So I get a lot of urinary tract infections. I suspect I might be on the edge of developing one now and would obviously like to nip it in the bud
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Regardless of the location or variety of infection*, we go to Vitamin C. It's an effective catch all. I'm currently battling a skin infection, and I let it go for several days wondering why it was getting worse before having my "duh, you're not dosing the C" moment.
Adults and almost adults (I have a 17 year old) start with 5k mg as an initial first dose, and as a morning dose on subsequent days, then 2k mg every few hours all day. If you're not starting to feel better in 12 hours, increase the dosage by 50-100%. If you're still not starting to feel better in another 12 hours, go from every few hours to every hour keeping the dosage the same. No variety of sick has ever persisted in not improving past that point in my house.
Every body is different, but the last time my daughter got a UTI (as in she didn't tell me she'd felt it coming on, or we'd have knocked it out before it got a hold on her), she started feeling better at around 35k mg a day. We went up to 40k, and maintained that for a week after she said she felt fine, just to be safe. She's had regular UTIs forever. This UTI caused her to buy in, so to speak, to her crazy mother's rantings about vitamins (she's 19, I still don't know anything in her eyes). She's been taking Vit C regularly since, and she hasn't had a UTI in almost 2 years.
*The only exception to this is yeast infections. It's just a faster process to radically alter the pH of my girlie bits with a dilute vinegar solution, and then follow up with some Vit C for a few days, just in case. 100% vinegar will BURN. 50/50 water solution burns, but drastically less so, though still more so than most people would willingly tolerate. If you think part of your problem may be yeast related, you might want to get a peri bottle (they give them to postpartum women to use to rinse episiotomy sites and such, and they're freaking awesome) and add a tablespoon of vinegar to a full bottle of water (I seem to think my peri bottle holds 12 oz), and use it to rinse once a day, just to keep the yeast under control. I would do it immediately following a shower since soap tends to bring your pH in the wrong direction, and yeast love it when it goes in the wrong direction.
Vitamin C is the first, best line of defense at our house too - the only limit to dosage is, as they say, 'bowel tolerance'.
Right on, the peri bottle! That's something a lot of women never learn about until after they've had a baby, but which would be extremely useful for all girls to know about, because so many chronic UTIs get their start from 'honeymoon cystitis' (with or without the actual honeymoon) from frequent, enthusiastic sex.
It's really not a good idea to wash one's girlie-bits with soap at all. Plain water is best as a rule, but a little Betadine is helpful to clear out the unfriendly bacteria, and raw unfiltered AVC would help keep them from coming back. If one shaves every day, a tiny bit of coconut oil will prevent skin rash without causing urethral irritation. Some ladies do better with trimming down to soft fuzz rather than shaving, so they don't ever get 'prickles'.
Adults and almost adults (I have a 17 year old) start with 5k mg as an initial first dose, and as a morning dose on subsequent days, then 2k mg every few hours all day. If you're not starting to feel better in 12 hours, increase the dosage by 50-100%. If you're still not starting to feel better in another 12 hours, go from every few hours to every hour keeping the dosage the same. No variety of sick has ever persisted in not improving past that point in my house.
Every body is different, but the last time my daughter got a UTI (as in she didn't tell me she'd felt it coming on, or we'd have knocked it out before it got a hold on her), she started feeling better at around 35k mg a day. We went up to 40k, and maintained that for a week after she said she felt fine, just to be safe. She's had regular UTIs forever. This UTI caused her to buy in, so to speak, to her crazy mother's rantings about vitamins (she's 19, I still don't know anything in her eyes). She's been taking Vit C regularly since, and she hasn't had a UTI in almost 2 years.
*The only exception to this is yeast infections. It's just a faster process to radically alter the pH of my girlie bits with a dilute vinegar solution, and then follow up with some Vit C for a few days, just in case. 100% vinegar will BURN. 50/50 water solution burns, but drastically less so, though still more so than most people would willingly tolerate. If you think part of your problem may be yeast related, you might want to get a peri bottle (they give them to postpartum women to use to rinse episiotomy sites and such, and they're freaking awesome) and add a tablespoon of vinegar to a full bottle of water (I seem to think my peri bottle holds 12 oz), and use it to rinse once a day, just to keep the yeast under control. I would do it immediately following a shower since soap tends to bring your pH in the wrong direction, and yeast love it when it goes in the wrong direction.
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Right on, the peri bottle! That's something a lot of women never learn about until after they've had a baby, but which would be extremely useful for all girls to know about, because so many chronic UTIs get their start from 'honeymoon cystitis' (with or without the actual honeymoon) from frequent, enthusiastic sex.
It's really not a good idea to wash one's girlie-bits with soap at all. Plain water is best as a rule, but a little Betadine is helpful to clear out the unfriendly bacteria, and raw unfiltered AVC would help keep them from coming back. If one shaves every day, a tiny bit of coconut oil will prevent skin rash without causing urethral irritation. Some ladies do better with trimming down to soft fuzz rather than shaving, so they don't ever get 'prickles'.
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