My Health Experiment

I mentioned in the post before this that I just experienced my second UTI in a row.  It also happens to be the second one I've ever had n my life.  So why would I suddenly get two back to back?  Well I would love to tell you, but I'm not a doctor and there are so many reasons that could happen and so many ways you can get one that there isn't really a way of knowing for sure.  However, after feeling a second one coming on I decided to do some research, because although a 7-day course of antibiotics seemed to zap the infection pretty quickly the first time, I wondered if it really went away entirely or if I had an altogether new infection.  I already knew the basics of how antibiotics work.  They kill bacteria causing the infection.  My research brought me to many opinions of people who believe that antibiotics aren't necessarily good for you, because while killing the "bad" bacteria in your body it also can kill the "good" bacteria.  Having lower amounts of bacteria your body depends on for a time after taking antibiotics can actually weaken your system's defenses against getting another infection.  

Of course there is research both for and against this theory, so who knows whether it's true or not.  Again, I am no doctor.  I did think that it was worth a try to take probiotics instead though. Probiotics do exactly the opposite of antibiotics (if you didn't already work that out for yourself).  They increase the amounts of "good" bacteria because they are made from live cultures that can help fight off an infection.  You can buy probiotics at most health stores.  I happen to work for a wellness company that sells probiotics.  Lucky me, because they can be kind of expensive.

I made a deal with myself that if the infection didn't clear out within a couple of days or got rapidly worse than I would go to the doctor.  The first infection I got had been so bad that I was peeing blood, so I knew this time it had some time to go before reaching that point.  After two days of taking the probiotics and drinking mass amounts of water I hadn't improved or gotten worse.  I thought about going to the doctor, but then realized that I had let my couple days go into the weekend.  My doctor's office was closed.  Oops!  Since it wasn't worse I decided to stick the weekend out.  But guess what! By Monday I was actually feeling better.  It took until today for me to feel like it was completely healed, but it worked out.  

So my conclusion to this little experiment is that antibiotics seem to work much faster, but the probiotics worked too.  Certainly if I got a bad infection I would go to a doctor, but there are ways to take care of ourselves from home too.  It's important to use good judgement.  I have often had the mindset that I can't afford going to the doctor much.  It's expensive sometimes!  However, I have also learned that no matter how much anxiety it causes me to go, there are times when it is important to see a professional.  For example if you are bleeding badly and need to get stitched up, break a bone, are so sick that you can't heal on your own, or in some cases when you have a feeling that something is very wrong.  Follow your instincts.  

My mom worked in a profession for several years that teaches people to have an awareness of their body.  Did you know that just by slowing down and paying close attention to how you feel on a regular basis you can heal yourself?  The reason for that being that you can feel when something you do feels better or worse.  Plus, you learn to use your body more efficiently.  This can keep you healthier and help you to know when something feels really different.  My challenge to you is to take just a little time each day to be aware of how you are feeling; physically and mentally.  The more you pay attention, the easier it will get to solve problems, because you won't spend as much time trying to figure out the source.