Pearls improves the condition of your digestion and gut biome. The gut biome is inextricably linked to the entire body’s health. It is very difficult to resolve a yeast infection, UTI or BV if the gut is not strong.
Many of my teachers liked to say, “If you don’t know what to do, treat the Earth” (meaning the digestive system). I have found this to be true, and Earth Pearls is always an excellent place to start.
When Dryness Isn’t Dry
With all this talk about herbs that dry Dampness, you might be wondering - are these herbs going to dry me out like a lizard sunbathing on a sandstone slab?
That’s a common concern, but you don’t need to worry. Dampness describes pathological fluid and metabolic waste. Healthy body fluids are not categorized as Dampness. In fact, an excess of Dampness will actually interfere with normal body fluids and often cause symptoms of dryness.
This can feel like a paradox, but consider Seborrheic dermatitis (SD), the main cause of dandruff. It is caused by Malesezzia yeast, and can result in redness and flaking on the face, scalp and body. It looks dry. But in fact - as you’ll know if you have ever suffered from it - moisturizing does not help! This condition is caused by Dampness - excess sugar, excess oils on the skin, maybe a frequently sweaty or wet scalp has allowed this little yeast to thrive. Now the skin, in an attempt to get rid of the unwanted passenger, started to slough off and there you have your dry-looking flakes. But Dampness is the cause all along, and aromatic, dampness drying herbs will resolve the issue.
Bacteria, Yeast and Fungus - Oh My!
Back to your question - how can Thunder and Earth Pearls treat bacterial infections, yeast overgrowth, and fungal infections?
We discussed the importance of environment - all those baddies love a damp swamp so we don’t let them have it.
But if that isn’t quite doing it for you, let’s think about it from a different angle.
As we’ve established, your body is an ecosystem. Your microbiome contains tens of thousands of distinct microbial species. From the study of ecology, we know that certain organisms thrive in similar conditions and they tend to band together. This is known as an ecological guild. (If you’re a gardener, you might know this concept as companion planting.) An ecological guild is a group of plants that grow well together. They’re buddies, and they co-create a beneficial environment for each other.
That all sounds positive when we’re talking gardening, but in the case of chronic infections, we are dealing with a guild of pathogenic organisms. E.coli, Candida, Gardnerella, Ureaplasma - they’re friends. Or maybe frenemies. Either way, they thrive in similar environmental conditions, and they work together to alter their environment (your body) to make sure it stays that way.
So, let’s say you’ve got a Ureaplasma (the culprit behind many cases of BV) infection that just won’t go away. When your doctor blasts it with a metric ton of clindamycin, it might take out most of the population. But it will never get 100% of it - that’s not how infections and populations work. It’s just supposed to get enough of it that your immune system takes over and keeps it in check.
But here’s the catch. When that Ureaplasma (or E.coli or Gardnerella) gets blasted, then there’s a wide open niche in the ecosystem.
Guess who fills it?
That’s right, another member of the guild of baddies. Candida is a common offender since it’s a yeast and unaffected by antibiotics. Candida thrives in the same disturbed ecosystem as those pathogenic bacteria, so it just moves in and expands its territory. It’s more aggressive than the members of the nice guild you’d like to take up residence (such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus, etc).
Now, since Candida is co-creating the same conditions that its bacterial brethren need, the pathogenic bacteria will often come right back.
If You Want to Grow a Garden, Don’t Salt the Earth
I want to take a minute to talk about common antifungal and antibacterial herbs you may be familiar with.
I have been harping on our body as an ecosystem, and the importance of creating the ‘terrain’ that encourages beneficial bacteria and yeast, rather than taking a slash and burn approach. In essence I’m talking about holistic medicine - considering your whole body system, not just isolating one invader and doing anything and everything to kill it.
Antifungal herbs like Pau D Arco and oregano oil are not holistic medicine.
It’s just substituting an herb in the place of a drug, using the same medical theory as Western medicine. It’s basic, linear, and reductionist.
Chinese herbal medicine uses a completely different approach, as you’ve seen in the design of the Thunder and Earth Pearls. When we improve the body’s condition and terrain, it’s harder for chronic infections to hang on - regardless of whether they are fungi, yeast or bacteria.
That’s holistic.
Speaking of Salt...SUGAR!
I started with the good news, which is that it’s very likely this approach can work for you if you’re dealing with chronic yeast infections, BV or UTIs.
Now we get to the...less fun news.
