I came across some interesting news from the University of Utah to aid chronic urinary tract infection (UTI) treatment. Researchers have found a new way to treat chronic UTI. So far, the new method has only been tested on mice, but researchers are hopeful it will work for humans too.
To understand how the new method works, let’s look at the reasons why UTI happens. 80% of all UTI is caused by a bacteria called E. coli. These bacteria are a part of the human’s natural intestinal flora, but if it gets into your bladder it can cause trouble. First, it attaches itself to the walls of the bladder. Second, it penetrates the top level of the bladder’s lining cells and hides there. E. coli causes inflammation of the bladder and all the horrible UTI symptoms.
If the bacteria make their way into the deep layers of the bladder’s lining it will not be affected by drugs. According to the scientists, in this case, antibiotics will only bring temporary relief by killing E. coli, that are on the surface. Sooner or later, when the hidden bacteria starts growing again, another UTI outbreak happens.
So what do you do if the top layer of a bladder is infected with the bacteria? Researchers decided to exfoliate it! The mice’s bladders were infected, infused with chitosan for 20 minutes and then treated with a seven-day course of antibiotics. The E. coli was gone. This gives hope for the patients who are failing to find a potent chronic UTI treatment.
The biggest challenge was to make sure that a bladder is exfoliated fully, but not damaged. In the most successful cases, the bladders of the mice were restored in a week after the treatment.
In less successful cases, they were destroyed. Poor animals.
According to the researchers, this method hopefully will help some of the chronic UTI sufferers in the future. As of now, they just hope to inspire more experimenters around the world to learn more about chronic UTI treatment.
I am not sure how I feel about this. What do you think about this idea? Would you be willing to exfoliate your bladder if nothing else helps?
