Natural UTI & Bladder Infection Remedies 2026: Biofilms & D-Mannose

Lactobacillus

Posted by Gabrielle (London, Uk) on 04/27/2015
★★★★★

I am a Microbiologist who has worked for blue chip Pharmaceutical Companies and studied antibiotics for more than 15 years. I am also a UTI sufferer since the age of 6.

I recently had a UTI that I treated with 4 different antibiotics with zero effect. I did not want to take more antibiotics so started to serve the net to find alternative cures.

Your site is excellent and I have tried many of the remedies listed. I also searched for the clinical data to find the evidence base.

I tried

d mannose
grapefruit seed extract
apple cider vinegar
Turmeric
olive leaf extract.

All worked for three days then the infection came back.

I have therefore concluded that they are probably all bacteriostatic I.e stop numbers of bacteria increasing but do not resolve the infection.

Antibiotics are either bacteristatic or bacteriocidal I.e kill the bacteria. What we want is bactericidal or to change the flora so good bacteria can outnumber the bad.

The next part was looking at acidophilus. There is no evidence to support that acidophilus has any effect. Lactobacillus acidophilus species in the gut makes no difference to UTI in the bladder. We need ecoli for digestion so upping lactobacillus will not change this.

However Lactobacillus species in the vagina make a massive difference to UTI. The bacterial flora of the vagina can change the bacterial flora of the bladder. There are 27 clinical trials to support this the species they found helped was lactobacillus rhamnous and lactobacillus reuteri.

After 5 weeks of battling the UTI I added in a probiotic containing these two species to apple cider vinegar and finally I have resolved this. I took 2/day for 3 days.

I think that you need to update the site.

Turpentine

Posted by Caron (Port Orchard, Wa) on 05/29/2015
★★★★★

@Katie...I am so glad to find someone else who has discovered the healing powers of turpentine. I woke up this morning with an UTI and started drinking a lot of water right away, then remembered turpentine. Took 3/4 teaspoon on a heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar and the symptoms are just about gone. Turpentine is great for so many health problems. It used to be used all the time in the past and worked so well, it is now considered a poison. Not true.

Acidophilus

Posted by Stacie (OH) on 02/03/2023
★★★★★

Beckie, you're absolutely correct, Garden of Life's Dr. Formulated Probiotics Urinary Tract+ is the product that I believe she was talking about! I was getting bladder infections every 3-4 weeks even though I was taking other well-known high-quality probiotic formulas with numerous strains and a high, 50 billion counts. When I found the Garden of Life, the first bottle I took literally kept the infection away for 4 months!! It IS expensive, but as the old saying goes " you get what you pay for! "

Zinc

Posted by Nicole (Ny) on 06/05/2017
★★★★★

This makes SO much sense. My daughter had a UTI onset the evening after she got a mild sunburn. To heal the skin, especially from burns, the body uses zinc. If she was already depleted, then resources would be stretched even further and the cells could not be resistant at all! I am a firm believer that deficiency and toxicity are the two true causes of all illness. Adding zinc to the plan is already making a huge difference. Thanks!

Coconut Oil

Posted by Catheryn (Jonesboro, AR) on 04/02/2007
★★★★★

Although I had begun using VCO for other reasons, I realized after only two months that a chronic, "incurable" bladder condition that I had had for twenty-one years was much better. Then it seemed to just disappear. It has been over a year since any symptoms, and I don't expect any. My urologist was astonished.

Uva Ursi

Posted by London (Sandusky, Ohio) on 08/11/2008
★★★★★

UVA URSI WORKS!!! This supplement will cure the most stubborn bladder infection. I tried everything you buy at the store, and tons of cranberry supplements and juices. Nothing helped me. Uva Ursi was the only thing that worked and worked quickly. 2 caps at night and 2 caps in the morning. $4 for a bottle at the store.

