Recurrent Bladder Infections – What To Do

Many women suffer with recurrent bladder infections and find it hard to control this problem with antibiotics. The over use of antibiotics leads to more bladder infections and the problem becomes chronic often leading to interstitial cystitis. Women with interstitial cystitis have chronic pain in the area of the bladder (above the pubic bone) and have frequency and burning during urination.

The problem of recurrent cystitis is getting worse because the bacteria that cause these infections are increasingly resistant to the effect of the antibiotics – they just don’t work anymore!  Furthermore the antibiotics destroy the good bacteria in the intestines; this weakens the immune system leading to more bladder infections. If you have unhealthy bacteria in your bowel they will travel to the bladder and cause infections, and the cycle keeps repeating itself. Excessive use of antibiotics breeds resistant bacteria which are impossible to treat and eradicate.

It is important to know that around 40% (nearly half) of all bladder infections will resolve by themselves – in other words they go away without antibiotics. In women with recurrent urinary tract infections it is important to test the urine for bacteria and antibiotic sensitivity, and also to do an ultrasound scan of the urinary tract to visualise the kidneys, ureters and bladder; this way we can exclude kidney malformations, renal stones and tumours as causes of infection.

So what can be done to prevent and cure these recurrent bladder infections?

• Keep your immune system healthy with daily supplements of selenium, zinc, and vitamin C.
• Keep the population of bacteria (flora or microbiome) in your intestines healthy by consuming a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in sugar. Take a strong probiotic and eat fermented foods such as kefir, Greek yogurt, miso and sauerkraut etc. Avoid the premature use of antibiotics when you have a bladder infection.
• Drink plenty of water to flush the urinary tract out.
• Raw juices containing mint, parsley, citrus, ginger, carrot, celery and cucumber are very helpful to reduce urinary tract infections.
• A supplement containing D-Mannose and Cranberry can be taken daily to prevent bladder infections. Bacteria stick to the D-Mannose and Cranberry and are carried out of the bladder on these molecules in the urine. In other words they reduce the amount of bacteria in the urine.
• If you are post menopausal and have vaginal atrophy (thinning of the tissues) and dryness use a cream containing estrogen regularly; this will make the tissues in this area stronger iand more resistant to infection.

If you do get an attack of cystitis have a specimen of urine tested to see if it is really infected. You can ask your doctor to give you several pathology request forms for testing a urine sample and when an attack occurs, collect a specimen and drop it into your local pathology laboratory. If it is very severe and there is a lot of pain and burning and blood in the urine you can take one dose of the antibiotic and repeat another dose 6 hours later – this is usually enough to stop the attack and you do not need to take the whole course of antibiotic. This is less likely to destroy the good bacteria in your gut and less likely to breed resistant bacteria in your body.

An acute attack can often be controlled by drinking one litre of water over 30 minutes and taking 2000mg of vitamin C every 4 to 6 hours until symptoms resolve.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.