I know you’re here for good, factual information on the effectiveness of natural products in treating and preventing urinary tract disease, but please indulge me as I open with a bit of American cinema culture.

If you’ve seen the 90s blockbuster film The Green Mile, you’ll undoubtedly be able to recall the opening sequences that follow the battle between Paul Edgecomb, the character played by Tom Hanks, and a urinary tract infection. Eventually healed by the magical John Coffey, Paul is tormented by the infection, with his pain culminating in a scene that sees him fall to his knees in his backyard, screaming at the sky as he tries to pee through the pain.

Ouch.

A urinary tract infection is nothing to play with, typically requiring antibiotics in order to get it under control, but there are options for those who would prefer to use more natural means of healing. But before we delve into some of the simple natural remedies, let’s take a closer look at what exactly a urinary tract infection is.

source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hockeycrew/5788831884/sizes/z/

What is a Urinary Tract Infection?

Commonly referred to as a UTI, a urinary tract infection results from the collection of bacteria in the bladder, ureters, urethra, or kidneys. Typically of the E. coli variety, these bacteria invade the system responsible for creating urine and carrying it out of your body, the parts of which are collectively referred to as the urinary tract, causing a variety of nasty symptoms.

While there are a variety of ways to contract a UTI, with many different regions of the urinary tract at risk, the most common cause is germs that enter the body through the urethra, that final passageway that carries urine from the bladder to the exit located in your nether region. Once these bacteria have entered the urethra, they’re able to work their way upstream, potentially ending up in the kidneys if the infection is left untreated.

Women tend to be more susceptible to urinary tract infections than men, getting them more often and sometimes suffering more pronounced symptoms when they do, all due to the fact that women have far shorter urethras than men, giving bacteria easier access to the bladder. It is likely that sexual intercourse also has a greater chance of pushing material into the female urethra, though men are also more susceptible to unwanted urinary tract bacteria due to that act.

No matter your gender, though, the symptoms are similar, most of them closely associated with the act of urinating itself, like pain during urination, a false sense of needing to urinate, and urine that is cloudy, smells strongly, or contains blood. Less obvious are the potential stomach aches, fever, nausea, and pain in the kidneys themselves, but any combination of them is a sure sign that you’ve got an army of bacteria to fight.

Natural Remedies for a Urinary Tract Infection

After visiting a doctor, allowing them to have a look at your urine, and being diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, you’ll be prescribed with a course of antibiotics 99 percent of the time, and with good cause; UTIs are very treatable, and will disappear in a week or less with a round of antibiotics under most circumstances. Despite their effectiveness, though, antibiotics aren’t the only treatment available for a UTI.

While it’s important to note that allowing a urinary tract infection to get out of control can lead to serious trouble in the kidneys, there are natural remedies that can help you to nip the problem in the bud by getting the rogue bacteria responsible for the infection under control – just be sure to consult your doctor if you aren’t improving within 48 hours or so.

Baking Soda

A simple way to help your body to work against a UTI is to push baking soda through the urinary tract itself, neutralizing the acidity of your urine and giving the natural antibiotics in your body a boost in their war on the bacteria in your urethra.

The easiest way to consume baking soda for this purpose is to add a tablespoon into an eight ounce glass of water, stirring it to dissolve as much of it as possible, then consuming the full glass. You can repeat this up to three times daily if you find it to be effective in reducing symptoms.

Vitamin C

Taking an approach opposite that of baking soda, consuming enough vitamin C can make your urine so very acidic that bacteria simply can’t exist within it or the area it resides in, from the bladder to the very tip of the urethra. While not nearly as sure a fix as common antibiotics, vitamin C is becoming more popular with doctors as a treatment for urinary tract infections, generally being prescribed in the range of 5,000 mg or more per day.

Do note that acidifying the urine to this degree can have side effects, depending on the state of your health, and that means that you should never take it upon yourself to take extremely high levels of vitamin C without first consulting your doctor.

UTI Prevention: The Best Medicine

Getting an existing urinary tract infection out of the way is all well and good, but obviously we’d all prefer that they didn’t occur to begin with. Here are a few natural ways to prevent them from ever rearing their ugly heads:

Water

Given that your urinary tract is the pathway taken by your urine, flooding your system with water is a useful way to keep things moving at all times, discouraging bacteria of any kind from setting up shop. Studies show that people who drink 64 ounces of water each day – the amount recommended by most doctors – are up to 40 percent less likely to develop a urinary tract infection than those who don’t, yet another in a long list of reasons to be sure that you drink lots of water every single day.

Blueberries and Cranberries

Full of antioxidants and known for their other healthy offerings, both blueberries and cranberries have been shown to help prevent the onset of urinary tract infections. The latest research shows that both of those berries have a low-level antibiotic effect that helps to destroy bacteria that attempt to reside in your bladder.

While neither has been proven to be very effective after the fact, drinking a glass of cranberry juice or eating blueberries every day is a sure way to help protect yourself against a UTI.

Conclusion

Given just how common bacterial infections are in the human body, we’re all well-equipped to take care of a urinary tract infection using natural means almost all of the time, but that doesn’t mean that you should let things get out of hand while you wrestle with finding the remedy that works for you.

Going the natural route is a wonderful thing and a worthy endeavor, but never underestimate the raw power of modern science; if you’ve ever put off antibiotics for an infection that you ended up failing to defeat naturally, you’ll surely remember that strong sense of relief when prescribed antibiotics quickly got to work after days of pain and frustration.

No matter which path you take in preventing and treating urinary tract infections, always be aware of your body and always be committed to pursuing the healthiest course of action, as the situation demands!