Just the name sounds painful—uri­nary tract in­fec­tion. If you have ever ex­pe­ri­enced one of these, then you may be all too fa­mil­iar with burn­ing or painful uri­na­tion, strong, fre­quent urges to uri­nate, dis­com­fort in the low­er ab­domen, back pains, fever/chills, nau­sea/vom­it­ing, or dis­coloured urine. You have noth­ing to be ashamed of, as it turns out that uri­nary tract in­fec­tions are one of the most com­mon ail­ments ex­pe­ri­enced by adults, es­pe­cial­ly women.

What is a Uri­nary Tract

In­fec­tion (UTI)?

A uri­nary tract in­fec­tion (UTI) is an in­fec­tion in any part of your uri­nary sys­tem, name­ly your kid­neys, ureters, blad­der, and ure­thra, usu­al­ly caused by bac­te­ria en­ter­ing the ure­thra, mul­ti­ply­ing and trav­el­ling up­wards in­to the blad­der and fur­ther (and more dan­ger­ous­ly) to­wards the ureters and kid­neys. UTI’s most com­mon­ly oc­cur in women be­cause of their anato­my, how­ev­er, men can al­so de­vel­op UTI’s, es­pe­cial­ly in in­stances where the prostate gland may be en­larged. A UTI must nev­er be left un­treat­ed, as it can lead to long-term dam­age to the kid­neys and worse if the bac­te­ria are al­lowed to en­ter in­to the blood­stream.

The stan­dard treat­ment for a UTI usu­al­ly in­volves a course of an­tibi­otics that should clear up the in­fec­tion with­in a few short days. How­ev­er, there are meth­ods that you can ap­ply at home to clear the in­fec­tion nat­u­ral­ly, or at least help you to put up a good fight un­til you can see your doc­tor.

How to Treat a UTI Nat­u­ral­ly

Slip­pery Elm

Slip­pery elm, from the bark of the elm tree, has been used for many years be­cause of its sooth­ing prop­er­ties. Its pow­dered form when mixed with wa­ter can soothe the lin­ing of the gut and uri­nary tract, aid­ing the process of its re­cov­ery from ir­ri­ta­tion or in­flam­ma­tion. There­fore, it may help to al­le­vi­ate the painful, ir­ri­tat­ing symp­toms. As a mild di­uret­ic, slip­pery elm al­so helps to in­crease the flow of urine and elim­i­nate the build-up of bac­te­ria from the uri­nary tract. To use slip­pery elm, mix the pow­der in­to warm wa­ter un­til slimy. Drink this on an emp­ty stom­ach three to four times dai­ly un­til you get re­lief.

Thyme Tea

Thyme tea is a pow­er­ful play­er in the fight against UTI’s. As a nat­ur­al an­tibi­ot­ic, thyme has proven it­self to be es­sen­tial for main­tain­ing uri­nary tract health and bal­anc­ing the flo­ra of good bac­te­ria in the uri­nary tract. To make this tea, add one tea­spoon of dried thyme leaves, or a few fresh thyme leaves to hot wa­ter and let steep for 15-20 min­utes. Drink this tea through­out the day and night un­til you get re­lief. It is a good idea to drink this tea in com­bi­na­tion with the slip­pery elm for max­i­mum re­lief.

Cran­ber­ries

Snack­ing on dried cran­ber­ries or sip­ping on cran­ber­ry juice may not be able to re­lieve a cur­rent in­fec­tion of the uri­nary tract, but it can sure­ly help as a pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sure against it. Cran­ber­ries pos­sess ac­tive in­gre­di­ents that pre­vent bac­te­ria from ad­her­ing to the walls of the uri­nary tract and com­bined with drink­ing lots of wa­ter can help to flush harm­ful bac­te­ria out of the uri­nary tract and pre­vent their harm­ful mul­ti­pli­ca­tion.

Avoid Ir­ri­tat­ing Foods

There is a strong con­nec­tion be­tween the gut and the uri­nary tract, name­ly, the stom­ach and the blad­der. The foods that ir­ri­tate the stom­ach will ir­ri­tate the blad­der al­so, and the foods that soothe the stom­ach will al­so soothe the blad­der. Be sure to avoid foods that are rich in caf­feine, in­clud­ing cof­fee, choco­late, and caf­feinat­ed teas; spicy food; and dairy. In­crease your con­sump­tion of sooth­ing foods such as oats, pro­bi­otics in­clud­ing yo­gurt, kom­bucha, and pro­bi­ot­ic sup­ple­ments; ochro/okra; gin­ger and turmer­ic.

Drink a lot of wa­ter and uri­nate of­ten

This may go with­out say­ing, but to help your body to flush out harm­ful bac­te­ria from your uri­nary tract, you must drink a lot of wa­ter through­out the day and uri­nate as of­ten as pos­si­ble. Try your best to not hold your urine back un­nec­es­sar­i­ly, but to elim­i­nate the build-up of bac­te­ria; al­though in­con­ve­nient, you must go to the bath­room.

UTI’s may be dread­ful, but there is hope when you act quick­ly. I hope that these reme­dies help you along your path to bet­ter health.