Natural Treatments for UTI

Healthy living / Wednesday, October 9th, 2019

When I started feeling symptoms of my last urinary tract infection (UTI), I was manning a stall at an event away from home. The toilet breaks and drink breaks were few and I had to force myself to stand and smile for hours before a long drive home. Of course it worsened during the day and by the evening I was getting desperate. I jumped straight online to find anything and everything that could give me some relief!

But what did I find? Plenty of advice to avoid UTIs, but it was too late for that! How about advice for getting rid of UTIs? Well, in my rushed and desperate searching, I couldn’t find any reliable information that spelt out ways to treat an existing UTI naturally. In the end, I had to compile various sources of information into my own treatment programme. Here’s what I compiled.

First, I’m not going to go into what causes UTIs, what they are and their symptoms. There’s plenty of information about that online, but I recommend starting on Dr. Axe’s website. Now, to remedies!

Lifestyle Habits to Avoid UTIs

Okay, there is plenty of information about this and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but these lifestyle habits roll into what I used to naturally treat my UTI, so here they are:

  • Drink plenty of water and pee often to wash out bacteria, especially after intercourse.
  • General good hygiene down there. Wiping front to back.
  • Let it breathe. Tight clothing can trap moisture for bacteria to grow.
  • Drink cranberry juice. There’s no clear evidence that this works, but it’s cheap and yummy so why not?
  • Eat fresh garlic in/on things. It is antibacterial and antimicrobial.
  • Vitamin C makes urine acidic which bacteria doesn’t like, and it’s good for general health so make it a part of your regular supplementation anyway.
  • Take a good probiotic. These encourage a healthy balance of bacteria and some strains, such as Lactobacillus, help decrease risk of UTI. Plus probiotics have a range of of benefits for your health, from improving gut health to autoimmune health, so it’s another one that can be added to your daily routine.

When Symptoms Begin

Don’t wait for things to worsen! Once a UTI has taken root, take all the above to the next level, but it’s also time to start on natural antibiotics.

Make an antibiotic tea with these ingredients, or find your own way to ingest and as much as you can tolerate:

  • Cinnamon
  • Turmeric – ingested or made into a paste and used topically
  • Fresh ginger
  • Cardamom
  • Garlic
  • Manuka honey

Other things to add to your fluid intake:

  • Apple cider vinegar – add a tablespoon to your glass of water or drink bottle and drink throughout the day
  • Oregano oil – this is a contentious one as many will advise not ingesting essential oils, even diluted like mine, but I add a few drops to water or herbal tea (tulsi is a good tea as the herby flavours go well together). It is very strong so only use in small amounts!!
  • Aloe Vera – topically and ingested. Smoothie!
  • Baking soda – 1/2tsp mixed in water or used in a soak

Take a bath with these antibacterial essential oils or, if no bath is available, take a wide bucket/basin/tub into the shower and fill it up with water, add the essential oils and have a nice… well… sit in there.

  • Clove
  • Myrrh (it may stain your tub)
  • Tea tree and/or eucalyptus
  • Oregano, basil and/or thyme
  • Lavendar
  • Don’t forget the baking soda too!

I also recommend the following supplements:

  • Colloidal silver – swish a teaspoon around your mouth every few hours
  • Olive leaf extract
  • Grapefruit seed extract
  • Echinacea
  • Curry powder
  • Goldenseal

Other key things to boost your body’s ability to fight the infection are rest, sleep and to keep fueling your body with good nutritious food! If you are in discomfort, a warm compress can help.

If You Need Relief ASAP

If your symptoms don’t seem to be easing then don’t dilly dally – go straight to your GP and get antibiotics!! Although antibiotics are damaging for overall health, they are needed in some situations and this is one of them. You can also do your best to counteract the side effects of antibiotics whilst you are taking them. For tips on how to do this, check out my post Loving your Gut While on Antibiotics.

When is it time to go down the route of antibiotics rather than natural remedies? That’s a tough one to answer. Personally, I’d seriously consider antibiotics when there is definitely visible blood in my urine and the discomfort is constant, but really it comes down to your own intuition about your body!

When Symptoms Ease

Huzzah! What a relief! But don’t change a thing yet. Keep doing everything your doing for at least another fortnight – this step is really important to kill off every last bit of that bacteria and stop it coming back or traveling up your urinary tract to cause more serious issues. Also, if you aren’t already, consider some of those lifestyle habits to avoid this unpleasant situation from happening again.

A Cautionary Tale

Be warned! I am not a medical professional!!! This is just information I have compiled for myself, and I’m making it available for others to use as they please.

Also, I didn’t take my own advice in that last step. Like an idiot, I stopped taking my natural remedies immediately after the symptoms eased. Two weeks later, I came down with a high fever and was eventually hospitalised on intravenous antibiotics for an internal infection. Despite the timings, the doctors were not convinced it was a UTI further up my urinary tract as my symptoms were really quite mild and tests were not showing one.

I suspect the bacteria survived to create more havoc. But the remedies themselves did work! And, when my fever began, I started taking them all again which I think is why my symptoms were so mild. The day I was sent to hospital, I was starting to feel better and improved further during my 7 hours in a bed before the antibiotics started. Don’t get me wrong, I felt a lot better on the antibiotics too, but I still have faith in using natural remedies first.

For more on this saga, read my post Lessons from Hospital but, I’ll say it again, the main lesson is…

DO NOT STOP TAKING NATURAL REMEDIES WHEN SYMPTOMS EASE!

Just like with a course of antibiotics, you must continue with the remedies after the symptoms have gone to completely kill off the whole of the infection.

Do you have any other tips for people trying to naturally heal a UTI? Let me know!

Resources

The information I used to compile the lists above come from the following sources:

Leave a Reply