In this article I’m going to share with you my top 2 home remedies for urine infections that will hopefully allow you to treat your UTI at home and prevent them from ever coming back!
But first, it seems as if more and more people are getting UTIs.
According to Scott Hultgren who is a microbiologist from Washington State University, St. Louis….”Urinary tract infections are one of the most common infectious diseases in the United States. They affect something like 15 million women a year [with] 1.5 million recurrences.”
Bladder infections aren’t just something Americans have, there are around 400 million UTIs per year and those stats seem to be rising.
My goal with these articles and radio show that I’ve been doing since 2012, is to share with you actual causes and actual remedies to common health conditions..
We don’t have to go to the doctor every time our body starts sending us signals that something is wrong. Doctors don’t have all the answers (even though they act like they do). In fact doctors can be very dangerous.
My approach to healing diseases naturally is to take responsibility for your own actions and your own health.
For example we ought to find out what we did to cause a bladder infection and do the research to provide the necessary conditions to heal it with alternative and holistic approaches.
If we cannot, or don’t have the patience for home remedies to work, then by all means I’d go see a doctor.
I like working with the body in alignment with nature first. Then seek out medical care if I have to.
With that in mind, let’s find out…
What Causes Bladder Infections?
The terms bladder infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs) and cystitis are all interchangeable. If your bladder infection is caused by bacteria, we now know that 90% of those cases are caused by a bacteria called E. coli.
Most women with bladder infections have them because their microbiome and pH levels are not in balance, which causes the E.coli bacteria to proliferate and adhere to the surface lining of the entire urinary tract.
But for other women there could more causes to urinary tract infections like…
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Staphylococcus saprophyticus
- Constipation (resulting in bacteria traveling from the colon to the urinary tract)
- Dehydration
- Diabetes (high sugar in the urine)
- Delayed bladder emptying (“holding it”)
- Birth control (use of spermicides or hormone shifts caused by birth control)
- Nervous spasm of the urinary passage from pain, injuries, and surgical operations
- Inflammation from neighboring parts (e.g., gonorrhea, infections of the sexual organs in women)
- Certain foods, water, and drinks (e.g., large amounts of alcohol)
- Drugs (e.g., turpentine or cantharides applied externally or given internally)
- Exposure to cold in susceptible persons
- External blows and injuries
- Bladder stones
- Foreign bodies
- Tumors
- Tuberculosis
- Bladder paralysis (preventing complete emptying of the bladder)
Dangers of Conventional Treatments
What people don’t know when it comes to antibiotic (anti life) medication is that they have the ability to kill entire strains of bacteria. This means by volume, your may have 100 trillion bacterial organisms (some good, some bad) in your digestive tract but only 400 different strains or species.
This is why you want to focus on remedies you can do in your own home for urine infections so you don’t ever have to take antibiotics.
When one strain is eliminated, think of it like an endangered animal that finally gets wiped out.
Now the predator to that animal has to find another food source. And what happens to the prey of that “extinct animal” they’re allowed to proliferate. This creates an imbalance in the whole ecosystem.
The same is true inside our colon, large intestine and small intestine.
Antibiotics can literally kill entire strains of bacteria which you cannot ever get back, unless you do fecal implants from children who were never vaccinated, breastfed from healthy moms and never had antibiotics themselves.
This can get complicated but people are restoring their health by doing them. But I’d rather not have you go down this path.
Just know that every time you take an antibiotic, you are weakening your immune system slowly over time. You’re going to need your immune system to be strong when you’re older.
Here’s a list of some of the common antibiotics that are normally prescribed for women dealing with bladder infections. I’d much rather share with you home remedies for urine infections so you don’t have to take unnecessary antibiotics.
- Nitrofurantoin: A first-line antibiotic for uncomplicated UTIs, taken orally twice daily for 5 to 7 days
- Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole: A first-line antibiotic for uncomplicated UTIs, taken orally twice daily for 3 days
- Fosfomycin: A first-line antibiotic for uncomplicated UTIs, taken as a single oral dose
- Cephalexin: A commonly prescribed antibiotic that prevents bacterial growth and relieves UTI symptoms
- Ciprofloxacin: An antibiotic taken orally twice daily for 7 to 14 days
- Levofloxacin: An antibiotic that can treat bladder infections caused by susceptible bacteria
How to Prevent Urinary Tract Infections
The first and most easiest thing to recommend is to drink lots of high quality filtered water (with minerals added if you can). This promotes urination but also prevents the E.coli. bacteria from proliferating to the extent that they can attach to the walls of your urinary tract.
