(NSFW) Is it possible to stop a UTI in its tracks without having to go to the doctors?

Can you go to a naturopath? I have just started seeing one. Haven’t had to go to him for a UTI yet so the only answer I have for you is cranberry juice. (No sugar or other fruit juice added.)
You might find “this article helpful.

I second the cranberry juice.

I third it.

Personally, I have “treated” my own UTIs and bladder infections by taking cranberry pills and drinking concentrated, pure cranberry juice. Not cranberry juice cocktail, but the pure cranberry juice. It usually works for me, unless it’s gotten severe and heading into a kidney infection. I’m so prone to bladder problems that I now take three-five cranberry pills each day as a preventative.

No, if you have a UTI, you need antibiotics.

UTI’s can often clear up by themselves. Numerous studies have shown that cranberry juice makes no difference to the length of time it takes for a UTI to clear up although there is some evidence it can reduce the risk of getting a UTI in women who suffer recurrent UTI’s. If it’s not getting better in a couple of days you probably should see your doc for some antibiotics.

Jepson RG, Williams G, Craig JC. Cranberries for preventing urinary tract infections. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012, Issue 10. Art. No.: CD001321. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001321.pub5

Jepson RG, Mihaljevic L, Craig JC. Cranberries for treating urinary tract infections. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1998, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD001322. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001322.

There are several articles in respectable sites about the relationship between cranberries and UTI. From what I read, it seem to be useful in reducing the frequency of infection.

Drink a ton of water. Just down a full 8-oz glass or two as frequently as you can stand it and then some more. Keep it up all day. (You’ll be peeing a lot. That’s the point.)

You can get it to back off that way, but it may still hang around and flare up again. That’s been my experience. I’m not a medical professional, just an experienced patient.

Cranberry juice is a good preventive. If it works as a treatment once you’ve got it, I don’t know about that.

If you have a UTI you will most likely need antibiotics. But, before you run to the doctor, or call him, if it was me I would drink a lot of water, don’t have any spicy food, or acidy foods, and see if you feel better in two days. You may not have a UTI you may have just irritated your bladder or have cramping in the area. If it gets worse, I would assume it is a UTI, even if it is just a few hours from now. Also, drinking a lot of water can mask the discomfort, so slow down on the water in a couple days and make sure you are really better if you were starting to feel better.

Don’t wait days and days hoping some natural method will cure it.

This is such a weird question. If I were to ask:

“I’ve got this bridge on my property that’s about to collapse are there any home remedies that can shore it up structurally? I really hate dealing with engineers, so something I could easily implement myself would be great!”

People would rightly question my sanity. Go see a doctor—that’s what they’re for. If you don’t like your particular doctor, you should find one that you do like. Feeling like you can see a health professional when you have a problem is critical for living a long and healthy life. As others have pointed out, a UTI can develop into a serious kidney infection if not treated.

I really hate cranberry juice, so I usually just drink a lot of water.

@gorillapaws It gets old going to the doctor and they can’t find what’s wrong or have no real remedy for whatever pain is going on. I don’t mean the OP in this case, like I said I wouldn’t wait more than a couple days personally, but for every twinge, running to the doctor does not work well in my experience. The engineer will for sure be able to remedy the bridge problem, not true with a lot of medical problems.

I second that one, @JLeslie I’ve spent more wasted more money at various doctors’ offices than I care to count. Invariably I come back with a non-solution, or a prescription for something that turns out not to work anyway.

Best bet is learn to take care of yourself (preventing illness in the first place). In the meantime, if you drink lotsa lotsa water and take cranberry supplements you might throw it off without you having to do the doctor thing.

I understand your point, @gorillapaws, but I don’t think that’s quite analogous. To me it seems more like asking “Is there something I can do if my drain is running slow? I’d rather not call a plumber if I don’t have to.” There’s nothing wrong with the basic engineering, but there can still be various kinds of obstructions. Maybe it’s a Roto-Rooter problem and not a plumbing problem. Can we flutherfolk diagnose it from here? Probably not. However, we might have some suggestions that would do no harm and could help in the short term. Ultimately, if it’s a tree root growing through a sewer line, a dose of Drano isn’t going to help.

I also think (generally speaking) that modern medicine, health insurance programs, and media advertising have given us the false notion that if there’s something wrong with us, some physical distress or discomfort, we simply shouldn’t have that and are entitled to relief and a cure. I’m all for relief and cures, but I definitely do not think that every little undesirable experience means that somebody owes us something. If we can take care of a problem intelligently and responsibly ourselves, why not do it?