Lemon

Posted by Jen (Croydon, UK) on 02/04/2007
★★★★★

Fresh lemon cured my bladder infection! This may help those who find that cranberry juice/tablets don't work. I suffered from bladder infections for many years. I used to have it about every six weeks, and it was often triggered by eating food high in salt, sugar or fat, or drinking alcohol - it was a nightmare, I couldn't even have one glass of wine. I tried antibiotics, cranberry, everything - nothing worked. Sorting out my diet and cutting down wheat and sugar helped a bit, but I would still get the infection several times a year. Until I met a former fellow sufferer who told me to eat lemon wedges - as many as I could bear - next time the symptoms started. I followed her advice and I haven't needed antibiotics since! I still watch my diet but if I "have to" overindulge on food & drink, I have one or two lemons squeezed in a drop of water before going to bed and wake up right as rain. Interestingly, my sister, who is also prone to bladder infections, finds that cranberry works for her whereas lemon doesn't. For me it's the other way around, cranberry didn't do anything but lemon works in an instant. Hope this helps someone!

Oregano Oil

Posted by Alexa (GA) on 12/08/2006
★★★★★

An Alkaline diet and Oil of oregano will cure Chronic sinusitis and urinary tract infection. I would recommend that you consult your doctor for diagnosis of urinary tract infection in order to rule out more serious conditions and then take oil of oregano with concentrated cranberry juice. The best way to take oil of oregano is under the tongue but if you don't like the taste you can take capsules. You will feel it working. Oil of oregano is an antifungal, antiviral and antibiotic which makes it very effective against sinusitis etc.

D-Mannose

Posted by Dewchild (Matthews, Nc, United States) on 09/14/2012
★★★★★

I have been a long time "lurker" on Earth Clinic. I first came to the site when I started having frequent UTIs, (monthly for a year) and the doctors were unable to help. I tried it all. Apple Cider, Vitamin C, Cranberry, Water. You name it. I went to two different Urologists, that basically gave me a refillable Rx for antibiotic and sent me on my way. During this time, I continued to get yeast infections, as well - from the antibiotic use. It seemed like there was a link to the yeast infection and the UTI, but my general practicioner ignored me when I mentioned it. Finally the third Dr. I saw was a Uro-Gynocologist. He had me take probiotic on a regular basis internally and also to open a probiotic capsule and put the probiotic in my vaginal cavity, so that I could restore the good bacteria there. His theory was that the antibiotics had killed all of the good bacteria in my vaginal area and by replacing it with probiotics (actually putting the probiotics in there), the good bacteria could start to flouish and kill off any bad bacteria before it made it into my bladder.

He also gave me an antibiotic. I threw the antibiotic away and used the D-Mannose instead. I did the probiotic internally and the infections never came back. It's been over a year since then, but I wanted to come and share my story in case it could help someone else.

In retrospect, I don't think I had frequent UTIs. I think I had a UTI, that never went away. I was probably resistant to all of those antibiotics and the D-Mannose did the trick. It was like a miracle for me. I haven't had an infection since, but if I do start to feel like one might be coming on, I take a dose of D-Mannose and drink lots of water! Big thanks to the Earth Clinic for helping with the healing!

Cream of Tartar

Posted by Suzanne (Springfield LA) on 01/25/2024
★★★★★

Cream of tartar for uti

Cream of tartar absolutely works. Took 1/2 teaspoon in 16 oz water and within half an hour felt relief.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda

Posted by Elena (Dallas) on 12/24/2023

Urolesan sold on Amazon (overpriced of course because it's sold by private companies)is the #1 European medicine for UTI. It's the first thing doctors in Eastern Europe recommend for UTI. Manufactured by pharmaceutical companies. Every woman knows about Urolesan. Works fast.

Active ingredients: 1ml of product contains 67.6 mg of fir oil, 16.9 mg of peppermint oil, 92.95 mg of castor oil, 194.35 mg of wild carrot liquid extract (1:1), 278.8 mg of hop cones liquid extract (1:1), and 192.95 mg of wild marjoram (Origanum majorana) liquid extract.

Sea Salt

Posted by Henk (Pretoria, South Africa) on 05/07/2023
★★★★★

Sea Salt for a UTI

Absolutely helps the best with the pain!

