By Andrea Bartels B.A. CNP NNCP RNT Registered Nutritional Therapist
Lead Educator, Pure Lab Vitamins
It’s estimated that up to 40 percent of females will experience a UTI in their lifetime. Risk factors for UTI include being female, having diabetes, being pregnant, having urinary incontinence or being immune compromised. Like any infection, those that occur in the urinary tract happen more easily when you’re feeling stressed, getting too little sleep, eating unbalanced meals, and overtax your body physically. How can you break the cycle? Here’s how to reduce your risk of recurring UTIs.
Lifestyle Tips for Prevention
Stay hydrated. It doesn’t take long for bacteria to get inside the female bladder since the female urethra is so much shorter than the male urethra. The more frequently you void urine, the less chance bacteria have to make their way up the urinary tract and multiplying there. What should you drink? Plain old water is best. Having trouble getting enough? Start drinking 1 or 2 cups before each meal and snack so that you can associate it easily with meal times.
Reduce your sugar intake. Sugar feeds the kind of bacteria that cause UTIs and makes urine more acidic, an environment E.coli bacteria thrive in. Replace high-sugar food items like barbecue sauces and ketchup with dry herbs and spices. Swap out bottled fruit drinks, soft drinks for pieces of fresh fruit. Use monk fruit or stevia extract with plain yogurt instead of flavoured yogurts. Have you got a chocolate ‘addiction’? No sweat. Simply spike your oatmeal, smoothies and yogurt with roasted cocoa or raw cacao powder. You can also choose savoury snack items like hummus and guacamole with vegetables or crackers more often that the sweet stuff. If you’re diabetic or pre-diabetic, these tips are especially important because poor glucose control means the body will be dumping sugars into the urine, which is like delivering e.coli’s favourite food on a silver platter.
Use a cranberry extract supplement. Cranberries contain type A proanthocyanidins (PACs)- - antioxidants with the unique ability to prevent E. coli bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. The problem with commercial cranberry juices is that they’re typically loaded with added sugar to counteract the naturally tart flavour of the cranberry.
That’s why Pure Lab formulated UTI Pure: to help prevent recurring UTIs without disrupting gut flora. UTI Pure contains sugar-free dried cranberry juice concentrate that’s rich in PACs to prevent the bacteria E. coli from adhering to the walls of the urinary tract. The formula also contains d-mannose, a unique carbohydrate that actually fights infection by binding to E.coli so it can be easily flushed out via the urine. UTI Pure can be used daily on an ongoing basis to help prevent UTIs, even by pregnant and diabetic individuals. It’s also safe and beneficial to use during antibiotic treatment. And there’s no reason men can’t take it, too. Pure Lab’s UTI Pure is available in capsules and powder.
Get Alkaline. E. coli is an acid-loving bacterium that doesn’t belong in the urinary tract, yet it’s associated with 90 percent of all urinary tract infections. Why? Well, urine is naturally acidic because activities like intense exercise, protein metabolism, and eating food tends to produce acidic waste products. If you’re dehydrated, this causes urine retention and allows time for E. coli to get in and bind to the walls of the urinary tract where it causes infection.
Since water has a neutral (neither acidic nor alkaline) pH, staying well hydrated helps counteract the acidity necessary for E. coli growth. E. coli can’t survive in an alkaline environment. AlkaPure pH’s carefully balanced blend of magnesium, potassium and sodium can be used to support pH balancing. That’s why we recommend Pure Lab’s AlkaPure pH to those with recurring UTIs. It’s a calcium-free acid-buffering mineral formulation that counteracts the hyper-acidity that sets the stage for most UTIs. Symptomatic individuals whose urine tests positive for E. coli can take AlkaPure pH twice daily, between meals as a complement to our UTI Pure formulation.
Everything you Need to Know About UTI Pure in 60 Seconds
Everything you Need to Know About AlkaPure pH in 60 Seconds
Lifestyle tips are important in preventing UTIs, too.
Change damp underwear as soon as possible. Warm, moist environments are the perfect breeding ground for the kind of microbes that cause UTIs. Carry a change of panties with you if you’re expecting to engage in activities that make you sweat.
Urinate after sexual activity. Sexual activity can increase the risk of UTI because it can introduce bacteria into the urethra. To help flush out the urinary tract, make going ‘number one’ your number-one post-coital priority.
