Well, I don't know what you're swelling is and you should probably continue going to doctors and specialists to pinpoint what that is.

However, I could comment on UTI's.

First let me mention some things specific to UTI's. I'm sure you've heard it before...cranberries. I'm sure you've also heard.....cranberry juice. Well, don't listen to the juice part. The juice you'll find in a store is probably laden with sugar, and either way pasteurized killing it's effectiveness. So unless you're going to juice your own cranberries, forget juice. You can eat fresh cranberries often, or frozen if the bag says Contents: Cranberries. Don't get anything with added sugar, sugar is bad for infections and your immune system. The other option is to buy cranberry supplements, which you can often find concentrated.

Another good supplement for UTI's is D-Mannose, which ironically is a type of sugar found in cranberries and other fruits. You can buy it separately or found as another ingredient along with cranberry capsule products.

Then you could also and perhaps should also do a general urinary cleanse, that includes the bladder, the tracts and the kidneys. You can find products at the health store that deal with all 3 at once. They'll usually contain Marshmallow Root, Uva Ursi, goldenseal, etc. and maybe even cranberries and d-mannose.

There's also some other type of berry that's good for the urinary system, but I don't recall what it is. You could probably ask an experienced person at the health store or a naturopath.

So since you're infections are urinary related I'd do some or all of the above. And regularly since it's chronic.


The rest I wanted to mention is general infection information. I've typed this so many times that I've just gone a copied and pasted it from elsewhere I wrote it recently...

Chronic infections usually leads to chronic antibiotic use which usually leads to chronic infections which usually leads to chronic antibiotic use. See the circle.

Also, when an infection is treated, it does not mean all traces have disappeared. Since you can't take antibiotics all the time, nor should you as already pointed out, you'll have to get your body to do the healing.

Natural infection killers include anything that boosts the immune system like vitamin c, zinc (don't take more than about 45-50mg's of zinc a day. Count all sources, food and supplement), astragalus (don't take if fever is present) and echinacea (don't take for more than a couple weeks or so, without a couple weeks break if you want to continue again). Oregano oil, garlic, and colloidal silver are great at killing infections as well.

If I had chronic infections I would avoid sugar, caffeine and alcohol. Do a infection kill using oregano oil and colloidal silver for a few weeks. Then continue taking vitamin c and astragalus as well as a multi-vitamin/mineral (the multi-mineral should give you some zinc, take it separately if you want more) forever. Astragalus could be dropped after several months, but it's good for the immune system so you can alway use a maintenance dose if you want. I don't take astragalus, but if you've got chronic problems you might as well bring out the big guns and keep bombarding.

Then, and this is probably the most important. I'd replenish my probiotics. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria. They're present in and on your body and responsible for many things such as aiding in digestion, assimilation, immune system and keeping bad bacteria in check. A healthy flora of probiotics is good for all sorts of problems, infections being one of the biggest. The reason this is so important is because all of the antibiotics you've taken have killed all the bacteria in your body, the bad and the good. Without the good, the bad easily come back, hence the reason chronic antibiotic use cause chronic infections. Replenishing them extremely well will not only fight infections, but it will prevent them.

So get a probiotic supplement from your local health store or research and find a good one online. Look for one that is multi-strained, high count, and enteric coated so that it can pass safely through your stomach acids.
There's a specific strain that mercola (a real doctor that treats his patients naturally) reports to have the highest success rate of survivning and planting itself within you, lactobacillus sporongenes or technically called bacillus coagulans. If you can find one with that, go for it. Fos in the supplement is also good, because it feeds the probiotics.

Take the probiotic in a higher dose for the first couple weeks, then at regular dose for a few months. If you've got chronic problems there really isn't a problem in high dosing for longer than two weeks, so if you really want to get this straight, go for it. After that, you can just maintenance dose indefinitely. Remember to do this after any use of antibiotics or use of infection killers like colloidal silver or oregano oil.

You can also get additional probiotics from yogurt (plain, remember avoid sugar), kefir, or fermented foods like sauerkraut, pickled foods, etc. However, if all you're going to do is go to the grocery store and buy sauerkraut and pickled beets, don't bother. Those foods you find in the grocery store are not "live" with probiotics. They're either just flavored to taste like fermented foods, or they are fermented but then have the probiotics killed through pasteurization. You'd have to find true non-pasteurized fermented foods online.

I went to the clinic today and they said I had another UTI. The nurse practitioner told me that perhaps it was a strain of bacteria that my other antibiotics weren't properly killing, and perhaps it was clearing up the Urinary tract but not penetrating the bladder as it should. She put me on sulfa for a month, but I also told her about the dangers of hurting my healthy bacteria and she said I should be eating yogurt regularly to keep my healthy bacteria count up, and also taking daily vitamins.

A big part of this she thinks is my caffeine intake and I need to cut it out of my diet. I drink coke like crazy and a lot of coffee. I bought some cranberry pills and some plain yogurt, and ill be looking for the urinary cleanse stuff.

She said it's definitely not IC because its clear I -have- a UTI and its not just symptoms. The whole mystery is the reason I'm getting them so frequently.