Do you then miss the pain? Want it back quickly?

Then drink coffee!! Haha!

1 heaped teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt in half glass water. Then after 20 minutes 2 glasses plain water to flush.

No sugar, bread, coffee. Water water water!

Garlic, ACV, Cranberry Capsules

Posted by Prairie Girl (Canada) on 08/11/2022
★★★★★

FOR UTI EMERGENCIES WHEN AWAY FROM HOME:

After ingesting sugar the evening before (peanut butter chocolate pieces) and eating fruit (blueberries) for breakfast, yesterday afternoon, I felt the nagging early symptoms of a UTI coming on while I was in my car. I was tempted to go to a walk-in clinic to get Macrobid, but I didn't have time and wanted to see if I could treat myself without taking it.

Thankfully, I had previously stashed a bottle of apple cider vinegar capsules in the car. I immediately took 2 capsules with water (preferably take them with a bit of soup, salad, or a green veggie smoothie to avoid stomach ache). I then drove to the grocery store and bought garlic capsules, a bottle of pure unsweetened cranberry juice, and a green cabbage. Within half an hour, I started taking those, too (not the cabbage), alternating 2 capsules every half hour while drinking a bit of juice in between.

As I had meetings and couldn't return home despite my discomfort, I kept running to the washroom between plying 2 garlic or ACV capsules and a 1/4 cup of juice every half hour or so. After about 1 to 2 hours, I then slowed down and alternated the 2 capsules at an hourly rate or longer with lots of water and a bit of food. After 2-3 hours, the slightly painful UTI symptoms and constant urge to run to the washroom subsided.

Today, I woke up with no strong symptoms but continued with the same plus I ate a tablespoon of raw cabbage salad for breakfast (no added sugar - cabbage is a known anti-parasite that helps, too). All good.

I think the trick is to treat the niggling symptoms EARLY and not delay taking the supplements. (*If you can't get to a grocery store and can't keep fresh cranberry juice at work or in the car, keep cranberry capsules on hand instead).

***SUMMATION:

KEEP THESE GROCERY SUPPLIES PERMANENTLY IN YOUR PURSE OR CAR:

Garlic, ACV, AND Cranberry capsules (or preferably, bottled unsweetened cranberry juice if you are close to a store that sells it)

bottled water

a non-sweet snack (even starchy/high carb potato chips or popcorn will suffice if you can't access fresh food)

Let me know if it works for you.

Vitamin C

Posted by Aviva (Israel, Kiryay Ono) on 07/20/2016
★★★★★

I think I got this bladder infection by not drinking enough water. Anyhow, it was bad, had to go to bathroom every few minutes and hardly anything got out. I understood it was inflammation of the urinary tract. I put some probiotic yogurt over there and it gave some small relief. Then I drank a big glass ACV and a bit later I took 1500 mg vitamin C. All this began in the evening and going to bed I could not sleep because of the pain and urgency to pee. 10 minutes after the vitamin C I fell asleep for a few hours. The next day I took 3000 mg vitamin C and so the day after. I also tried to drink a lot of water. That's it. Last time it happened I took antibiotics.

Cranberry

Posted by Summer (Denver, Co) on 12/09/2015
★★★★★

I can attest for cranberry as a UTI remedy. I first found out about it maybe 15 years ago. I had gone to planned parenthood not knowing what was wrong with me, the nurse told me she couldn't write a script, but told me to buy 100% cranberry juice. I did just that, I downed two 20 ounce bottles and drank them right away. My UTI was gone after about 10-15 hours. I recently got a very bad UTI, it was so bad I was bleeding. I drank 2,20 oz bottles but it didn't get any better.

The next day I went and got the giant 60 fl oz bottle from the grocery store. I downed the whole thing in an hour, which was painful just because of the massive fluid intake and I also hate the taste of cranberry. I drank it at night and the following morning the UTI was gone. If you are going to try cranberry, make sure you read the label carefully. Sometimes it will say 100% juice, but in reality it's 10% cranberry and the rest is other juices. If you down a whole bottle quickly it will flush your system and things will be back to normal within 24 hours.

