KIDNEY INFECTIONS
A regular Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) or as the old wives tale would call it a kidney infection, this mostly means there is bacteria in the urine and or in the urinary tract. Symptoms are usually needing to pee very often, cant hold urine due to pain, pain in ovary areas, or pelvis, strange mell off urine. Cystitis can also occur. This feels like peeing broken glass.
The GPs take a sample of your urine and use a dipstick to see if you have white cells in the urine which shows the infection. Sometimes broad spectrum antibiotics are used like AUGMENTIN to kill the infection. But it is better to get the urine sample sent to the hospital laboratory for them to grow the bacteria in a culture to find out exactly what is growing there and then treat it with a very specific antibiotic like Macrodantin or Trimethoprim. It is important to ask the doctor can you get your urine cultured, yes it may mean you wont get an antibiotic for a further day or two, but at least it will be specific to the microbe growing there and not a broad spectrum one that will kill off everything including all the helpful microbes that are doing such a great job protecting your kidneys.
I for example have gotten many UTI or kidney infections as a child an adult and later learned it was nearly always the microbe Klebsiella Pnemonia and it is treated with a specific antibiotic called Macrodantin or Trimethoprim which is a special UTI antibiotic and it doesnt kill off all the microbes in your gut for example, it only works on the urinary tract. Know that it is normal for your urinary tract to be covered in bacteria. Know that you usually havent picked up the infection from a toilet seat or sexual partner, it is usually your own bodies helpful bacteria growing out of control due to environmental changes in the UT.
Those bacteria normally are doing a great job protecting you from the bad yeasts and bad bacterial overgrowth in the UT. It is only when your immune defences fall down or when the PH of the urinary tract changes that the levels of example Klebsiella grow and cause the pain and symptoms. This is why it is so important to use fragrance free pads, tampons, wipe from front to back only after the loo and not use any sprays or deodorants in that area. RELACT tubes are excellant for restroring the normal commensal lactobacillus in the vagina, got in Boots chemists and others and it rebalances the vaginal flora after antibiotics and helps prevent further infections.
D Mannose which is a simple sugar, cranberry extract is excellant at preventing further UTIs. GPs or Urology Consultants may not know about it as is considered as a food supplement but i have patients who swear by it. There are also specific probiotics on the market now for UTIs so maybe good to try those if getting repeat UTI infections. There are other probiotics for the bladder and the vagina, and its very helpful so you keep the right healthy bacteria by getting the microbe accurately cultured you can then find the correct probioticI use neutraceutical grade probiotics for my patients these are up to 450 times higher than whats available. Contact me for consultation to find the right treatment for you.
Also if you have a elderly parent getting UTIs frequently, try ask their doctor or buy the above. UTIs in patients with Dementia cause them to loose their balance and become more confused and the above work so well to keep UTIs away. Often old people are put on low dose antibiotics all the time to keep infection at bay but this does no favours to the gut microbiome which should be treasured not killed with antibiotics!
Interstitial cystitis is a very low grade infection in the bladder which actually becomes part of the bladder wall so you get little colonies of bacteria growing inside the bladder wall and thats where it gets its name interstitial so instead of just being just called a UTI. Often interstitial cystitis is misdiagnosed, samples are sent off to the lab but they are reported by the laboratory as being full of normal commensal bacteria or also be come back marked as contaminated and samples are then disregarded and repeated. The lab needs to do a salt test on the sample, look at it under a microscope, and know that they’re looking for interstitial cystitis and the right antibiotic has to be prescribed depending on what’s been identified. Women with interstitial cystitis often have MCAS. Maintain it with a low histamine diet.
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Have a gut week
Fiona