I’d recommend going to the doctors. I’ve had a complicated UTI for 3.5 months now. Plus I went on the same day. So it is better to be careful you can just phone as well and they will prescribe antibiotics. Take a probiotic with the course.

@gorillapaws , a naturopath IS a doctor.

^^ Absolutely.

UTI’s are well understood. They are bacterial infections and are treated with antibiotics. If not properly treated they can develop serious complications. I’m not advocating seeing a doctor for every itch or cough, but for something like this, it’s silly not to see a doctor.

Regarding naturopaths and other alternative stuff, I don’t see how mystic vital energies are related to killing bacterial infections. If you want to rub magic rocks on your vagina, or eat fruit/herbs/roots from some exotic plant, that’s fine, but you should probably be taking a medicine that’s been proven safe and effective in well-controlled, large double-blinded clinical testing as well. Because of the risk of complication, I think a UTI should be taken more seriously than more benign conditions.

From @Lightlyseared‘s links it seems like cranberry juice has clinically proven preventative effects. That sounds great. I’m for anything safe that works better than a placebo. It also doesn’t seem to treat an active outbreak (because cranberries aren’t antibiotics).

Actually, @gorillapaws I’m not totally against conventional medicine. I’m going to a complimentary (holistically oriented) medical doctor. I’ve gone to conventional doctors for almost 60 years, but I had to go to this guy to be diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning, and a parasite. Nobody conventional doctor was interested in helping me. So far, we’ve gotten rid of the parasite with antibiotics, and now we’re working on the heavy metals, and we’re working on other issues as well.

I will mention that there are unscrupulous alternative doctors who will tell you that you have a parasite or heavy metal poisoning without actually doing the tests. I’ve had the tests done. I don’t hold much with mystic nonsense either. I’m interested in verifiable results, which I am getting.

You sound like you don’t know much about alternative medicine (rubbing magic rocks on your vagina???!!!) Oh my!

Thanks, everyone, for your responses!!

Drinking lots of water seems to be helping out a lot. I drank as much as I could today, at specific intervals, and my urine has cleared up significantly and the pain is almost all gone. I bought some cranberry juice today and I’ll start on it tomorrow; hopefully it’ll do the trick. I’m going to give this thing another day or two and if it’s not all gone in those two days, then I’ll certainly go see the doc.

@Jeruba I’m of the same school of mind, I don’t like running to the doctor for every little ache and pain. I like to at least try taking care of it myself if I know what it is. If everything fails, then I’ll pay the doctor a visit. Hopefully this will be all gone by tomorrow or the next day!

@gorillapaws Thanks for the input, but your analogy doesn’t really hold. I’m very aware of what can happen if a UTI goes untreated. Believe me, I’m not taking this lightly. But if there’s a way to take care of it myself before running to the doctor’s office, then I’ll certainly give that a try first.

@gorillapaws , a naturopath can prescribe antibiotics if the feel its necessary.

@snowberry I’m happy you found a competent medical doctor you trust. I’ll be the first to say that not all doctors are good at what they do. And no doctor is perfect, that is for sure. I’m also happy to hear you’ve finally got a correct diagnosis and treatment that’s been effective for you. That’s obviously the most important thing.

Regarding your theory about my lack of knowledge about alternative medicine, I am pretty familiar with it. There’s a great book on the subject Trick or Treatment that is highly regarded. Also Science based medicine is a great resource for learning more about alternative medicine.

@gorillapaws I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree. I’m fine with that. Regardless of their qualifications, you are going off of someone else’s opinion of what is so. I’m going on personal experience.

By following my gut and going with alternative health professionals, So far I’ve managed to avoid several cesarean sections, several other surgeries both minor and major, several unneeded MRI’s, many unnecessary prescriptions, some with nasty side effects, undue trauma, and that’s just the short list.

Living long term with that parasite and the heavy metals was not outright killing me, but it was dragging down my immune system, and along with other issues, for many years my quality of life has not been what it could have been. I was being set up for a catastrophic illness, and I am certain that if I had stayed with conventional medicine, I never would have been properly diagnosed and treated. My alternative doctor and I are addressing all that. If I had read your book and believed it, I would never have received a proper diagnosis or treatment. That right there is HUGE and makes my point so eloquently! Yes I am paying big money out of pocket, but it’s worth every penny.

I’m not saying that there are not charlatans in the alternative health field. However, in my opinion and experience, there are far more charlatans in conventional medicine. It’s just not polite to call them that because they are so popular, and they make big money abusing and fleecing our population.

Here’s what works for me. Cranberry pills and mixing 2 teaspoons of baking soda in warm water. It tastes like shit, but I swear it really works. I usually do that 3–4 times a day.

