Natural home remedies for the treatment of bladder infections

Without antibiotics: gentle cure for cystitis
Especially in the cold season, many people suffer from a bladder infection. Not a few of them then rely on antibiotics. But also "harmless" painkillers or simple natural remedies can relieve the symptoms. A new study now showed that a majority of women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections got healthy without antibiotics.

Urinary tract infections especially in women
Especially in the cold winter months, many people suffer from a bladder infection. Typical signs of a disease are mainly pain and burning during urination. Constant urgency is also an indication of an infection. Sometimes spasmodic pain, blood in the urine and fever occur. Although men can also get sick, according to health experts, up to 95 of those affected are female. The fact that women are more often affected by cystitis than men is due to an anatomical difference. The urethra of women is about four centimeters shorter and thus more appropriate to allow invading bacteria to make their way up into the bladder.

To prevent illness, some advice from experts should be followed. But if it hits you, home remedies for cystitis, as well as medicines, can often help.

Prevent bladder infections
Cystitis, also called "cystitis", is often triggered by Escherichia coli bacteria, which are part of the normal human intestinal flora. The hygiene at the toilet therefore always plays an important role, if you want to prevent a disease: It is the rule to always clean from front to back. Another contributing factor to the development of cystitis is hypothermia. So it's not a medical myth that cold soils can catch the bladder. Experts advise especially in the winter to warm underwear, preferably made of cotton. Thus, the abdomen can be protected from strong cold.

As a rule, it is also recommended to keep your feet as warm as possible. And in summer it is important to change wet swimsuits and swimming trunks immediately after swimming. Other risk factors for cystitis include hormonal changes during menopause, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, a weakened immune system or frequent sexual intercourse (so-called honeymoon cystitis). Because of the latter, women are advised to empty the bladder immediately after having sex.

Gentle methods against urinary tract infections
Since the inflammation is in most cases unpleasant, but relatively harmless, there are often simple therapies for sufferers, with which a urinary tract infection can be alleviated. It is important to keep warm and drink a lot. Here are especially hot drinks. For example, stinging nettle tea, bearberry leaves or juniper can have a healing effect.

There are also herbal medicines available without a prescription that can relieve possible discomfort with cystitis. If self-therapy does not improve after about two to three days, medical advice should be sought, according to experts. For some patients, such as pregnant women, children, men and women with chronic cystitis, a visit to a doctor is recommended even with the first symptoms. Especially if there is blood in the urine or pain in the lower back area. The physician will then often prescribe antibiotics. Therapy with such drugs can in many cases prevent the bladder infection leading to permanent kidney damage. In uncomplicated urinary tract infections, however, antibiotics are often not necessary, as a new study showed.

Antibiotics often not necessary
The study, which involved nearly 500 patients in 42 primary care practices in northern Germany, found that two-thirds of women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections receiving only painkillers recovered well without antibiotics. As the researchers from Göttingen, Hanover and Bremen reported online in the journal "British Medical Journal", kidney pelvic inflammations occurred only in individual women. Although this was more common in the group treated with analgesics alone. Statistically, the difference was not significant.

The findings may help prevent antibiotics from being prescribed in the case of cystitis only when they are really needed. According to the information, the four-year study was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation with 1.2 million euros. (Ad)