Cystitis

Herbal Introduction | Nutritional Advice | Natural Healing | Herb Quality

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Avoid highly acidic food and drinks (coffee, tea, alcohol, chocolate); instead use alkaline ones like fresh lemon juice in spring water. Drink lots of it.

Keep your diet simple yet supportive with whole grains, vegetables and fruits initially.

Put 3 tsp of apple cider vinegar into apple juice and drink four times daily.

Drink home made barley water

Drink unsweetened cranberry juice. Or, dried cranberry's soaked in water overnight. They hugely reduce the rapidity of the infection, inflammation to proliferate.

Raw foods are alkaline, so concentrate on these, they will also strengthen your overall immune system as long as you are not a 'cold' type of person and underweight [Do have a professional evaluation]. But be aware, cold and poor nourishment, lack of sleep and self nurturing can all underlay and precipitate a cystitis episode.

If you have problems with excess roughage because of bowel problems.

Consult a professional for suggestions, but raw juicing accompanied by nutritional Superfood would be one natural choice.

To help fight the bacterial infection your kitchen cooking choices should include garlic, turmeric, and thyme.

Herb Quality:

A large proportion of our herbs are grown in English soils, harvested using bio-chemistry analysis and many but not always, processed fresh, which heightens their remedial properties. The majority are grown organically and or sustainably wild-crafted. All manufacturing is carried out using licensed good manufacturing practice.

DO NOT MIX HERBAL MEDICINE AND GP PRESCRIBED MEDICATION WITHOUT THE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR GP OR PRACTIONER

Have regular baths and showers to keep yourself clean. Apple cider vinegar in the bath water will help and a few drops of any or all of; cedarwood, eucalyptus, bergamot, lavender or juniper essential oils. Don't stay in the bath too long, keep the water warm rather than hot.

Make sure your bowels are moving at least two or three times daily because the carefully selected fluid intake will disinfect and cleanse the bacteria from the system but if these harmful toxins are left to stay in the system too long, re-infection will occur and healing will be a slow process.

Avoid being cold and chilled, take time for yourself to heal and spend time in bed if possible with natural fibre bedding.

Wear a long skirt or baggy trousers and no underwear if possible. Alternatively wear loose fitting cotton or silk underwear. Avoid tight constricting clothing made from man-made fibres.

• A burning feeling in the urethra when you pass water – sometimes there can be blood in the urine or it may be cloudy.

• A feeling that you need to pass water very frequently even though there may be hardly any urine to pass.

• A dragging ache in the lower back or abdomen

• Bacteria – the bacteria which normally live in your bowel can cause inflammation if they get into the urethra or bladder

• Friction – sometimes the urethra can be bruised during sex

• ‘Irritable bladder’ – a particularly sensitive bladder

• Drink a pint of liquid as soon as you recognise the symptoms. Then, every 20 minutes, drink at least another half-pint of fluid. After 3 hours you will probably find the symptoms begin to wear off. Lots of water (or any other bland liquid) helps to flush out bacteria and to dilute your urine so that it does not sting as much when you pass water.

• Place a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel between your thighs or on your lower back to help ease the pain.

• Take a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda mixed with half a pint of water, or other weak liquid, every hour. This makes your urine less acidic and so stops the bacteria multiplying. It also eases the stinging when you pass water. (Anyone with high blood pressure or heart trouble should not take bicarbonate of soda).

• Take a couple of pain-killers.

• Rest and relax. Ask your doctor about alternative or complementary treatments like aromatherapy. Some women find that regular drinking of cranberry juice, or barley water, can help clear up an attack.

• Your pharmacist, who can sell you a treatment to relieve the sumptoms of cystitis.

• Your own GP

• Your local NHS sexual health (GUM) clinic. You can find details of your nearest NHS sexual health clinic in the phone book under genitor-urinary medicine (GUM), sexually transmitted diseases (STD) or venereal diseases (VD). Or phone your local hospital and ask for the ‘special’ or GUM clinic. You will get free, confidential advice and treatment. You can go to any clinic anywhere in the country – you don’t have to go to a local one – and you don’t have to be referred by your GP. (Non-NHS sexual health clinics may not always offer the full range of services which are available at NHS sexual health clinics.)

• An attack of cystitis continues for more than a day or two or you have repeated episodes

• You are pregnant (because pregnant women are particularly prone to kidney infections, this will have to be ruled out by your doctor).

• You notice blood in your urine

• You have other symptoms, such as vaginal discharge

• You think your cystitis symptoms could be caused by a sexually transmitted infection

• Drink at least 1.5 litres (3 pints) of liquid a day

• Pass water whenever you feel the need – don’t hang on to the last minute

• Make sure you empty your bladder completely when you pass water

• Always wipe your bottom from front to back to avoid spreading bacteria from the anus

• Avoid using perfumed soaps, deodorants, antiseptics or talc in the genital area

• If you get cystitis after sex it may help to:

• Wash and pass water before and after sex (ask your partner to do the same)

• Use a lubricant when you have penetrative sex