Home treatment for infection?

If it’s very mild, you can try to flush it out of your system by drinking lots and lots and lots of water and unsweetened cranberry juice, or taking cranberry pills. However do not let it go for too long without going to a doctor! You can end up with a kidney infection, which is not something you want to mess with.

@hannahsugs-thanks for the advice. I will certainly try this and if it does get worse I’ll make the appointment. With the holidays and all just didn’t want to make the appointment.

The evidence for cranberry juice or cranberry supplements for the treatment of UTI’s is pretty thin (admitedly because no one has bothered to do the research). There is some evidence that cranberry juice can prevent UTI’s in women who suffer from recurrent UTI’s.

If you have symptoms I’d bite the bullet and go to the doc particularly if you also have lower back pain.

Jepson RG, Craig JC. Cranberries for preventing urinary tract infections. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 1.

Jepson RG, Mihaljevic L, Craig JC. Cranberries for treating urinary tract infections. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1998, Issue 4.

@lightlyseared, no back pain to speak of yet. I’m afraid that I’ll be making the appointment. It’s only been going on for a couple of days. We’ll see what the weekend brings and go from there.

Yeah, it can get pretty bad if you let it go. If cranberry juice doesn’t do anything, I would deffinitely go to the doctor. They can give you pills to treat it and to make it less painful. You don’t want the infection to spread anywhere else.

I can usually deal with a UTI by cutting all simple carbs and sugars out of my diet, drinking lots and lots of water and unsweetened cranberry juice (gross, but somewhat effective) and echinacea/goldenseal compounds. I get them fairly frequently, and taking antibiotics every time would make me resistant.
Hope you feel better…

Got to agree with hannahsugs (emphasis on LOTS) and coquilicot (also cut out alcohol).

Just an FYI for everyone, I did end up going to the clinic this weekend. With the holiday coming (and family) I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. Turns out it was a urinary tract infection. Thank you for the info.