ARGH! Yet another UTI—any advice???

[ActiveMSers]

For some reason, I've had a spate of UTIs lately, five in the pandemic alone! Before, they were relatively rare. I know that people say cranberry juice / supplements help prevent them, but studies haven't shown any proven benefit. Still, I broke down and bought a bottle of what was supposed to be "the best" and boom: another UTI.

Dr. Thrower, an MS specialist, recommends D-Mannose, a supplement that "prevents e. coli from clinging to your bladder wall." I might try that next. I prefer to avoid taking a daily antibiotic. FYI: I don't cath.

Any other suggestions, ideas?

[ActiveMSers]

To prevent UTIs, I've seen recommendations of 2g daily or 1,000 mg twice a day. -D

Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci
. 2016 Jul;20(13):2920-5.

D-mannose: a promising support for acute urinary tract infections in women. A pilot study

L Domenici ¹, M Monti, C Bracchi, M Giorgini, V Colagiovanni, L Muzii, P Benedetti Panici
Affiliations expand

• PMID: 27424995

Free article

Abstract


Objective: Urinary tract infections still represent a significant bother for women and result in high costs to the health system. D-mannose is a simple sugar; it seems able to hinder bacteria adhesion to the urothelium. The present study aimed to determine whether D-mannose alone is effective in treating acute urinary tract infections in women and its possible utility in the management of recurrences.

Patients and methods: This is a pilot study, performed between April 2014 and July 2015 at Department of Gynaecological Obstetrics and Urologic Sciences of "Sapienza" University of Rome. A D-mannose compound was administered twice daily for 3 days and then once a day for 10 days. Changes in patients' symptoms, the therapeutic effects and changes in quality of life (QoL) were evaluated clinically and using a specifically validated questionnaire (UTISA). After described treatment, patients were randomized in receiving or not prophylaxis in the next 6 months.

Results: Mean UTISA scores recorded after completing the treatment, compared with baseline scores, showed a significant improvement of the majority of symptoms (p < 0.05). D-mannose seemed to have had a significant positive effect on UTIs' resolution and QoL improvement (p = 0.0001). As prophylactic agent administered for 6 months, it showed promising results (4.5% vs. 33.3% recurrences in treated and untreated patients respectively).

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that D-mannose can be an effective aid in acute cystitis management and also a successful prophylactic agent in a selected population; however, more studies will certainly be needed to confirm the results of our pilot study.

[cl3me]

I went through a period of vicious cycle of UTIs and yeast infections.

The antibiotics for the UTIs messed up my guts as well, soft bowel movements but not quite diarrhea.

I broke the cycle with this specific pro-biotic Florastor, not sure if the same product or similar is available in the USA ?

https://florastor.com/

[ActiveMSers]

Thanks! I'll check it out. But I think I'll need to be seeing a urologist. Days after I asked this question, ANOTHER ONE hit. Doc put me on Bactrim, a stronger antibiotic that can get into the kidneys. Afterward we are going to try a low-dose antibiotic as a maintenance until I can get checked out.

Fortunately, my UTIs have been caught rather quickly before it spirals out of control with fever, etc. I'll post updates when I get them....

[LivWell]

Wow, issues with bowel and bladder can really have a negative impact on quality of life. It's the elephant in the room for a lot of MSers. I was thinking a thorough workup with a urologist would be a good idea. Doctors can only do so much with antibiotics 'cause MS bladders don't always want to empty completely.

Here's a link to a CanDo-MS Webinar on bowel and bladder issues. https://youtu.be/Q2Zlwvh3VpM

[ActiveMSers]

Thanks so much, LivWell! I've got a message into my primary. Unfortunately I don't think there are any urologists in NM who specialize in neurologic disorders. Fortunately it hasn't mess up my QOL too much other than waking me up several times a night for a couple days until the antibiotics kick in.

[Suebee]

Hey I’ve used turmeric tea, I think it helps. Turmeric tea is an anti inflammatory. Its very earthy tasting, and don’t really like the taste of it. I’ve tried numerous concoctions. The one I like best is a tea bag “pukka turmeric glow” it is turmeric, lemon, and green tea. I steep for 15 min and put no sweetener in it. Here is mouse study showing turmeric helps U TIs. Obviously rat bladders are much smaller than human bladders, among other things, but it demonstrates it has some type of positive biologic effect. Good luck. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtm.2017.06.009