Avoiding processed foods and grains is also going to be very high on your list. If you notice, you’ll probably get a UTI when you over indulge in these types of foods. These cause mold, fungus, yeast and bacteria to grow which then alters pH and causes E.coli to proliferate.
Add some cranberry to your diet or take them as supplements. It turns out that women who consumed cranberry on a regular basis were 38% less likely to even get a UTI. And there was a 51% lowered risk of contracting a bladder infection if you took cranberry on a regular basis.
The addition of a high quality Vitamin C can be very powerful in preventing urinary tract infections. I recommend this to people all the time and they say as long as they’re taking 500mg to 1000mg of vitamin c per day, they never get a bladder infection.
I would also invest in a high quality probiotic like the one I use from Mitolife called Flora-Form.
2 Home Remedies For Urine Infections
D-Mannose
You’ve probably talked to people at the health food store or been in online forums where people talk about D-mannose and how it can be a really effective home remedy for urine infections. It can but you have to know how to take it, and take the right amounts for the right amount of time.
How does D-mannose work?
D-mannose works by preventing E. coli bacteria, which causes from the research I’ve read about 90% of all bladder infections, from sticking to your bladder walls (in both men and women!). If you have E.coli and you take D-mannose, the loose molecules of D-mannose surround and coat each E. coli bacterium, preventing them from adhering to the bladder.
When you go pee, the D-mannose-coated E. coli are rinsed away, effectively eliminating the infection. In my opinion this method is quicker and much safer than using antibiotics, as it does not kill the bacteria or induce antibiotic resistance or kill entire strains of good microflora.
Generally for adults the recommended dosage is 2,000mg four to five times per day, until the symptoms are gone. Usually I’ve found this is about 4 or 5 days and bam, you’re done!
Potassium Iodide (SSKI – Bernard’s Solution)
If you’ve taken the D-Mannose as well as the vitamin c, probiotics and nothing has helped. Then it’s possible you have a urinary infection that’s NOT caused by E.coli. That’s about 10% of women. In this case, I always recommend taking SSKI (Super Saturated Potassium Iodide).
Just note this is potassium iodide not potassium iodine.
There are two main places I get SSKI are here and here.
SSKI (saturated solution of potassium iodide) is in my opinion extremely effective in eliminating bladder infections due to its really powerful germ-killing properties. It works by delivering a high concentration of iodide, which helps to eradicate the bacteria causing the infection.
The recommended dosage for treating bladder infections is 10 to 15 drops of SSKI in water or juice (mind you it does not taste good!) every three to four hours while awake, continuing this regimen until the infection is gone. However, it is important to use SSKI with caution due to the relatively high dose required.
I generally recommend doing a 3 to 5 day push of SSKI and if you see no improvement work with your doctor. There has been some evidence that prolonged usage (several weeks to a month) of high dose SSKI *may* suppress thyroid function. In most cases it does not and should not have any adverse affect on thyroid for 3 to 5 days.
Dietary Considerations
As I mentioned before, avoid dehydration (make sure to drink lots of filtered water) and avoid processed foods, carbohydrates and sugar. I bet you anything that prior to having the symptoms of a UTI you had a diet high in processed foods. Eliminating these alone could be one of the top home remedies for urine infections.
If I had a bladder infection, I would follow a more carnivore, paleo or ketogenic type of diet while taking the D-mannose I mentioned above. You’ll probably find the combination of dietary restrictions and supplements to be very very effective and getting rid of your bladder infection naturally and holistically.
Conclusion
I’ve never seen anybody who has had to go to antibiotics by following these simple home remedies for urine infections…
- Avoid processed foods, sugars, dairy and carbohydrates
- Following a meat based diet
- Drinking high quality filtered water
- Taking D-mannose (2,000mg four to five times per day)
- Adding – Vitamin C, Probiotics and Cranberry daily
- SSKI if the above doesn’t work
Questions:
- How often do you get bladder infections?
- What symptoms do you normally have?
- What helps to get rid of them naturally?
Comment below.