Multiple Remedies

Posted by John (Thailand) on 09/19/2015
★★★★★

Hi EC, Urinary Tract Infection. I'm male, so the last 2" of penis stings, hurts like crasy. Don't ask how I got it but it wasn't sex. No sleep, off to the toilet every hour or less for pain and dribbles so next day began drinking water Ã¢Â€Â“ have never liked it “ plus ACV with Bicarb Soda, Horsetail [Equisetum arvense] tea, Fenugreek tea. Bought a grapefruit and ate ‚Â 1/4 before bed. Next day tossed my jockey shorts and wore boxer shorts. Dreamed there must be a reasonable antibiotic by now, they've had enough time, practice and money and went to see a doc at the hospital [corporation] in Thailand. They had a new blood pressure machine that flashes a big red light if it's over their fear figures. I wanted to tell them my BP, 134/70, was lovely - no, no, go down lower. Ha! Saw doc for 30 seconds, true. They did the urine test and found too many white blood cells, so said, your bladder is OK but your penis tract is infected, so eat this, Ofloxacin and Buscopan.

I looked them up and thought, what is it doctors have against other humans. Anyway they eased the pain and I could sleep. I keep in the fridge a packet of Infloran, a German acidophilus that restores the good bacteria taken 2 hours after antibiotics. I started drinking lots of water, plus the ACV, Horsetail, Ginger tea and took a slightly heaped tsp of bicab soda before bed, and 2000 Vit. C powder before bed. I'm 80 and eat vegybubbles, some grains but no dairy, meat, sugar and all the other chemically infested stuff. Pain's gone, I pee lovely and sleep. Stopped the antibiotic and pain and sphincter relaxant after two days, will wait to see if symptoms return due to "rebound" addiction.

Will write if it worked. John

Probiotics

Posted by Kate (Kalamazoo, Michigan) on 02/03/2015
★★★★★

Hi everyone, I'm a long time reader on Earth Clinic and thought I'd post in case anybody is experiencing what I have been going through. Sorry for the length, I tend to be a bit wordy.

This all started 5 years ago when I got a new partner. I had dated this individual before and had gotten regular UTI's when intimate with him. This time, I got 3 (tested positive) UTI's in a row, over a period of maybe 6 months. So I spent a lot of time on serious rounds of anti-biotics. The symptoms would subside briefly and then I'd have another infection. After about 7 months, the tests for UTI's started coming back negative, but the symptoms were still very, very strong.

The doctor told me I had "cystitis" which if you don't know is an "incurable" inflammation of the bladder. I learned to live with the symptoms. It was quite unpleasant to say the least!

I also began to develop on and off vaginal yeast infections, which I treated with yogurt suppositories mostly. I began getting kidney pain, having regular shortness of breath, random abdominal pain and migraines. My previous partner and I had broke up at this point (infidelity issues on his side, which may or may not be relevant.) I went to the urgent care for random kidney/abdominal pain, who suggested possible appendicitis. That didn't feel right to me and I went home and continued having issues.

I became friends with a nutritional healer who told me I had a systemic candida infection. I went on a very strict diet for about 10 months, and all symptoms improved dramatically. Less pain with urination, much fewer headaches, abdominal pain gone, etc. However, when I recently went off the diet, all of the symptoms came rushing back! Kidney pain, yeast infection symptoms, and UTI symptoms. Well, all of these together do of course point to an infection of the urogenital system. But I had seen maybe 7 doctors and gotten nowhere.

I looked into trichomoniasis (which despite being incredibly common is not usually tested for), yeast, scar tissue in the vagina, bacterial vaginosis (even though I didn't have symptoms for that). A common way to treat all of them is with a hydrogen peroxide douche, 3% hydrogen peroxide mixed half and half with distilled water, 1-3 times a day. I told my nutritionist friend that I was going to do this - he recommended doing a douche with probiotics at night to re-inoculate the vagina.

