About Your Infection And This Blog…
What You Need to Know
Posted in Useful Tips
The Pantry Pharmacy Posts
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To stop UTI pain starting in an hour:
- 1 tsp baking soda (sodium bicarb, for you Brits) in 16 oz. water.
This raises your urine pH quickly, which slows down UTI pathogen feeding and breeding, and reduces pain dramatically in less than an hour. (UNLESS you have a staph, strep, or entero UTI, in which case NEVER drink soda water. You need ascorbic acid Vitamin C.)
If you have high BP issues, you don’t want to drink more than this one glass because of the sodium, so after the first emergency dose, drink… - Lemon water: 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in 16 oz water.
Counter-intuitively, this has the same action as baking soda in raising urine pH because lemon and lime juice are alkaline-forming in your body. In my experience, it’s not quite as fast and effective as baking soda, but it’s better for your body as a maintenance measure while you treat your infection, and it’s better than nothing if it’s the middle of the night, you’re in pain, and you don’t have baking soda. - Raw garlic: 2 average-size minced cloves.
This will powerfully affect your UTI in short order, killing off pathogens and reducing your pain level. It should be taken by swallowing small chopped pieces with water, like pills, with some food, like toast. You should chase it with a shot of pure lemon juice, 1.5 oz. This helps you absorb the garlic, especially if you have heartburn. Yes, you read that right. If you get heartburn you need to take acid.
Read more here to explain why. - Cayenne pepper: 1/4 tsp mixed into a glass of water or a spoonful of honey.
Take with a little food, like the garlic. This has a dramatic positive effect on some gram negative infections: it kills one strain of E. coli outright. This is something that will greatly relieve your pain if your UTI is caused by a certain type of gram-negative pathogen. If you feel a warm tingling in your bladder about 40 minutes after taking, followed by a sharp decrease in UTI symptoms, take 1/4 tsp every 4 waking hours for 3 days, then with every meal for 2 more days. Use urine test strips to make sure they’re clear at the 5 minute mark, and then you’re done.
If, however, you feel like it irritated your infection, STOP. It can go either way, depending on what kind of infection you have. - Oh, and I beg of you, NO CRANBERRY JUICE. And no ascorbic acid Vitamin C! Please. Just don’t.
Unless you have a UTI that has cultured positive for staph, against which it’s quite effective.
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To Do:
1. Empty your bladder every waking hour. Set a timer if you have to, but squeeze out every last drop once an hour.
2. Drink lemon water (1 T lemon juice in 16 oz water) all day long. Do not drink more than 8 oz water per waking hour *as a general rule of thumb*. 8 oz per hour is plenty to stay well-hydrated, but if you’re guzzling water like a camel in the desert you’re just diluting the effect of the supplements. Remember this throughout the wellness process. Also, you can make fruit-infused alkaline water, click here, and take D-mannose for E. coli. Keeping water flushing through in steady stream prevents bacteria from building up in your bladder and swimming up your ureters to the kidneys. Most bacteria are non-motile, but E. coli is the Michael Phelps of the pathogen world. Keep the current flowing rapidly against the bacteria.
3. Take 1-2 cloves minced raw garlic with every meal, swallowing the pieces with water, like pills. Take it mid-meal, so there’s food above and below it in your stomach. (Be cautious with this if you have a Klebsiella infection: it helps with some of them, but certain species/strains can actually eat the oligo-saccharides in it.)
4. Take 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper with every meal. (If you tried it during the Emergency stage, and you feel it helped. It helps wonderfully with some types of infection, and irritates others!) You can mix it into a spoonful of honey to make it palatable. If you don’t think your stomach can handle 1/4 tsp, take 1/8 tsp, and chase it with a glass of baking soda water (1/4 tsp in 8 oz water).
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Supplies You’ll Need
Posted in Cleansing, Immediate UTI Treatment, Infection Killing Protocol, Spending Wisely, and Supplements
I’m putting this in a pinned blog post, since I realized that it isn’t very noticeable as a page when you’re on a mobile device.
Olive Leaf Extract: My favorite is Vitacost, because it’s the best quality and price. Here’s the Vitacost link. This Swanson Super Strength is the best one sold on Amazon, next to Vitacost, which is more expensive there than on the Vitacost site.
Raw garlic: (Any grocery store produce section: buy the heads, not the stuff in the jars)
Fresh baking soda from the store: The stuff you have lying around the house is almost guaranteed to taste horrid, because it absorbs odors.
Lemon juice: You’re going to want a big bottle, or lots of lemons and a juicer.
