The burden of UTIs falls on women
More than half of women have experienced UTIs according to Kidney Research UK (1). Unfortunately, once you get one UTI the chance of recurrence is high with as many as one third of women experiencing another infection with 6 months. Women are more prone to UTIs than men as women have a shorter urethra than men, so the bacteria don’t have as far to travel to get to your bladder. Due to these anatomical differences, sexual activity can significantly increase the risk of getting a UTI for a woman, as can getting older – women aged 40 and over are even more likely to get UTIs due to hormonal changes increasing the risk of bacterial infections.
UTIs place a significant toll on the health of women – both physical and mental. But they are also a burden on the health service through additional visits to the GP, numerous repeat prescriptions, and costs to the economy due to women missing work.
Given how UTIs compromise women’s health, why are women not actively trying to prevent UTIs?
Isn’t prevention better than a cure?
The most common treatment for a UTI is a course of antibiotics and indeed antibiotics are also used long-term to treat women who have frequent UTIs. With the current global problem of antibiotic resistance and the negative impact of antibiotics on our “good” bacteria, it would seem that anything that can be done to prevent the burning bladder pain that comes with a UTI would likely be embraced by sufferers before the infection hits. But this is generally not the case. GPs rarely offer alternatives to antibiotics, although there are NICE guidelines that discuss positive evidence from natural remedies in treating UTIs. One study found that using different herbal extracts and D-mannose for 6 months significantly reduced the risk of recurrent UTIs. This is great news!
However, while the use of cranberry to treat UTIs is unsubstantiated, it is still used by women struggling with UTIs(4).
Where is the evidence?
Focus groups of women who suffer recurrent UTIs found that women were concerned about the negative impact of antibiotics and were also frustrated with the medical profession and their management of recurrent UTIs (3). Women have also reported that it’s stressful living with the anxiety of worrying about the sudden onset of yet another UTI. UTIs are so common that they are often considered par for the course for women. Research shows that UTIs have a major impact on both the physical and mental health of women, yet there have been no changes in the treatment of UTIs for many years.
The NHS website does recommend a number of potential ways to prevent UTIs such as wiping from front to back, drinking lots of water, and urinating after sex (4). They may work for some and are unlikely to cause any harm, but none of these behaviours have been found to prevent UTIs. And a few days of antibiotics just doesn’t work for most people, leaving millions of women with long-term chronic UTIs. For a condition that affects so many women and really affects quality of life, this is just not good enough. Taking control of your own bladder health is the only effective approach to healing the bladder and helping to prevent reoccurrence of UTIs. But as is the case with the treatment of many health conditions, these things take time and there is no single magic cure.
So, what other options are there?
URALIX improves symptoms by treating the infection through its anti-inflammatory properties but importantly it helps to rid the body of the E.coli bacteria which is the source of the infection. Uralix works without any of the side-effects you might get from anti-biotics, eg a yeast infection.
Not only does Uralix support the sufferer during the infection, but it can be used to support longer term bladder and urinary tract health at the same time as protecting the “good” bacteria in our bodies. And all this without contributing to the serious global problem of antibiotic resistance.
References
- Kidney Research UK.www.kidneyresearchuk.org
- Medina, M., & Castillo-Pino, E. (2019). An introduction to the epidemiology and burden of urinary tract infections. Therapeutic advances in urology, 11, 1756287219832172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1756287219832172
- Scott, V.C.S, Thum, L.W., (2021) Fear and Frustration among Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: Findings from Patient Focus Groups. Journal of Urology https://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000001843
- https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/health/cranberry-juice-uti.html
- 5. NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/urinary-tract-infections-utis/
Dr. Naomi Newman-Beinart, PhD
Nutritionist (BSc) & Chartered Psychologist specialising in Health (PhD)