I went out and bought one, I know we can't say the brand name but its very important that it's these specific strains so I'll write the strains: Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuter RC-14. I think I read years ago that these two strains were actually initially cultured out of the vagina of a healthy adult female.

I did the hydrogen peroxide douche last night, followed by two probiotic capsules orally and one in a tablespoon of water vaginally. This morning, I douched with the hydrogen peroxide again and took another probiotic orally. I'm planning on douching twice more today and doing a probiotic douche before bed.

The yeast infection symptoms are 98% gone, and the UTI symptoms have also subsided. This is the first time in 5 years that I've been without the UTI symptoms. I just browsed this article http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/52/suppl_6/S452.long, which is about fungal infection in the bladder, kidneys, and vagina.

My guess (although of course it is a guess) is that I developed a fungal infection from all of the anit-biotics I took to clear the documented bacterial UTI's. Although I ate extremely large amounts of probiotics through supplements and fermented foods while on the candida cleanse, I think I did not get the right strain to colonize the vagina in all of my efforts.

I hope the good effects keep lasting, and hesitate to write so early as I don't want to get anyone's hopes falsely up. However, when I look at the reviews of this specific probiotic on amazon, it seems to help SO many people with any sort of women's troubles - UTI, yeast, vaginosis, that I thought I would write now just for that. It seems as though it may be akin to having a fecal transplant for patients with severe intestinal issues. I believe that the probiotic is helping more than the douching.

I hope this helps someone; this site has helped me so much. Good health and blessings to all.

Lemon

Posted by Julie (Columbia, Mo) on 12/29/2014
★★★★★

I happened to be desperate and couldn't get any unsweetened cranberry juice, but there was lemon juice, and I had some stevia which I use as a sweetener, so I made myself some strong "lemonade", and it knocked out the bladder infection quickly! Of course, I continued to take several doses until all symptoms were gone, but it REALLY works! Hope this helps someone :)

D-Mannose

Posted by Autum (Nh) on 12/22/2014
★★★★★

My daughter had UTI when she was 5. I had no idea she had it that bad and being a young parent then I was clueless even though I had UTI myself. It was stressful for all of us and a lot of things happened. Lots of medical appointments, tests, procedure she had to go through. She was diagnosed urinary reflux disease stage 2 and the possibility of a surgical correction. This went on for 3 or 4 years. She was on medications and we saw the specialists. And then a nurse finally suggested the surgical route. I didn't like the news. How could they gave up on finding a better and noninvasive treatment. I started doing reading up and researching on alternative treatments. I've read that she can grow out of it. Finally I read about D-mannose. The reviews sounded promising. She has been UTI free for a few years now and she's no longer taking D-mannose. No more incontinence adult size because children's size were too pricey. She had to wear them at bedtime. I was so glad the D-mannose worked I told my mother about it. However because of her sensitive ulcer she could not use it.

D-Mannose

Posted by Dee (Los Angeles, Ca) on 08/03/2014
★★★★★

I used to get UTIs pretty much every time after I had sex. My Dr. would prescribe me antibiotics which cured the UTIs but left me with a slew of other problems. After dealing with this for over 5 years I decided to try the natural route. I went to my local health food store & was recommended D-mannose with CranActin (capsules). I followed the instructions which was to take 2 capsules a day w/ water or a meal & it worked like a charm. When I first started taking it I'd take 2 capsules every single day (whether I was having sex or not) but now I just take 2 capsules before I have sex and 2 capsules the day after and I'm good. I haven't had a UTI in over 4 years!

Medical Emergency Signs

Posted by Julie (Ontario) on 01/15/2022
★★★★★

Hi Dave,

You are right on. A late friend of mine developed the infection. He landed up at the hospital. He began taking antibiotics after he came home and then for some reason stopped taking them. He died of kidney failure due to the infection.

Baking Soda

Posted by Joanvirginia (Chantilly, Va) on 09/25/2013
★★★★★

I've had exceptional results preventing and relieving UTIs with baking soda. Dissolve a 1/2 teaspoon in a glass of water and drink it a few times during the day. I've gone from pain to relief in no time at all!