Coping With Urinary Tract Infection

I found years ago that both diet and herbs help me get past possible bladder and kidney infections. Years ago I lost 1/2 my right kidney due to repeated infections which created a chronic UTI/pyelonephritus situation for me. As it turns out I am allergic to most antibiotics & need to only take the few I can tolerate in emergency. By avoiding various allergens & taking certain herbs & making dietary changes I was able to avoid getting any more infections for 30 years.

When I would notice an irritation I would get out the herbs: uva-ursi, corn silk, marshmallow root, dandelion root, and burdock root as well as barberry root if its more serious. That and avoiding meat for a while & drinking lots of plain unsweetened cranberry juice (sweeten w/ stevia) mixed in water. I avoid eating gluten, chocolate, nuts, citrus, gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats) & sugar which helps immensely.

Again I found that eating meat or fish during a UTI is a real no no. Potatoes, sprouted sunflower & pumpkin seeds, vegetables & applesauce however are good. Recently I had a serious recurrence as a result of cross contamination of gluten since as it turns out I have celiac. I just read kidney disease & UTI inflammation is commonly related to celiac. Avoidance of all gluten is overall good for me to avoid silent progression of kidney & nerve deterioration, heart disease cancer etc. due to the celiac. However its also difficult due to potential cross contamination reactions once I eliminated all trace glutens from my diet, vitamins, hygiene etc.

Celiac is an auto immune disease & thus the reaction to trace amounts of gluten is systemic & can be overwhelming. I now carry some safe food & drink with me everywhere. Whether you have celiac or not, if you get chronic UTI’s, I suggest taking marshmallow root regularly which both soothes & strengthens the intestines as well as the kidneys & creates an environment adverse to infections. Overall periodic cleaning out with the other herbs is a great help as well as always continuing to avoid possible allergens.