Wipe from front to back, not back to front. E.coli originates in the gut---and in females, the anus is just a short hop away from the urethra. After using the toilet, you can minimize the transfer of colonic bacteria to the urinary tract by wiping downwards instead of upwards.
Keep a ‘Cran-do’ Attitude
Trying to do everything ‘right’ with your lifestyle all at once can set you up for stress and failure. As you learn to integrate and practise these UTI prevention tips more consistently,
targeted supplementation can help you achieve your goal of fewer UTIs. You ‘cran’ do it!
References
Ahmed AE, Abdelkarim S, Zenida M, et al. Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Urinary Tract Infection among Diabetic Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study. Healthcare (Basel). 2023;11(6):861. Published 2023 Mar 15.
Berg, Sara. “What doctors wish patients knew about UTI prevention”. American Medical Association March 24, 2023.
Fu Z, Liska D, Talan D, Chung M. Cranberry Reduces the Risk of Urinary Tract Infection Recurrence in Otherwise Healthy Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Nutr. 2017 Dec;147(12):2282-2288.
Heitmann K, Nordeng H, Holst L. Pregnancy outcome after use of cranberry in pregnancy--the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2013 Dec 7;13:345.
Hisano M, Bruschini H, Nicodemo AC, Srougi M. Cranberries and lower urinary tract infection prevention. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2012;67(6):661-8.
Hofer U. How antibiotics predispose to candidiasis. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2022 Jul;20(7):382.
Lenger SM, Bradley MS, Thomas DA, Bertolet MH, Lowder JL, Sutcliffe S. D-mannose vs other agents for recurrent urinary tract infection prevention in adult women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Aug;223(2):265.e1-265.e13.
Mamieva Z, Poluektova E, Svistushkin V, Sobolev V, Shifrin O, Guarner F, Ivashkin V. Antibiotics, gut microbiota, and irritable bowel syndrome: What are the relations? World J Gastroenterol. 2022 Mar 28;28(12):1204-1219.
Mayo Clinic. Yeast Infection (vaginal). Accessed online Oct 2, 2024.
Moore EE, Hawes SE, Scholes D, Boyko EJ, Hughes JP, Fihn SD. Sexual intercourse and risk of symptomatic urinary tract infection in post-menopausal women. J Gen Intern Med. 2008;23(5):595-599.
National Association for Continence. “The Truth about Sugar and Incontinence.”. Accessed online November 8, 2024.
Staller K, Olén O, Söderling J, Roelstraete B, Törnblom H, Kuo B, Nguyen LH, Ludvigsson JF. Antibiotic use as a risk factor for irritable bowel syndrome: Results from a nationwide, case-control study. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2023 Dec;58(11-12):1175-1184.
Wagenlehner F, Lorenz H, Ewald O, Gerke P. Why d-Mannose May Be as Efficient as Antibiotics in the Treatment of Acute Uncomplicated Lower Urinary Tract Infections-Preliminary Considerations and Conclusions from a Non-Interventional Study. Antibiotics (Basel). 2022 Feb 25;11(3):314.
Wattengel BA, Schroeck J, DiTursi S, Sellick JA, Mergenhagen KA. 1466. Alkaline Urine: A Cause for Urinary Tract Infection Recurrence. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019;6(Suppl 2):S535. Published 2019 Oct 23.
Xia JY, Yang C, Xu DF, Xia H, Yang LG, Sun GJ. Consumption of cranberry as adjuvant therapy for urinary tract infections in susceptible populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis. PLoS One. 2021 Sep 2;16(9):e0256992.
Xu Y, Zhao Z, Tong W, Ding Y, Liu B, Shi Y, Wang J, Sun S, Liu M, Wang Y, Qi Q, Xian M, Zhao G. An acid-tolerance response system protecting exponentially growing Escherichia coli. Nat Commun. 2020 Mar 20;11(1):1496.
UCSF Health. Urinary Tract Infections. Obstetrics and Gynecology: University of California San Francisco. Accessed online Oct 2, 2024.
Helps Prevent Recurring Urinary Tract Infections Over 90% of urinary tract infections (UTIs) are caused by E. coli --a type of bacteria that doesn’...
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