If you want to see long term success with keeping these infections away, you will probably have to limit sugar and carbohydrate intake to some degree. This can look very different depending on the person. I’ve worked with people who were already following the extremely restrictive Candida diet - basically eating just meat and vegetables and still couldn’t kick chronic yeast infections. Treatment with Thunder and Earth pearls got rid of the chronic infection and allowed them to return to a normal diet.
The challenge in discussing this is that “normal” is a meaningless word when it comes to diet!
For some people, eating candy and drinking soda every day is ‘normal’. If that’s you, you’re probably going to continue to have issues with fungal, bacterial and yeast infections - and eventually metabolic disease later in life.
But for the most part, after this protocol has a chance to balance out your system, you’ll be able to eat a moderate amount of carbohydrates and sweets and still not have problems. Everyone is different, but it is good to have an awareness of the connection between sugar consumption and the incidence of yeast, bacterial and fungal infections.
Mis-diagnosis and What I Don’t Expect This Protocol To Do
Before we wrap this up, I’d just like to say a few words about what this protocol doesn’t do. This may seem odd, but I am by no means claiming that Earth and Thunder Pearls are a cure-all - they just happen to be very good at treating certain things.
I have been talking a lot about yeast, fungus and bacteria. Some popular diagnoses that I see flying around lately are ‘candida overgrowth’ and ‘mold illness/toxicity’.
These are what I refer to as catch-all diagnoses. A ‘catch-all diagnosis’ is something you get when a doctor doesn’t know what to do with you. It can also be a self-diagnosis you have come up with for yourself after scouring the internet late into the night. There are a hundred websites saying Candida or mold exposure can be responsible for literally any symptom anyone could ever have.
Candida overgrowth and mold illness/mold toxicity are two of the six diagnoses that I can guarantee you’ll be labeled with if you see a functional medicine doctor long enough. (Candida, Epstein Bar virus, Chronic Lyme Disease, parasites, mold toxicity, and heavy metals make the entire list).
These are common problems, and you may indeed have one or two of them! We live in a moldy, tick-infested, virus-ridden world. But that doesn’t mean that they are causing your symptoms. This is a common logic failure in medicine: correlation vs. causation.
This is especially true if you’re dealing with very broad symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, or unexplained weight gain. These can be caused by many, many things, and Candida overgrowth and mold illness are not necessarily at the top of the list.
If you are experiencing symptoms like these, I still encourage you to schedule a consultation with me. We can talk in more detail and determine how to get you on the road toward feeling better. You may need a custom herbal formula to address your concerns.
Getting Started
If you are ready to leave your pesky and persistant symptoms in the rearview mirror, here are your next steps!
Classical Pearls formulas like Thunder and Earth are only available through licensed Chinese Medicine practitioners. Though initially this might sound like an arbitrary limitation, there is actually a very good reason for it.
Effective herbal medicine treatment requires two components: choosing the right herbs, and using the right dosage.
Without extensive study in Traditional Chinese Medicine, choosing the right herbs for yourself is hard. Heck, it’s still hard with extensive study.
Classical Pearls are strong formulas. It’s our responsibility as practitioners to make sure you are getting matched up with the right formulas for you so that a) it’s effective and b) you don’t inadvertently choose inappropriate formulas and make yourself feel worse.
Choosing the right dosage is the next essential step, and that requires an experienced practitioner’s guidance to get right.
To get started, schedule a consulation with me. If you want to learn more about my herbal clinic, visit the Folkwise Clinic page.
If Thunder and Earth pearls are right for you, we'll get you started right away. If I believe you will be better served with a. custom herbal formula or a different protocol, I will make that available to you.
Thanks for reading!
Sean Dugan, LAc
Sean Dugan L.Ac. is a licensed and board-certified herbalist and acupuncturist. He holds a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine as well as a Diplomate in Chinese Medicine from the NCCAOM. He has studied under many Master Herbalists including Dr. Guohui Liu, Dr. Jimmy Wei-Yin Chang, Dr. Fang Zhang, Dr. Greg Livingston, and Dr. Darren Huckle. Sean’s herbal medicine practice draws from both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Classical Chinese Medicine treatment methods, with a focus on clinical efficacy above all. He has been treating patients with Chinese Herbal Medicine since 2013.
Disclaimer:
The information in this article is based solely on my clinical experience and opinions. This information does not constitute a claim on the part of Classical Pearls that these products diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.
