Are you suffering with recurrent water/urine infections? I see this so often and it drives me mad that just generic antibiotics are usually shoved at patients with no real testing as to what is actually needed.
Almost one in three women will have at least one urinary tract infection by the time they are 24 and almost half of all women will experience one at some point. That’s huge! And other than antibiotics, not much seems to be done about it. Most UTIs are in the bladder (cystitis) and urethra (urethritis).
UTI Symptoms
The main symptoms are:
- Pain when going for a wee (dysuria)
- Frequent small wees
- Needing to go urgently
Less commonly, you can also get:
- Pelvic pain
- Cloudy, strong-smelling urine
- Blood (hematuria)
Elderly patients can sometimes get confusion and neurological symptoms too – and this is a sign maybe of a leaky blood brain barrier.
Always keep your eye out for kidney infections. If you experience any of these, please speak to your GP: back pain, fever or chills, nausea, vomiting or increased heartbeat.
What Causes UTIs?
90% of UTIs are caused by E Coli bacterial infection that probably comes from the gut, but 10% of them are caused by other bacterial species, yeast/candida or viruses. I find citrobacter and klebsiella quite often in UTI problems. Urine is actually sterile itself so it has to come from somewhere!
It’s mostly women who get UTIs, basically because our anatomy makes us more vulnerable – our urethra is much shorter than men’s so it’s easy for bacteria and nasties to travel up into it and on to the bladder. But men do get it – and it’s then more called urethritis. Make sure there is nothing structurally causing infections like being unable to empty the bladder enough so bacteria can pool and fester. That might involve some kind of ultrasound or scan.
Hormones have a lot to answer for too. A drop in oestrogen at menopause makes us more vulnerable because the bladder and urethra lining thins, shrinks and dries. Lovely. Excess progesterone in pregnancy or at any time can slow motility of the urinary system and urine can pool or be slow to move through. And lower testosterone can affect the pelvic floor muscles and bladder sphincter tightness.
Vaginal and gut bacterial imbalance can cause it, and low SIgA, your mucosal immune antibody, can mean you don’t fight it off as well as you might. You can read more about this here.
Also, devices like the coil and chemicals that irritate the area won’t help.
Home Test For UTIs
Happily, you can do a home test Urinary Ecologix. The point is to see what is causing the infection so that targeted treatment can be given.
Our Urinary EcologiX™ test has been specifically designed to investigate the females’* urinary microbiome by looking at the microbiota, both key commensals and pathogens associated with urinary conditions.
Using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), this test provides an accurate analysis of the microbiota abundance in the female* urinary bladder, using the microbial DNA. Using this method we are able to get a read on the commensal bacteria in the urinary bladder, as well as pathobiont and pathogenic bacteria.
Proper collection of urine samples for microbiome analysis is key in order to reduce contamination from the skin and vaginal species. To ensure proper collection the Urinary EcologiX uses an easy-to-use, clean-catch mid-stream urine collection device allowing for a more accurate representation of microbiota residing in the urinary tract.
*assigned female at birth
Invivo
UTI Natural Treatment
Follow the usual hygiene rules of wearing breathable knickers (no synthetics), wiping front to back, before and after sex and drinking enough water daily. Eat a good healthy diet with plenty of veg, but avoid things like non-organic chicken and pork, which can be a source of E Coli, and coffee, which contracts the bladder muscles and slows the flushing out.
Eat plenty of pumpkins seeds, which are known to help bladder health generally. These are really high in zinc and, in Germany, pumpkin seed extract is officially approved for the treatment of irritable bladder. Many supplements contain pumpkin oil, but studies suggest the water soluble extract of pumpkin seeds (the Cucurbita pepo type) can really help too. I suspect part of the way they work is that the zinc improves testosterone levels and aids mucosal tissue health – your bladder is mucosal tissue. The pumpkin seed extract also helps increase nitric oxide, which you need for relaxing bladder tissue – not enough and it can become overactive. This is a good mix of the water soluble extract and isoflavones – see re hormones below.
If you are a regular UTI sufferer, get the test done and then take whatever is needed from your GP to clear it. You can see alternatives to antibiotics here if needed. Garlic might be a wise choice – more in your diet and as supplements.
However, also then replenish your urinary microbiome (bacterial balance) so that you are less likely to get it again. Many people miss this and then wonder why it keeps happening. The urinary microbiome is closely linked to whatever is going on in the gut and vaginal microbiomes too. What happens in the gut doesn’t stay in the gut! So, Invivo have brought out a supplement to address these, which you can get here: Bio-Me UT. When taking antibiotics, wait 2-3 hours before taking any probiotic.
Also, get some D Mannose – it is great for prevention and treatment of UTIs if you catch it early. Study here, supplement here. Most women don’t take enough. You can go up to 6g per day (2g, 3 x day) as soon as you feel something starting until symptoms come down, and then maintain at 1-2g per day, or however much you need to achieve that. Leave for 1 minute. Stir and take on an empty stomach.
A different way to take it is 500mg every two to three hours for five days. And it’s a good idea to continue for a few days after symptoms have gone, just to make sure.
An alternative to D Mannose is Uva Ursi at 500-1,000mg standardized to 20% arbutin 3-4 x day. In some cases, I find one works better than the other, which is why I am giving options.
If the D Mannose or Uva ursi doesn’t help, definitely test. Most UTIs are caused by E Coli, as we said, but about 10% are a different bacteria, or even candida or a virus. If your test shows any these families are positive – Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, Listeria, Bacillus and Clostridium, or it is viral – then use Lauric Acid. It basically blocks the cells from replicating and dissolves the outer biofilm so the immune system can get at it. It also works on viruses.
If the infections are still recurring, then you may need more biofilm help. The biofilm essentially forms a sort of envelope so the immune system can’t get at infections, which is why antibiotics often don’t work. Different biofilm supplements seem to work for different infections. Two good ones are this one, that contains some lauric acid and other known biofilm disruptors, or this one which is more proteolytic enzyme-based. You can use both or rotate them, see what works for you.
One the infection is under control, I would do some repair work on your mucosal membranes – the bladder lining is a mucosal surface. It’s a bit like leaky bladder, if you like. Take some MegaMucosa, although not if you have candida as glutamine can feed that. In that case, deal with the candida too – see the Candida Plan.
Kidney Tea is also a good to use as a preventative.
Interstitial Cystitis
OK, so you’ve done all that and you’re still getting pain even without the UTIs, aargh! Check for other infections, as above, don’t assume it is E Coli. Or, it could be IC, interstitial cystitis, which is basically when the nerves in the urinary tract have become sensitised to pain. An inflammatory, allergic sort of reaction can start happening then to whatever is passing through, including food and chemicals. It is likely that mast cells are overactive in that area and could be behind it, so using a mast cell stabiliser can help. You can read more about this here. Try the Histo-X I have written about there, and take enough of it. Or, simple Quercetin might be enough.
I have also found that gluten sensitivity is a major part of many IC cases so do look into that too – non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, not just coeliac disease, note. You can read more about this here.
The MegaMucosa above could also be really helpful for you because it helps to heal the urinary tract walls.
You simply don’t have to keep suffering. And if you do, let’s check out your gut and vaginal tracts too and see where it’s coming from! See the Infections Tests for how to do that.
Truly hope that helps!
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