Cayenne pepper: (Any grocery store spice aisle: the capsules are unnecessary. Mix the loose powder into a spoonful of honey, instead. If you take this and feel increased irritation, discontinue use; it’s not helpful against the type of bacteria you have.)
Oil of oregano: I used the Vitacost liquid and filled empty capsules with it, but they’re out of that, as of this writing (4/5/17). I should think that the stuff in the capsules would work, too. Use for E. coli infections AFTER a cleanse, alongside OLE. It’s much more effective in the bladder once you’ve gotten any intestinal Candida out of the way. Here’s a reputable brand, on Amazon.
Vitamin C: I’ve had recent experience with this absolutely slaughtering a staph infection deep in my skin: if you have a staph UTI, go for it. Any standard ascorbic acid from the grocery store is fine: look for 1000 mg capsules like these. Or this powder that dissolves in water.
Activated charcoal: ⇐ Click for the good stuff. You can get these in capsules from a local store, but in the quantities you’ll want to take to cleanse your gut and prevent future UTI’s, the loose powder form is far more cost-effective. It’s completely odorless and tasteless: all you have to do is stir it into a glass of water and chug it. You can also make poultices from it for skin infections, wounds, and for a sore urethra. If you’re determined to buy the capsules, these are the best ones: they’re 500 mg, when the store ones are generally 260 mg.
Coconut oil: This is what you want to use as a base for vaginal treatments for current infections, and for preventive maintenance.
Cinnamon/Ginger: (You can grate a fresh ginger root from the store, or get a jar of powdered ginger or cinnamon in the spice aisle. Warning: About 2% of UTI’s are caused by a strain of E. coli that responds very negatively to ginger and turmeric. If you take either and feel increased bladder pressure, discontinue immediately. That strain also responds badly to cayenne pepper.)
UTI tests: These are so much cheaper online than in the store, it’s ridiculous. Get the 10 parameter ones so you can monitor All The Things.
Here’s the link for 8 parameter strips for those of you in the U.K.
HCL is imperative if you have low stomach acid, which you probably do. Nothing you take will work like it should if your stomach isn’t making enough acid. HCL is replacement acid that will vastly improve your digestion and absorption.
Probiotics: Ladies, I tried this kind right here, and I’m IN LOVE. I talk about what it has in it in this post, and I wasn’t kidding. It’s awesome sauce, with a side of fanfreakin’tastic. It went Search and Destroy on bad guys in my hoohah that a coconut bullet didn’t reach, because those two Lacto strains go all Delta Force strike team up in there. Place it high at bedtime, because you want them staying in your lady cave and not going spelunking in your urethra.
For gut repair after repeated antibiotics: L-glutamine to regenerate your gut lining, and pair this probiotic with Femdophilus.
Also, licorice helps your stomach lining, your acid production, and your adrenals, all of which benefits your gut.
Digestive enzymes would also be a good idea until you’ve re-established a healthy probiotic population in your regenerated gut lining.
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Yes, that’s right. We’re bringing out the big guns, now.
By this time, you should have been following the recommendations outlined in the Phase I post for at least 3 days, and you may be getting headaches, nausea, and hopefully, loose stools from Candida die-off. Your UTI pain should be alleviated by 30-40%, as well.
With your strong OLE you bought online in hand, you can start taking it with every meal. With Vitacost OLE (500 mg capsule with 90 mg oleuropein in it) you can take..
- 2 with breakfast
- 1 with lunch, and
- 1 with dinner
..on the first day, and see how you feel at the end of the day. You may experience an increase in die-off symptoms. For nausea, you can drink a glass of baking soda water to settle your stomach in 10 minutes, but for the headache you’ll just have to stay well-hydrated and soldier through. If you feel pretty good, take 1 more capsule before bed, and in the morning take..
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It sounds simple enough when you look at the box, but you’d be surprised.
First of all, if your infection isn’t raging out of control, you may not get any results at all unless you test first thing in the morning, because neither leukocytes nor nitrites have built up enough in your urine for the reagent to pick up on them. So if you feel like you have something, but you take a test and don’t see anything, wait till first thing the next morning to get a true read.
Secondly, nitrites are more easily flushed out of your urine, (they take 4 hours to build up in it) so you can feel something coming on and take a test in the afternoon and only see leuokocytes, (the top one that turns tan-purple) making you think that you have a gram positive infection, and then you can take something for it and test again the next morning, and see only nitrites (The one that turns pink).
I wish I had a picture of my expression when this happened to me.
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If you’ve done everything outlined in Phases I and II and you still have trace leukocyte test results you can’t seem to shake, the best course of action is to increase your raw garlic intake.
