Works for Me Wednesday- tip for over 50 urinary health

Looks like I have not done a Works For Me Wednesday Post for a year now!  It’s even moved over to a new host since then! So please see the link up over at Giving up on Perfect for some great tips and ideas!

A few years ago I started noticing some unusual discomfort in the pelvic area.  I have had seven pregnancies. The six that went to term were all over 8 pounds, with five of those over 9 pounds and two closer to 11 pounds!  I carried some big babies.  So I knew that some of my internal organs had shifted and dropped a little and some of my care providers confirmed that.

A few summers ago I noticed as I was walking around doing my normal daily routine that my pelvis felt heavier and that it seemed as though something might actually “drop out.” So with great reluctance I went to my doctor, who did a pelvic exam and said that while I indeed have a few issues, nothing was bad enough to necessitate surgery.  She then ran a urinalysis and we were surprised to find that I had a bladder infection and she thought that I was having atypical symptoms from that. She was rather surprised that I wasn’t experiencing more symptoms including fever and painful urintion.

She put me on a course of antibiotics, and to my delight, the symptoms disappeared and I felt great. Unfortunately, I ended up needing antibiotics later that summer for an axillary abscess, and all of these antibiotics did a great job of killing off the normal flora in my intestinal tract and triggering ulcerative colitis.

I have since gotten all of that under control, changed my diet and even lost 30 pounds. But earlier this year I started experiencing that old feeling of heaviness and started wondering if I was having a recurrence of the bladder infection. I knew my doctor’s first course of action would be an antibiotic, so I wondered if there were things I could do at home to save me from going down that path again. (Repopulating my colon with good bacteria and recovering from ulcerative colitis had been very intensive and I was reluctant to do anything to cause any more harm in that area!)

To flush out my system I started drinking more water but I knew I had to do something to ward off a full UTI.  I was going to try drinking cranberry juice.

Lots of people swear by cranberry juice for urinary tract issues, but it hasn’t really been studied thoroughly, although there does seem to be some evidence that it can be helpful in preventing an infection. 

But I didn’t really want the extra calories from the juice nor did I want to consume any sugar- which is also not that great for ulcerative colitis. So I decided to try the cranberry tablets.  If it worked – great!  and if not, I was only out a few dollars and could still see my doctor for a prescription.

I’m happy to report the pills I bought worked great. My symptoms disappeared and I haven’t had any problems since then. I use the Sundown Naturals Super Cranberry 8400 mg with Vitamin D 3 1000 IU.  You can get them off Amazon but I got mine right down at my neighborhood Walgreen’s store. It says to take 2 capsules three times a day with meals, but I know sometimes I forget and am probably only doing it twice a day. A couple of times I have forgotten altogether and started to feel symptomatic again, so I’m mostly trying to stick with it!

The Web MD article said that pills are costly. These were around $13 for 150 soft gels. My calculations put that at about $189 – $200 a year – a small price to pay I think for urinary health and avoiding trips to the doctor.

Works for Me!
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