How to Cure and Treat Cystitis with Home Remedies
Cystitis is an infection in the urinary system with a bacterial origin. It’s more frequent in women, who suffer from this problem at least once in their lifetime. Find out how to cure and treat cystitis with home remedies in the following article.
What you need to know about cystitis
Cystitis affects women more because the female urethra is shorter than men’s. That is why bacteria (escherichia coli, staphylococcus, streptococcus, or trachomatis) can extend all over from the skin.
The most recurring symptoms of cystitis are:
- Sharp and stabbing pain in the stomach
- Frequent urination
- A burning sensation when urinating
- Fever
- Shivers
- General discomfort
The most common causes of cystitis are:
- Using external birth control methods like diaphragms, condoms, and spermicide gels
- Injuries in the urethra caused by prolonged or energetic sexual relations
- Hormonal changes from pregnancy or menopause
- Not urinating when you need to (“holding it” for a long time)
- Prostatitis
Recommendations to treat cystitis
1. Drink a lot of liquids
After the first signal or symptom of infection, you should drink at least one glass of water every hour. You’ll clean your bladder and get rid of the bacteria that may be causing cystitis.
2. Don’t ‘hold it in’
Your bladder will suffer because it must get bigger in order to give more space to the excess urine. That’s why you won’t have enough strength to eliminate all the urine and germs will “take advantage” of staying in your urinary system.
3. Apply heat to the area
Underneath your stomach, where it hurts a lot, is a good idea to put a hot compress or thermic pillow.
4. Take a sitz bath
If the burning sensation is very strong, take a warm sitz bath to ease your pain. Pregnant women are often not allowed to do this during gestation because it can cause miscarriages.
5. Stay hygienic when having sex
Your partner should have good hygiene in their genitals before having sex. And the same applies to you.
6. Wear cotton underwear
Especially women, because they have more contact with the clothing. Looser clothing allows your genitals to “breath” and they’ll also be dryer. For men, it’s best to wear boxers.
7. Avoid alcoholic beverages
They’re an irritant to your urinary tracts. For that reason, if you have cystitis often or are currently suffering from it, it’s best to not consume alcohol.
8. Change your birth control
The diaphragm that women use squeezes the opening of the bladder and damages it, which causes inflammation that doesn’t allow urine to pass properly. Spermicide gels can also cause disturbances in the defense mechanisms that the vagina has, which lets bacteria survive and moves them to the bladder.
9. Be aware of your bladder infections
If you suffer from them often, you should write them down in a notebook and identify the causes that may making you sick so you can treat cystitis properly. You may also discover what triggers them.
10. Be very careful about your genital hygiene
Don’t use vaginal deodorants or soaps. You should also avoid very hot and prolonged showers.
See a doctor if you have medical history in your family of kidney problems, if you have diabetes, are pregnant, suffer from tremors or vomiting, have a fever, bleed when urinating, suffer from high blood pressure, are older than 50 (for men), or suspect that you may have a sexually transmitted disease.
Popular remedies to treat cystitis
- Drink a glass of water with two tablespoons of pure honey and two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with each meal.
- Eat three raw garlic cloves a day.
- Drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of baking soda twice a day.
- Drink corn silk tea. Boil three tablespoons in a cup of water for 10 minutes.
- Drink a parsley infusion that’s made with two tablespoons of this plant in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Eat four tablespoons of marshmallow root soaked all night in a liter of water. Drink throughout the day.
- Wash half a kg of cherries (without removing the stem) and put them in a bain-marie. Cook until they’re soft and then make a type of puree. Remove the seeds to break them up better and then put them back in the container. Boil them until they turn into a pulp. Add 250 grams of cane sugar and continue cooking until it becomes a syrup. Save it in a dry recipient and seal it hermetically while it’s cold. Take a tablespoon a day.
- Boil two tablespoons of chamomile with 3 raw garlic cloves in a liter of water for 20 minutes. Remove from the flame, let cool, and strain it. Do a vaginal wash before going to bed.
- Drink three glasses of cranberry juice a day because this fruit has a substance that doesn’t allow bacteria to stick onto the urinary tract walls and to be eliminated by urine. Therefore, it can help you treat cystitis.
- Make a stew with 4 onions and a liter of water. Drink it throughout the day.
Images courtesy of US Pacific Air Force Ces, Lara 604, Department of Foreign, Ben Scholzen, Larry Hoffman, Varchar N.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Salvatore, S., Salvatore, S., Cattoni, E., Siesto, G., Serati, M., Sorice, P., & Torella, M. (2011). Urinary tract infections in women. European Journal of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2011.01.028
- Bondavalli, C., Dall’Oglio, B., Schiavon, L., Luciano, M., Guatelli, S., Parma, P., … De Luise, E. (2004). Interstitial cystitis. In Archivio Italiano di Urologia e Andrologia. https://doi.org/10.3109/15360288.2010.548850
- Barski, D., & Otto, T. (2014). Cystitis. In Urology at a Glance. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54859-8_45
- Mansour, A., Hariri, E., Shelh, S., Irani, R., & Mroueh, M. (2014). Efficient and cost-effective alternative treatment for recurrent urinary tract infections and interstitial cystitis in women: A two-case report. Case Reports in Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/698758