I know, not what anyone wants to hear, right? But, it works, and you only have to do it for 3 days. Increase by one clove per meal throughout the day, while still doing everything you’ve been doing, then get a good grip on your courage and take 3 good-sized cloves before bed. No cheating with those skinny little inner cloves, now. I can see you. Ò_Ó
Y’all will be delighted to hear that ‘more garlic’ is Old and Busted, and ‘oregano oil’ is New Hotness!
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Deciphering OLE Supplement Labels
Posted in Spending Wisely, Supplements, and Useful Tips
So, you’re at the local hippie store trying to find some OLE, and this looks good, right? It says 18% right there in black and white! This is what you’re going to see on the store brand OLE labels.
At first glance, you’d think you’re holding some quality OLE in your hot little hands, but look again at that label. See how it’s split into olive leaf extract, and olive leaf?
Those are 400 mg capsules, and they have 215 mg of olive leaf extract with 18% oleuropein, and 185 mg of olive leaf, which is basically useless filler.
What you’re really holding is about 9% oleuropein, total. Those 400 mg capsules have 38.7 mg of active ingredient. To contrast, Vitacost OLE, my favorite, has 90 mg of oleuropein in a 500 mg capsule, for a true 18% active ingredient.
Many health food stores carry Gaia brand in addition to a store brand, and guess what % of active ingredient that has?
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The Deadly Duo: UTI’s and Candida
Posted in UTI Causes
Something most people don’t realize is that virtually every case of UTI coexists with and is exacerbated by a case of intestinal Candida overgrowth. The UTI itself may even have been indirectly caused by Candida.
What happens is, you get your first UTI, for whatever reason. Like any normal person, you take antibiotics for it. Presto, infection’s gone. You may or may not get a vaginal yeast infection afterward, which you may treat topically, and you may take probiotics and think you’re fine, intestinally. Especially if you took Diflucan, because if you take that, you’re alright, right?
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(For obvious reasons, I have to get creative if I want to use any pictures on this blog. That one is of the high-altitude Chilean desert.)
Many of the women who contact me about curing their UTI’s naturally are at their wit’s end because they get a new UTI every time they have sex. Talk about a mood-killer, right?
There are 3 factors at play, here, in order of likelihood:
- Bacteria present in vagina
- Bacteria present in the region of the rectum
- Bacteria present on male, fondly known as the Poison Penis.
I’ve discussed what causes #2 here: this post is about how to deal with #1.
Normally, a pathogen that finds its way to your lady parts is unable to make a happy home there, due to the presence of beneficial bacteria and an overall healthy vaginal environment. After a round or two of antibiotics, though, the balance of vaginal flora is skewed and both Candida and pathogens like Gardnerella (causes BV), Klebsiella, E. coli, staph and many more, are able to flourish there. After that, it’s a hop and a skip to your urethra.
I’m not breaking out the ruler, because my thirst for knowledge goes only so far, but we’re talking about half an inch or so from vagina to urethra. Easy peasy for even a couch potato of a pathogen.
The key to restoring vaginal health naturally and effectively is…
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The pH Connection: Or, Why I Never Recommend Cranberry Juice
Posted in Diet, Immediate UTI Treatment, Infection Killing Protocol, and Useful Tips
There’s a great deal of confusion surrounding the issue of whether your urine pH should be acidic or alkaline, when you have a UTI.
Most people think that it should be more acidic, largely because they hear that cranberry juice is good for a UTI and that’s very, very acidic.
Also, if they put lemon juice in their water and feel better, they think the lemon juice acidified their urine. More on that, in a bit.
If you’ve used cranberry juice, and it seemed to get better, and then it got worse, this is why…(the link is a very worthwhile read)
..cranberry produces hippuric acid in the urine…Putting hippuric acid into the urine initially kills off the bacteria that have thinner acid-susceptible cell-walls, leaving only thicker-skinned acid-resistant individuals to multiply and pass on their resistant genes.
Therefore, you feel better initially, and then the toughest bacteria take over, and you actually get worse, because the surviving bacteria are now more resistant to anything you take, including antibiotics. Fortunately, this isn’t irreversible, so if you’ve experienced this, don’t freak out.
I’ve only seen about a dozen cases of this one, so if you have it please contact me so I can add to the knowledge base on it.
While Pseudomonas doesn’t produce nitrites at the same rate as most other types of gram negative bacteria, like them it’s motile (it swims via flagellar propulsion, meaning it can travel to the kidneys and then to the bloodstream) and feeds on nitrates in an acidic environment. Bolded comments in parenthesis mine.
