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hi welcome to my medical office today
we're talking about UTIs or urinary
tract infections I'm gonna tell you the
most important things you need to know
about UTI is that even some doctors and
health care providers don't know UTIs is
an abbreviation for urinary tract
infections some people call them bladder
infections they are incredibly common
over 50% of women will have one at some
point in their lives men get them
children get them babies get them it's
when there's some type of infection
usually bacterial but in some cases it
could even be caused by a fungus even
though that's much more rare overtakes
the bladder in many cases it can produce
symptoms but not in all cases we see
them in every age group sometimes one
sometimes they're isolated for a woman
or a teenage girl and sometimes they can
be chronic or recurrent basic symptoms
of a UTI include urinary urgency so
feeling like you have to get to the
bathroom burning or pain with urination
or voiding and urinary frequency
sometimes there can be associated
feelings of fatigue or pelvic kram penis
sometimes radiating to the back and then
in rare cases if this infection spreads
up from the bladder to the kidneys it
can cause something called
pyelonephritis which is an infection in
the kidney the first thing you should do
is get a liter of water and start
drinking it if you decide to get
treatment and that's been given to you
by an urgent care provider or an
emergency room provider or even your
regular healthcare provider you want to
ask is this the right antibiotic and
again remember the gold standard or
either fosfomycin or bactrim are you
taking the right antibiotic and the
right dose for the right period of
it's generally not necessary to treat
for seven full days or 10 days in
uncomplicated UTIs
so generally three or five days is
sufficient in most cases three my top
three things about UT is that I want
patients and everyone watching and
listening to know not every time
bacteria is found in the urine is
treatment with antibiotics necessary
we know that 40 to 50 percent of urinary
tract infections will disappear on their
own with no antibiotic that being said
the symptoms can be really unpleasant
and really uncomfortable you know we
want to encourage people not to self
diagnose not to self treat or
self-medicate but to work with a health
care provider so he or she can help you
decide if treatment is necessary and if
so what is the right treatment not every
antibiotic is appropriate for a urinary
tract infection I can't tell you how
many times I've had patients say I
started to have symptoms
I googled UTI and I just took the
amoxicillin or zithromax or z-pak that I
had in my bathroom wrong thing to do and
actually can do more harm than good if
possible it is really important to get a
urine culture a lot of people will go to
urgent care centers or dock in the box
with symptoms and they get what's called
a urine microscopy and what this is is
an easy ii test to do on urine sample
that can give us clues as to whether or
not the person has a UTI or infection we
get all this information in seconds but
this is not a urine culture so if you go
to an urgent care and they test your
urine and come out of a room five
seconds later and say it looks like you
have an infection that's this test that
is not a urine culture a urine culture
takes about five days to grow out in a
laboratory and that will tell us what
the organism is and which an abaya
pets are appropriate for that organism
it is so important to try to get that
urine culture because if your symptoms
disappear and then come back and you
have to be treated again we really need
to know what that bacteria was that was
causing the infection there is no shame
in this game everyone pees everyone has
a bladder and most people have sex so if
sex is what triggered your UTI I would
say be loud and proud that that's how
you got it but there are some ways to
prevent it in the future number one we
have a saying in medicine and surgery
the secret to pollution is dilution what
does that mean bacteria when they're
irrigated or hydrated or flooded out
have less of a chance of thriving and
multiplying and surviving so when you
talk about your bladder that means drink
a lot of water things that are more
sugary generally not good for your
overall body certainly can irritate your
bladder as well so plain water peeing or
emptying your bladder before and
immediately after sex and again that's
to kind of flush out any bacteria and
the other really big behavioral tip is
you can take any moistened wipe or wet
toilet paper or take a shower or a bath
and just make sure that the perineum
which is the whole area from the urethra
the vagina the rectum is as clean as
possible before sex we have to remember
when you talk about bacteria you're
oftentimes talking about things that are
microscopic that you can't see so if
you've had a bowel movement earlier in
the day you have sex later
trust me when I tell you if I took a
culture of the area around the rectum
100% it would pick up ecoli bacteria
cranberry juice myth or fact it's
actually a fact there is actually an
elucidated mechanism so we have an
explanation for why and how cranberry
can work to reduce the risks of you
and it has to do with the adhesion of
the bacteria to the wall of the bladder
and cranberry juice in some cool way
really inhibits that that doesn't mean
it's going to work for everybody and
data seems to suggest that it's more
effective as a preventative measure than
as a treatment once someone already has
symptoms
