Sunday, August 30, 2009

How D-Mannose Works In Removing Bacteria From The Urinary Tract System

According to researchers at the Washington University (WU) School of Medicine in St. Louis, most UTIs start when Escherichia coli (E. coli)—a microorganism that lives in the digestive tract and is found in the anal area—invade the bladder and penetrate a protective coating of the superficial cells that line the bladder. In most cases, urine flow washes out bacteria from the bladder. But the cell wall of E. coli bacteria has tiny finger-like projections that contain complex molecules called lectins on their surface. These lectins are cellular glue that binds the bacteria to the bladder wall so they cannot be easily rinsed out by urination.

The chemical structure of D-Mannose causes it to stick to E. coli bacteria, maybe even more tenaciously than E.coli adheres to human cells. Although the mechanism of how it works is complicated, theoretically, if enough D-mannose is present in the urine, it binds to the bacteria and prevents them from attaching to the urinary tract lining

E. coli cells coated by D-mannose in the urine become unglued and get flushed right out of the body. And the beauty about D-mannose is that you can take it year-round without any side effects. You don’t have to wait until symptoms appear. From what I have read, D-Mannose only works on E-Coli and Klebsiella bacteria, the 2 most common bacteria that cause UTIs. So if you have other types of bacteria in your urinary tract system, the bacteria would not be ‘attracted’ to D-Mannose and cannot be flushed out from your body.

Baby has been taking D-Mannose for almost 2 months now and with God’s blessings, she has not gotten any UTI attacks for 3 months. The Ureteral Reimplantation surgery has been a success too and I was told by our surgeon that the ‘dirty’ urine that I’ve been seeing on and off for the past 3 months could be the ‘debris’ from the urinary tract system as Baby has had bacteria in her urine from day 1. Our surgeon knows that Baby is taking D-Mannose and he has no objection to it since D-Mannose is just a type of sugar that is found in many fruits like apples, peaches, blueberries, oranges including cranberries - the most popular fruit known to help prevent UTI.

Disclaimer : This is not intended to be a medical advise. If you have urinary tract infection, please consult your doctor.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Symptoms Of UTI

These are the common symptoms of urinary tract infection :

# Frequent urge to urinate
# Incontinence
# Painful, burning feeling in the area of the bladder or urethra during urination
# Fatigue, lethargy
# Women feel an uncomfortable pressure above the pubic bone.
# Some men experience a fullness in the rectum.
# Despite the urge to urinate, only a small amount of urine is passed
# Milky, cloudy or reddish urine
# Foul-smelling urine
# A fever, which may mean that the infection has reached the kidneys
# Pain in the back or side below the ribs
# Nausea and/or vomiting

For my baby, each time there is a large amount of bacteria in her urinary tract, these symptoms would appear:

# Foul smelling urine.

# Cloudy urine .

# 'Dirty' urine - many particles floating in the urine. To check clarity of the urine, get your child to pee into a transparent bottle. Hold the bottle against sunlight or under the ceiling light and look at the urine. If the urine is cloudy, not crystal clear and has many particles floating inside, bacteria is most likely present.

# Sore labia.

# Diarrhea and very loose stools.

When these classic symptoms appear, I wouldn't wait until she gets a fever with vomiting. I would bring her straight to our pediatric nephrologist's office to get treatment by way of antibiotics administered through jabs or through IV.