How to Cure Urinary Problems Naturally

How to Cure Urinary Problems Naturally

Urine is a body fluid, just like blood or spinal fluid, and bacteria can grow in it and cause infections of the bladder or kidneys. Also, some cancer-causing chemicals we're exposed to pass out of the body through the urine. Since those chemicals come in contact with the bladder, they probably increase the risk of bladder cancer. However, there is at least one nutrient that may protect you against those problems.

Vitamin C can actually kill some bacteria, including Escherichia coli, the most common cause of urinary-tract infections. That killing power is especially strong at the uniquely high vitamin C levels that are possible in the concentrated fluid of urine. Doctors have used vitamin C for years to prevent urinary infections in people likely to develop them. Although it has been generally assumed that the vitamin works by producing an acid urine that inhibits the growth of bacteria, in fact, vitamin C does a poor job of acidifying the urine. The effectiveness of the vitamin is more likely related to a direct bactericidal (bacteria-killing) action, according to the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (January 1979).

As we said, the kidneys rid the body of various waste products and environmental poisons, and urine contains a wide range of toxic chemicals, some of which have the potential to cause cancer. However, a few of those chemicals don't become cancer-causers until they undergo a chemical reaction called oxidation. A nutrient that could prevent oxidation — an anti-oxidant — should lessen the number of cancer-causing chemicals the bladder is exposed to. Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant. It's been shown to prevent the development of bladder cancer in animals exposed to a cancer-causing compound that's often found in human urine (Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine). And Jorgen Schlegel, former chief of staff at Tulane University Medical Center in New Orleans, believes that vitamin C may be effective in preventing human cancer, too (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences).

However, you have to take enough vitamin C to make sure some of it spills over into the urine. For most people, 300 mg a day would do the trick, but those with an increased need for vitamin C — smokers, diabetics, the elderly, the stressed, the allergic and persons taking certain drugs — need more. Other nutrients such as vitamin E, zinc and selenium are also antioxidants and might help prevent bladder cancer.

Cranberry juice

'One of the most common complaints encountered in general practice is recurrent dysuria [painful urination], frequency and urgency of urination in the female patient,' Dr. D. V. Moen reported in the Wisconsin Medical Journal, outlining the common symptoms of cystitis

(See also BLADDER INFECTION).

Many also suffer from chronic urinary infection and inflammation. According to Dr. Moen, 'They do not respond satisfactorily to sulfate, antibiotics, bladder sedatives, urethral dilations or bladder irrigations.' And even if there is a response, the symptoms keep coming back. 'This particular group has been most gratifyingly relieved of all urinary symptoms as long as they continue to take 6 oz glassfuls of cranberry juice daily. '

Dr. Moen also gave this cranberry regimen to a 66-year-old woman with chronic pyelonephritis (kidney inflammation). She had been ill for five years, and drugs had failed to help her.

After eight weeks of the juice therapy, the urine gradually began to clear. At the end of nine months, there were only occasional pus cells... The urine is still negative, and the patient refuses to stop the cranberry juice because she feels so much better and knows no other medication has helped her before.

Don't reach for a soft drink when you've worked up a thirst. Carbonated soft drinks when consumed in large quantities, have been known to cause blood in the urine. For more information,

(See also HEMATURIA).