[sits2much]

I have a good friend who is constantly in the hospital due to kidney issues!! He has been in a chair most of his adult life now... I worry about my own kidneys and want to do what I can to keep them healthy...

I was taking a cranberry supplement once a day that I buy at the local grocers or GNC... I stopped it and started a new treatment... I take one mid strength antibiotic pill once a month...

My friend told me to stop taking the cranberry because he found it made him have more UTI's which lead to kidney issues!! He is the one who told me about the antibiotic treatment!!

So what is your opinion?? Do you take antibiotic or cranberry?? What works for you?? What doesn't work for you??

Cheers!

[kewlcatkez]

Hello,

Please see recent Apparelyzed topics: http://www.apparelyzed.com/forums/index.ph...mp;hl=cranberry
and http://www.apparelyzed.com/forums/index.ph...mp;hl=cranberry
For opinions and some research on Cranberry etc,

Hope this helps and please ask if you need any clarification on anything I wrote,


Good Luck,


K

[Kwag_Myers]

I take a low dosage antibiotic twice a week. It doesn't stop UTIs, but I've only had one (about six months ago) since starting this program.

[purple_faeries]

i get very frequent UTI's, and I am now on a low dose permament course of antibiotics, cefalexin, that i take every night. I've only just started it though so don't know how it works yet lol

This post has been edited by purple_faeries: 18 August 2008 - 10:58 AM

[JohnD]

I take a two Nitrofurantoin a day, otherwise I would have a UTI every week, that's the only way I can stop them.

[Apparelyzed]

I drink like a fish!

Last UTI was in 1992.

No antibiotics for a UTI since.

Simon

[robbo100bike]

Citrisept Grape seed extract and also try and keep bladder acidic by drinking fruit juice as opposed to soda type drinks.

[DaveP]

Antibiotics are the last resort, not the first option! Taking them too often makes them less and less effective, and when you really need them, it won't work.

Drinking lots of fluid is the only way to keep your bladder flushed out. It also makes it harder for bacteria to grow, as you're flushing yourself out regularly. You can add things like Cranberry, that has an unusual property in which it attaches itself to the tail of the bacteria stopping it from anchoring itself to the bladder wall, but you need to drink litres and litres for it to work well - capsules are much higher in concentration and dosage.

The are herbal teas that help also - not cures, but great as a preventative measure. I take a Norwegian herbal tea normally used by pregnant Norwegian women with bladder infections who don't want to take any medication. It's called Kjerringrok Tea (Horsetail Tea) and taken 3 times a day when there's a UTI, followed by a glass of water. As a preventative measure, I drink 1 or 2 a day. It's also a mild diaretic so it means you pee loads, and it helps flush out excessive fluid in the body.

I tried D-Mannose and think it worked OK. I tried the full doage first then the minimum as a prevention, and it worked fine. I didn't pee an extra like I do with the above tea, but when I didn't replace it when it ran out as I thought it was a bit expensive.

Taking fruit juices (orange, lemon, etc) also helps, but mainly by increasing the acidity of the urine. The problem is this can be more uncomfortable than the UTI but once clear of the infection and the bladder's not so sensitive, this helps to keep infections at bay.

But there's no way we can keep UTI's away unless plenty of water/fluids are drank. We needs the fluids to "transport" the medication through our urinary tracts to combat the infection and flush it out. High fluids also mean that urine isn't highly concentrated and left to stagnate, as it's getting flushed out all the time.