The bacterium is ubiquitous in soil and water, and on surfaces in contact with soil or water. Its metabolism is respiratory and never fermentative, but it will grow in the absence of O2 (oxygen) if NO3 (nitrate) is available as a respiratory electron acceptor. (In other words, it flourishes in the bladder)
The typical Pseudomonas bacterium in nature might be found in a biofilm, attached to some surface or substrate, or in a planktonic form, as a unicellular organism, actively swimming by means of its flagellum. Pseudomonas is one of the most vigorous, fast-swimming bacteria seen in hay infusions and pond water samples.
In its natural habitat Pseudomonas aeruginosa is not particularly distinctive as a pseudomonad, but it does have a combination of physiological traits that are noteworthy and may relate to its pathogenesis (how it develops from a harmless soil and water-borne bacteria into a disease in the human body).
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa has very simple nutritional requirements. It is often observed “growing in distilled water”, which is evidence of its minimal nutritional needs. In the laboratory, the simplest medium for growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa consists of acetate as a source of carbon and ammonium sulfate as a source of nitrogen.
• P. aeruginosa possesses the metabolic versatility for which pseudomonads are so renowned. Organic growth factors are not required, and it can use more than seventy-five organic compounds for growth.
• Its optimum temperature for growth is 37 degrees C (Yes, my fellow Americans, that’s 98.6F), and it is able to grow at temperatures as high as 42 degrees (you’ll die of a fever before it will).
• It is tolerant to a wide variety of physical conditions, including temperature. It is resistant to high concentrations of salts and dyes, weak antiseptics, and many commonly used antibiotics.
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa has a predilection for growth in moist environments (like the bladder, kidneys, and lungs), which is probably a reflection of its natural existence in soil and water.
These natural properties of the bacterium undoubtedly contribute to its ecological success as an opportunistic pathogen. They also help explain the ubiquitous nature of the organism and its prominence as a nosocomial (hospital-acquired) pathogen.
While it causes a relatively low percentage of bladder infections compared to previous perps in the Kill List series, it’s disproportionately high up the list of antibiotic-proof infections. As outlined above, Pseudomonas is highly adaptable, opportunistic, adept at biofilm formation, and frequently introduced to the bladder via catheterization of a hospital patient who’s already immuno-compromised.
The Kill List: Staphylococcus Edition
Posted in Cellulitis, Infection Killing Protocol, and The Kill List Series
I’ve seen two species of Staph cause UTIs: Staphylococcus aureus and Staph saprophyticus. Like the other ‘coccus’ bacteria, you want to acidify the urine to discourage growth, the opposite of what you do for the more common gram negative bacteria types. A pH around 4 is perfect, and while the urine test strips only test pH down to 5, you’ll know when you’ve gotten down to 4 because your discomfort will ease up.
Staph aureus (of MRSA fame) is my favorite, because it’s so ridiculously easy to kill when you know what to use. I’m talking a complete cure in 2 days, with one thing. And you don’t even have to worry about gut interference and Candida die-off symptoms, because the cure for S. aureus doesn’t kill Candida and it even speeds you up, making a charcoal cleanse a snap.
Think that sounds too good to be true?
It gets better. The cure is at any local grocery store or drugstore and it costs maybe $5.
The Kill List: Streptococcus (Group B & A)
Posted in Infection Killing Protocol, Supplements, and The Kill List Series
Group B strep, Streptococcus agalactiae, is the most common strep that causes UTIs: I’ve only seen one case of Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A strep, which causes strep throat. Use the same treatment for that one as for GBS, but definitely use grated horseradish).
GBS is the most persistent gram positive bacteria, typically low grade and not particularly virulent, but it’s like that one guy who won’t go away no matter how hard you friend-zone him.
Like entero, it’s gram positive, non-motile (can’t swim around like most of the gram negative pathogens can) and your first step is going to be acidifying your urine pH. Gram positive bacteria thrive in an alkaline environment, which is why they don’t cause the kind of bladder pain something like E. coli does: they don’t naturally thrive in the bladder, where the pH is usually around 5.
Now, based on the cases I’ve seen, the main reason this has been hard to treat in the past is…you’ve probably already guessed it….low stomach acid. Streptococcus is highly susceptible to organosulphurs, especially in garlic, *light bulb moment ahead*…..
One Shot, Two Kills: Multiple Bacterial Infection
Posted in Infection Killing Protocol, Troubleshooting, and Useful Tips
This freaks people out when it happens, but it’s surprisingly common to have more than one type of bacteria show up in a culture. And it’s often a gram negative/gram positive pair, like E. coli with Group B strep, or Enterococcus.