Is it possible to just be on a mild antibiotic but eat healthy and keep my nice bacteria count up?

Yogurt does contain probiotics, but hasn't really been shown to replenish strong flora. Eating it would still be beneficial, as long as it's plain. You could flavor it with fresh fruit or perhaps cherry concentrate. Apothe-Cherry is a good brand because they offer it non-pasteurized. It's a good bedtime snack, because cherries naturally contain melatonin and helps with sleep.

But to really replenish your probiotics you should take the supplement. It's higher concentration and will take hold better and faster so as to not let your infection grab hold again.

Genuine, non-pasteurized (if it's pasteurized, the probiotics have been killed) fermented foods are also good. Not only for probiotics, but in general they are one of the greatest foods for health. Sauerkraut, pickles, olives, etc. Sadly the stuff in the store is usually not genuine (it's only flavored to taste fermented) or it's pasteurized.

You can buy Kombucha tea in health stores and health oriented grocery stores now that is non-pasteurized. That contains some probiotics and is an easy addition for a fermented products. GT's is the brand I know, but there are others, but you'd have to make sure it hasn't been pasteurized. You should only drink about 4oz.'s per day to start and work your way up to a bottle a day if you want. Kind of expensive. You can make your own of course if you want.

The caffeine plays a role, but a bigger one may be the Coke, which of course again gives you caffeine. But the amount of sugar you're ingesting must be crazy. A can of coke has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, and in America that's usually in the worst form, high fructose corn syrup. Multiply that by how much you drink in a day. Not good for your immune system and definitely not good for healing infections. Try to replace your caffeine and sugar habit with water. Filtered of course is better than tap; reverse osmosis is probably the best. Distilled water is only good short term, otherwise it's too acidic so don't think because it's pure it's the best. Bottled is ok occasionally, but the plastics leach into the water. So filter and carry your own water in a glass jar or a hard plastic that doesn't leach.

You'll probably have to taper off coke and coffee so you don't get headaches and what not, but afterwards you'll feel much better.

The reason you're getting them so frequently is probably because of your diet, your coke and coffee habit, your antibiotic use, and an infection that was just never cleared up in the first place.

Bacteria reproduce very quickly and in large numbers, which gives them the advantage of very speedy evolution. Weeding out the weak; survival of the fittest. Those that survive an antibiotic are the strongest and have likely created an immunity to that specific type. It is those bacteria that will now reproduce in your body, basically having you end up with a stronger, more immune infection that you had before. That's why doctors prescribe different antibiotics every time. So if the infection was completely cleared up, you now have a seed for another infection, and this time they're even more prepared for an antibiotic onslaught. Plus, since you killed your good bacteria, the bad bacteria are not kept in check like they would be in a healthy body with good probiotic levels.

So that leads to chronic infections because you've got strong bad bacteria, and a weak supply of probiotics that were never replenished.

I don't know if it's possible to be on an antibiotic and keep your probiotic count up. The antibiotic will keep killing the probiotics, and the probiotics you take will keep replenishing, but the effect might be zero. I'm not sure if you're implying you take an antibiotic all the time, but not sure why you'd want to do that anyway. The bacteria will become immune and it's not the healthiest thing to do anyway.

If you help your immune system with vitamins, cleaner diet, less sugar and caffeine, and replenish your probiotics you'll essentially have your body taking care of the bad bacteria itself, so you wouldn't need to take a mild antibiotic. If you want to take something specifically to kill infections all the time try Oregano Oil or Garlic. Colloidal Silver is a great one too, but if you want to take something everyday for life, I'd say choose one of the others. Give your immunity an extra boost wit extra Vitamin-C and/or Astragalus.

As for encountering a strain of bacteria that antibiotics just aren't helping with, there is an herb used in Chinese Medicine that might help. Studies have shown that when taken with antibiotics, it can kill strains that have become antibiotic resistant. There's a specific bacteria that has become dangerously immune to antibiotics, and this was killed using the herb and antibiotics together. Whether the herb can do it on it's own, I do not know, the studies used them together. It's called Scute.

If you really want a program to follow and nip this chronic problem in the butt, go see a naturopath. Conventional doctors will just continue to give you antibiotics, never asking you about your diet, giving you advice on improving your immunity, replenishing good bacteria, etc. All of which are the real causes of your chronic infections. Tell the naturopath that you have this chronic problem and that you want it gone. That you want to kill the infection for the last time, and really prevent it from coming back. The naturopath can recommend a program for you to follow and will ask you about your habits and advise you on new ones.

Hi all, try Cream of Tartar, it is a very old remedy, and it works well. You can buy it cheaply at your supermarket from the baking section (near baking soda, etc).

Put a teaspoon in your mouth and down it with a drink of water. Have some water handy as it might make you thirsty..

There is a supplement called CRANSTAT EXTRA. I bought mine in Fred Mayer (health products section). It has many of the components to maintain healthy bladder, as mentioned in the responses above:
Cranberry concentrate
Buchu leaf
Pipissewa herb
Uva Ursa leaf
Oregon Grape root
Marshmallow root