Probiotics for urinary tract health may be very helpful in preventing UTIs. Probiotics from the lactobacilli family have been proven to have a lot of benefits in preventing UTIs. Because lactobacilli probiotics are present in healthy women, maintaining a balance of good bacteria may support the body to fight off pathogens that cause urinary tract infections.
Having UTI is very uncomfortable and has negative impacts on your overall health and lifestyle. Most people, especially females, will experience a UTI at some point in their life. Some people even suffer from recurrent UTIs. Read on to learn more about UTIs and how probiotics can be used to prevent UTIs.
What is a UTI?
A UTI is a bacterial infection that happens in any part of the urinary system, including your bladder, urethra, kidneys, and ureters. Most often, infections occur in the urethra and bladder, resulting in frequent urination, a feeling of urgency to urinate, and a burning sensation during urination.
In severe cases or when left untreated, a UTI can affect your kidneys. The bad bacteria that cause the infection can enter your bloodstream and have potentially fatal effects.
How does it start?
UTI happens when bad bacteria such as E.coli make their way into your urinary system and settle in your urinary system and multiply. This causes an infection. The kinds of harmful bacteria that cause urinary tract infections occur in almost everyone. The billions of bacteria that live in our bodies in a balanced microbiome do not have a chance to cause any issues because they are usually managed by good bacteria and that is where the benefits of probiotics come in.
If the healthy bacterial balance is knocked from balance, bad bacteria such as E.coli will have a chance to thrive and travel to the urinary tract and cause an infection. The most common types of urinary tract infections occur in the urethra and bladder. In some severe cases, it may occur in the kidneys.
Bladder infection is often caused by E. coli. This is a harmful bacteria that commonly live in our gastrointestinal tract. The urethra in females is close to the anus and this means that it is possible for E. coli and other bacteria to make their way from the anus and get into the urethra, up to the bladder.
UTIs can be caused by bad bacteria that find their way to the urethra and bladder in other ways such as through sexual intercourse, kidney stones, catheters and insufficient oestrogen in the lining of the uterus. Sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhoea, herpes and chlamydia can also cause a urethra infection since it is so close to the vagina.
Probiotics
Researchers have found that supplementing probiotics for urinary tract health is an effective and safe way to prevent urinary tract infections. Adding various lactobacillus strains is effective in preventing UTIs. If you want to add more probiotics to your body, you should do so via multispecies and scientifically combined probiotic supplements because not all supplements meet the quality and health standards that make up good probiotics.