This is actually pretty simple to address: just keep in mind that the gram negative bacteria replicates faster and can swim to the kidneys, whereas the gram positive kinds aren’t near so virulent in the bladder.
Ergo, you go after the gram negative bacteria first. After that one has gone down under your assault you take aim on the gram positive.
Optimally, you want to use the natural meds that attack both bacteria, while keeping your pH at a level to discourage the gram negative bacteria.
(For instance, if you have E. coli + Enterococcus you’d take juiced ginger, raw garlic or horseradish, and OLE, using lemon juice to keep your urine pH alkaline, then add in ascorbic acid when E. coli is dead, dropping the lemon.)
Go to the Kill List Series category, find your bacteria, see which meds kill both/all (I’ve seen cultures that showed 3-4 bacteria in there), and take all the ones those profiles have in common.
Keep testing every morning, and when all nitrites have been gone for 3 days straight, or a new culture shows that the gram negative one is gone, drop the alkalizing lemon and start taking ascorbic acid Vitamin C to lower your pH. Keep going until your leuks are clear at the 5 minute mark for 3 days straight, then you can start tapering down. (If you’re super paranoid you can watch that test till the 10 minute mark.)
As always, you want to check your stomach acid: if it’s low you use lemon juice shots till the gram negative bacteria is dead, then switch to HCL with meals. Read the instructions in the Kill List posts carefully, and these essential tips for killing any infection.
Essential Tips and Tricks
Posted in Troubleshooting, and Useful Tips
There are a multitude of ways to kill a UTI, depending on which genus, species, and strain you have, but some things remain constant no matter what type of bacteria you have and what regimen of meds you’re using. You must keep these things in mind and implement them no matter which way you’re killing a UTI.
The Hippocrates Special
Posted in Immediate UTI Treatment, Infection Killing Protocol, Supplements, and Useful Tips
“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.”–Hippocrates
This is an alternative strategy for killing a gram negative (E. coli, Klebsiella, Proteus) UTI purely with produce, and a juicer. Alternative instructions are given for a gram positive infection.
If you don’t already have a juicer, a cheap $30 centrifugal one from Wal-Mart/Target/Bed, Bath & Beyond will do the job, but a masticating one is best: you can get an $85-95 model on Amazon. The difference is that the centrifugal one oxidizes the ingredients during the process, meaning their medicinal and nutritional value has a limited life span: you want to drink that juice right away.
The Kill List: Enterococcus Edition
Posted in Infection Killing Protocol, Supplements, and The Kill List Series
This is the most common gram positive bacteria causing UTIs. It and the other bacteria ending in “coccus” (staph and strep) are less painful and virulent in the bladder due to two factors:
- They aren’t motile, i.e., the little effers can’t swim to your kidneys, and
- Their growth is inhibited by an acid pH, and anyone on a typical Western diet has a urine pH around 5-6, which is acidic enough to keep the bacteria somewhat in check.
#1 means you don’t have to worry about a runaway infection getting to your kidneys, and #2 means you’re not going to be in the kind of raging pain typically associated with a UTI. At most, you generally feel some irritation and have frequency, but you’re not doubled over.
The Kill List: Proteus Edition
Posted in Infection Killing Protocol, Supplements, and The Kill List Series
Proteus mirabilis is an interesting bug, named after an ancient Greek god of the sea for its ability to change its shape and swarm rapidly over moist surfaces. Ominous, no?
It’s a member of the same (infamous crime) family as E. coli: gram negative, motile, naturally resistant to penicillin and fluorquinolone-based antibiotics, highly likely to form a biofilm when it spreads in a medical setting, generally through catheters, but almost every case I’ve seen has been in someone who hadn’t been catheterized.
All of them, however, had low stomach acid. Treating that is vital to both killing a current Proteus infection, and preventing new ones.
It Hurts When I Pee Decision Tree
Posted in Immediate UTI Treatment, and Useful Tips
Click here (Decision Tree) to open this graphic in your web browser as a PDF with hyperlinks.
The Kill List: Klebsiella Edition
Posted in Infection Killing Protocol, Profiles, Supplements, The Kill List Series, and Useful Tips
Klebsiella is the second most common cause of UTIs and has two different species that cause infection: K. pneumoniae and K. oxytoca. Like E. coli, it is motile (the little bastards can swim) and gram-negative, meaning it too can be suppressed by alkalizing the urine.
K. pneumoniae is the most common, and is often quite antibiotic resistant. That species name does indeed mean what you think it means: it’s the bacteria that causes pneumonia. That sounds scary, but don’t worry: there’s a silver bullet in the arsenal for this one.