Urinary System

Is there some secret to maintaining good urinary system health?

Modern lifestyle choices are contributing to increased cases of discomfort and infection. The solution to these problems can be extremely easy if you know what to look for and don’t go crazy changing everything all at once.

Slowly eliminate possibilities until you know exactly what’s causing problems. You could be free of urinary burning, itching, and pain without medicine by paying heed to the following tips. Always visit your doctor, however, if symptoms are accompanied by a high fever, vomiting, or blood in your urine.

Choose a Healthy Diet

There is no special diet to prevent, control, or treat urinary problems like infection or irritation. A lot of diets are just gimmicks distracting consumers from the essentials of healthy eating. A balanced approach to food is not a diet program.

The way your mother or grandmother told you to eat was probably sensible and is a good guideline to follow. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, the fresher the better, plus whole grains and a little bit of meat, fish, or chicken. Keep fat to a minimum. Wherever possible stick to non-GMO, organic, or even home-grown produce; that is, food which has not been sprayed or treated with pesticides and other chemicals.

Although your system is flushing out chemicals to the best of its ability all the time, some will get through if your body is overloaded with them or other organs (kidneys and liver especially) are already challenged for some reason.

If there is a lot of fat in your food, especially greasy fat (not healthy types found in avocados and salmon), you could be noticing urinary irritation. Reduce your reliance on fast food, choose nut butter for toast instead of dairy butter, and avoid salty snacks like chips.

Drink Water

The best all-around cleanser for your whole body is water. Tap water, filtered water, or bottled water: as long as it is clean (that is, not subject to a boil-water advisory), it’s good enough to flush out chemicals and keep your system functioning nicely.

Coffee, tea, and juice are all very nice once in a while but they are highly acidic and acid is problematic for your urinary tract. So is caffeine which tends to draw water from other parts of your body and leads to dehydration. Sugar in juice exacerbates issues with irritation too.

Too Much Acid

What else could be contributing to high levels of acidity in your urine? While total abstinence from alcohol is unnecessary, drinking too much could be cause for concern. Contemporary estimates as to how much one should drink per week suggest that up to 14 units of alcohol for women and 21 for men is about right. That’s roughly 14 or 21 small glasses of wine (2 or 3 daily).

If that were beer, you would be looking at less than ½ a pint per unit (just under 10 pints weekly for a male). These are suggested rates for someone who wants to prevent liver disease, alcoholism, and other alcohol-related problems.

If your urinary tract is showing signs of trouble, however, this is a good place to start. Cut out alcohol for a little while to cleanse. When you reintroduce wine, beer, or spirits, do so slowly and monitor how you feel. Give your body a week to adjust to each new routine as you might not notice burning in your urine right away.

The same goes for coffee and tea: cut back and reintroduce these drinks slowly. Get rid of pop and juice entirely if you can manage it, or apply the same system of cutting out and adding drinks back into the routine. Really, water is your best friend.

Sometimes doctors and parents advise cranberry juice or even beer as a diuretic to flush out infection or irritation and they work, but don’t get carried away as acidity makes things worse in the long run.

OTC Drugs

While not addictive or bad overall, non-prescription painkillers and anti-inflammatories put pressure on your kidneys when used regularly. Make judicious decisions about when you truly need these medications and talk to a doctor if your need for them seems to show no let-up. You might be suffering from a deeper problem which should be addressed with blood tests or scans.