Bladder Infections
I have had so many people come into my store lately with bladder infections: women in their 70’s, 3 year old girls, and every age in between. The first thing we ask people when they come in with this issue is “What are you pissed off at? And they typically look at us in shock and say “how did you know I was pissed off at something?” As I have written about so often before, there is an emotion behind every illness and the emotion behind bladder infections is “being pissed off”. They don’t need to tell us what they are pissed off at or about; the idea is for them to acknowledge the emotion and to do something about it for themselves.
If they need help with acknowledging the emotion – the best book we have found for that is Feelings Buried Alive, Never Die, by Karol Truman. Once the emotions are acknowledged, there are things that can help physically, nutritionally and neurologically.
Conventional Medicine
If you have a bladder infection it can be uncomfortable, causing symptoms of burning, itching or desire to urinate, but nothing comes out. Conventional medicine only has one option and that is to take an anti-biotic. Medical doctors want you to take this to kill the infection and to prevent the infection from moving into your kidneys (kidney infections are terrible – I have had them before). But unfortunately taking antibiotics may get rid of your symptoms and your current infection, but typically people then get on the non-stop merry go round where they take antibiotics every few months off/on that never seems to stop. So is this really fixing the overall problem?
A popular home remedy that many people and even doctors are now recommending is to drink cranberry juice, and there are cranberry pills available for those that don’t like the taste of cranberry juice. The problem is that this often doesn’t fix the over all problem either. There can be various mutated strains of organisms that can cause infections – and antibiotics can cause these mutations over time. And we have found that recently in the past 2 years or so that the mutated strains don’t respond as well to the cranberry juice like they used to. To say nothing of the fact that most people drink the cranberry juice with tons of sugar in it which only feeds the organism even more!
In addition, what people don’t realize is that the reason they have the infection in the first place is often because there is too much acid in their body, and specifically in the bladder area. This makes an optimal environment for organisms to thrive. Cranberry juice, once it is digested and “burned” by the body leaves an acidic ash – which means it is creating more of an acid environment for the organism instead of less of one.
This acid/alkaline balance is an extremely delicate process that the body is always trying to maintain. Organisms are very cognizant of this fact and have been around a lot longer than us and know how to take advantage of a good thing.
So how can you prevent bladder infections in the future? And if you happen to have a bladder infection, how do you get rid of it effectively so it won’t return?
Water
The first thing is to drink LOTS of good water. Think of your body’s fluid as being a flowing river. If you are drinking an excess of toxic drinks such as soda, coffee, sugar and preservative laden juices, these beverages make the river more toxic and acidic. If you don’t drink enough water, the river in your body will start to get stagnant similar to when a river dries up, and creates ponds, which organisms love to populate. Drinking lots of quality water can help to easily flush this environment. The cheapest fix for a bladder infection is to have people drink 2 gallons of water in one day. This cleanses everything out and many times fixes the problem. You will be going potty every 20 minutes, but the infection most likely will get flushed out along with everything else. Getting your hydration level up and keeping it up can help to prevent future issues.
It is important to keep water in your body but the right kind of water can help even more. For example, if your body is toxic, it important to drink water that will help you detox, such as distilled water. However, if you are also acidic which people with bladder infections often are, it is important to NOT drink water that is acidic, which distilled water is. Adding lemon or lime juice or liquid minerals to water can help to alkalize the water.
Chiropractic
There are all kinds of chiropractors, and just like every thing else there are some chiropractors you may connect with more positively than others. I highly recommend you keep searching till you find one that will spend more time to assist you with your specific issue, or one that may have a better skill set to address your specific issues. Chiropractic has to do with working with your nervous system in the body, which is similar to the electrical system in your car or home. If your nervous system is misfiring, or there are “circuits” that are blown, this can cause blockages, which can cause illnesses such as bladder infections. These are caused from injuries, stress (such as holding onto the emotion of being upset about something), or often nutritional deficiencies. Finding a good chiropractor for yourself can help you to stay healthy, to release blockages which can help you release emotional baggage easier, and to help keep you healthier in the long run.
Herbs
There are other herbs that have diuretic properties that can help to flush the bladder as well to help remove the infection. Herbs such as parsley, dandelion, juniper berries and uva ursi all have diuretic effects and will make you urinate more as they push the urine, the acid and infection out. It is often optimum to take these while drinking all that water so that your body has a fresh supply of clean water to help flush with. Another herb that you most likely won’t read about anywhere else for bladder infections is Damiana taken as a tea. Damiana is mostly used by herbalists to help improve people’s sex drive. However Damiana made into a tea is very good at flushing fungus and infection out of the kidneys and bladder. It is important to drink the tea 3-4 times a day for best results and to drink the water, and to support the kidneys/bladder with one or more of the herbs above. Many herbalists offer combinations of herbs specifically for this purpose. Bucha is another herb that is sold with cranberry or in other urinary formulas to help prevent or stop bladder infections.
pH
As I have mentioned in previous articles and briefly discussed here, having the proper pH can help to make this issue go away and stay away for good. The largest acid producer in your body is your emotions, so if you are upset or pissed off, this can create more acid in your body. If you are emotional upset, go ahead and have the emotional party, or what we call “drama parties”; it is important to experience the emotion, to acknowledge it but give your self a time limit for the drama party, then move through it to the other side, which is often forgiveness. This can help to reduce the acid in the body, instead of creating a whole river of emotional acid.
Pro-biotics
If you have been on the merry go round with the antibiotics off/on again, then it is important to take some probiotics, which the antibiotics kill along with your infection. You are supposed to have over 650 strains of healthy probiotics that live in your small intestine and all throughout your body, which help to build important vitamins such as B vitamins, they help your immune system, and kill fungus. If they aren’t there – fungus often takes over in your body causing all kinds of other health problems. If you want to learn how important probiotics are, I encourage you to read an article in November 2005, Discover Magazine entitled “Are Antibiotics Killing Us?” which can be viewed from the Discover Magazine website at http://discovermagazine.com/2005/nov/are-antibioticskilling/?searchterm=antibiotics.
If you are having fungus issues already, that is another topic for another day. If you have these health concerns, which I did constantly for several years, I hope you will work to strengthen this part of your body, which should help to prevent problems in the future.