That would really help, @Katniss, but keep in mind that baking soda depletes B-vitamins. It’s best to take B supplements for quite a while to build yourself back up, and I’d reduce the amount of baking soda. My doc told me to take a teaspoon in water once a week, but that was just to get the pH of my gut back to normal. Two teaspoons in water 3 times a day is still an awful lot. More is not always better. :)

Anyone here who swears a home remedy works ever actually had a test confirming infection and then clear it up with a home remedy I doubt it. The majority of the time stories of clearing up a UTI just with water or cramberry juice or baking soda were just bladder irritations and not infections would be my bet.

@gorillapaws It’s not true. Doctors don’t diagnose UTI’s all the time. People suffer with IC and are given antibiotics and the doctors have no idea what infection they are treating or if for sure there is an infection or not. Many doctors never bother to check for ureaplasma or other mycoplasmas so cultures come back negative, but there is evidence that treating those if present can relieve chronic irritation, although hard to know for sure if they are actually treating the mycoplasma or possibly something else not detected. I don’t think that will be the case in this OP’s situation, but your idealism about medicine leads me to believe you are a young healthy male. I don’t know your age, I am not sure of your gender, but I will say that if you are not a young healthy male, then you have been extremely lucky all of your life to have straight forward illness when you have been sick, and good doctors around you.

@JLeslie Many years ago I had a horrible ear infection (I couldn’t sleep because of the pain and ringing in my ears). My MD kept prescribing antibiotics for it, and each time they were stronger ones. Finally I realized that this guy had no clue what he was doing, while my health was going to suffer big time for his “help”. I ended up in a naturopath’s office. He performed 2 small procedures in the office, and sent me home with a number of supplements. I began to feel better the same day, and was mostly over the infection in a week.

@snowberry You still went to a doctor who I assume had some evidence for the procedure and recommendations he gave you. I am not against “natural” remedies, just to clarify. Aspirin is derived from tree bark, now we make a synthetic form, but nature provided the fever reducing, inflammation reducing, pain reducing, and blood thinning qualities of the medication we take.

Was an infection ever confirmed for your ear? A culture? Did the naturopath say he believed it was an infection also?

As far as the UTI, anyone who has one for several days probably isn’t fighting it well. I have had a lot of GYN problems and for many years mild UTI symptoms. My UTI symptoms finally went away after mega dose IV of antibiotics given to me not for the urethral irritation I had, I just got lucky.

Anyway, what would be interesting would be for someone who gets a lot of UTI’s to confirm the infection and then treat it on their own and know for sure they really did cure one. There must be studies where that has been done with some of these “home” remedies. The baking soda is actually interesting, I never heard it before, because I am assuming it changes the pH. Does it actually change the pH by the time it gets down to the kidneys, bladder and urethra? I don’t know. What I have read about cranberry juice is studies show it can help prevent, but it doesn’t do well at battling an already existing infection.

@JLeslie I’ve never yet been to any doctor, conventional or otherwise, who has performed a culture on anything, and I’ve been to a lot of doctors. But there definitely was an infection there, and both doctors confirmed it. My ear drums were about to explode.

@snowberry Yeah, I have never heard if a doctor confirming an ear infection with a culture either. When antibiotics work we can be pretty sure it was an infection. Certainly we can have an infection and a particular antibiotic doesn’t work. I think we can’t be 100% sure you had an infection, but I also definitely think you could have.

My problem in my life has been the opposite to be honest. Doctors saying there is no infection when there is one.

@JLeslie Yes, they are good at that, aren’t they?

@snowberry Very good, especially when they easily can do a culture. Then when nothing turns up they say there is no proof of infection. But, Chlamydia was considered nornal flora up until about 40 years ago and Lymes disease, most ulcers, and rheumatic heart disease were considered more of a rheumatological problem where the body was doing the wrong thing and attacking itself, but now we know it is infection. Now doctors believe it because they have proof, but the infection was there even without the proof. Many doctors prefer to believe that the relief some patients get from antibiotics for chronic problems is not because they have an infection, but because the antibiotic has an antiinflammatory property. I disagree with that idea.

@JLeslie More than a few times I have asked my doctor for a culture to make sure I’d be getting the right antibiotic. Nothing doing.

@snowberry Anaerobic bacterias are very hard to grow. Also, many infections it is easy to make an educated guess and they just use a broad spectrum antibiotic and it usually works. It’s frustrating, I agree. For my problem doctors want to still culture me and I don’t want to pay for it because it will come up negative.

@snowberry I guess I never thought of that. I was so hell bent on getting rid of my uti that I didn’t consider anything else.
Thank you for the heads up! :0)