are you suffering from repeated bladder infections and looking for natural solutions hi
i'm michelle and today i'm going to take you through five natural ways to help you prevent
recurrent bladder infections now if you're one of my videos in one place don't forget to grab my
app my pelvic app you can get the link down below and you can grab these videos and access them in a
convenient place all at once so let's get started we're going to go through these tips one at a time
you may be familiar with some of them and that's okay to have a reminder but there might be some
new things too and if there's something that you that's worked for you please feel welcome to put
it in the comments below because that'll help other viewers as well now the first tip is to
drink water now you probably know that drinking water helps with a bladder infection and helps
prevent bladder infections now the reason for that is that you can see
here the bacteria that can invade the bladder and can multiply have little leg like projections
and they can stick to the walls of the bladder so when they can stick to the walls of the bladder
they get a hold then they can multiply and that's what can cause a bladder infection
so the idea is to be drinking water but not too much and if you've got a health problem that
prevents you drinking too much water just get some medical advice on that before you start increasing
your water intake now water intake should be about six ounces six ounce cups so i've got
here we go and you want to be drinking about six to eight of these a day so that's your six ounce
or 240 mls okay so that's that much and i would suggest that rather than drinking it all at once
that you actually sip it so if you're sipping your water throughout the day
the bladder is constantly filling and then it will empty well if you suddenly drink then the
blood will rapidly expand and you'll get that pain when the bladder rapidly contracts as well
so just drinking steadily throughout the day is a really good solution now the second thing you
can do is to drink cranberry juice or conversely take cranberry tablets now this has actually been
established in the research to prevent bladder infections and it was previously thought that the
cranberry juice made the bladder or made the urine more acidic it's actually the case that cranberry
juice has a chemical in it and that chemical stops the little bacteria from getting their legs in the
bladder wall and sticking you'd be taking a six ounce cup so one six ounce glass so that that much
of your cranberry juice so there's the cranberry juice there i've got this one here because it's a
light cranberry juice now the reason for that is this one has no added sugar so you can get
cranberry juice without added sugar and add added preservatives and that's the one to look for not a
syrupy kind just a plain juice so that's your one your one cup that you could have daily to prevent
your bladder infections and you can also take that in tablet form as well now my next tip is to empty
your bladder fully now if you're suffering from prolapse problems or tight pelvic floor muscles
or even just when you're empty regularly you might be surprised at how much urine is actually left
in the bladder so to empty your bladder properly and to make sure all the urine
comes out so it doesn't sit there and congregate with bacteria what you can do is first of all
make sure that you sit on the toilet seat never hover above it so sit because when you sit down to
empty and you lean forward then the pelvic floor muscles can relax and your bladder can empty well
and the other thing is to take your time i think we're all guilty of trying to rush through our
through bladder emptying aren't we from time to time so really take your time to fully empty if
you think you're having problems emptying you can do a technique called a double void and you can
refer to that in my video above on how to double void and how to completely empty your bladder
if you're not sure now the fourth thing to think about is intimacy and intimate health so you've
probably heard about honeymoon cystitis when e coli bacteria can actually get into the bladder
and we can prevent that and there's ways of preventing that by emptying your bladder
immediately before and after any intimacy and the other thing that you can also do too
is to use a water-based lubricant now if you look on the ingredients of your lubricant bottle
you can see that it's either a water base so water would be the first ingredient if oil or petroleum
is the first ingredient then the bacteria can actually congregate and and stick in that oil
and you'll know that it's really quite hard to wash off so a water-based lubricant will wash
off readily whereas an oil-based lubricant will adhere to your skin and the bacteria can stay
in the oil-based lubricant the other thing is to make sure that when you wash always use just water
not soap and not perfumes in the intimate area the final thing is to think about using something like
vaginal estrogen so while this isn't a natural tip it's really well worth knowing for women
with menopause so during menopause estrogen decreases now when this happens the vaginal
tissues aren't as well nourished and it can make you much more predisposed to a bladder infection
there's a breakdown in the the tissues or the lining of the bladder and also too the opening
of the bladder becomes much wider as you can see here now you can use vaginal estrogen either
in a pessary form or a cream form and you get that obviously from your doctor and what that
does is actually nourishes the tissues in this area and can help you then close down that opening
into the urethra so the space isn't quite so open as you can see here and also to improve
the the lining of the the lining of the bladder so it's much less susceptible to infection
so i think you can see there's quite a number of things you can do to actually help yourself
prevent a repeat bladder infection we've talked about drinking more water we've talked about
cranberry in form of juice or tablets we've talked about your intimate health we've also talked about
emptying your bladder and emptying your bladder really well and finally we talked about vaginal
estrogen and perhaps considering using that and talking with your doctor about that as well
so i really hope that these five tips help you prevent urinary tract infections and help you
escape that ongoing problem of having to have repeat antibiotics all the time if you've got a
tip let me know in the comments below and also too if you've enjoyed this video or found it helpful
i'd really appreciate you giving the like in the button below because that helps other women find
the video too so thanks so much for watching today i look forward to seeing you next time bye for now
you