Bladder Infection

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What is the urinary tract?

The "urinary tract" consists of the various organs of the body that produce, store, and get rid of urine. These include the kidneys, the ureters, the bladder, and the urethra. 

Our kidneys are chemical filters for our blood. About 25% of the blood pumped by the heart goes through the kidneys. The kidneys filter this blood, and the "filtrate" is processed to separate out waste products and excess amounts of minerals, sugar, and other chemicals. 

The "extras" and waste products make up the urine, which flows through "ureters" (one per kidney) into the bladder, which holds the urine until you are ready to get rid of it. When you urinate, muscles in the bladder wall help push urine out of the bladder, through the urethra, and out. (In men, the urethra passes through the penis; in women, the urethra opens just in front of the vagina.) When you aren't urinating (which is most of the time) a muscle called the "sphincter" squeezes the urethra shut to keep urine in; the sphincter relaxes when you urinate so that urine can flow out easily. 

Urine is normally sterile:

That is, it does not normally contain bacteria. This is a good thing, since the mineral and sugar content of urine make it a great medium for bacteria to grow in. Usually several things keep bacteria out of the urine. These include: 

• The urethral sphincter: When the urethra is squeezed shut, bacteria cannot climb up the urethra from the "meatus" (the outside opening) into the bladder. 
• The length of the urethra: it's a long way up to the bladder for a bacterium. (Since a woman's urethra is shorter than a man's, women are much more likely than men to get UTI's.) 
• Frequent washing: Any bacteria that make it into the urethra are flushed out the next time you urinate, and since your bladder empties almost completely when you do urinate any bacteria that get that far will be flushed out too. Furthermore, there are valves at the points where the ureters enter the bladder to prevent urine from "refluxing" from the bladder to the kidneys, so even if the bladder and its urine is infected the bacteria shouldn't travel up to the kidneys. 

How does an infection start?

The urinary tract can be infected from above (by bacteria entering the kidneys from the bloodstream and traveling downward) or from below (by bacteria entering the urethra and traveling upward). 

Infection from above is most often seen in newborns with generalized infection or sepsis. If there are many bacteria in the bloodstream, some are likely to get through the filters of the kidney to the urine. This is especially likely if the filters are immature, or if there are a lot of bacteria. 

In older children and adults infection most often starts from below. In small children still using diapers, stool (which is largely bacteria) can sit for some time right at the meatus; the longer it sits there, the more likely it is that bacteria may enter the urethra. Baby boys are less likely to have this happen than baby girls, since girls' urethras are so much shorter and the head of the penis isn't as likely to sit in stool. (Note, though, that bacteria can hang out in any moist, warm area, and that UTI's seem to happen more often in uncircumcised boys than in circumcised boys since bacteria can accumulate beneath the foreskin.) Older girls may become prone to UTI's through wiping back-to-front when they are first toilet-trained, which pulls stool into the vaginal/meatal area. Sexually active teenage and adult women are more prone to UTI's because of friction at the meatus, which tends to push bacteria into the urethra (urinating after intercourse helps avoid UTI's); the same mechanism may cause UTI's in teenage boys and adult men, although they are again less prone to UTI's than women of the same age. 

Where do UTI's occur in the urinary tract?

In general, the farther the organ in the urinary tract from the place where the bacteria enter, the less likely the organ is to be infected. 

• Urethritis is infection/inflammation of the urethra. This can be due to other things besides the organisms usually involved in UTI's; in particular, many sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) appear initially as urethritis. However, stool-related bacteria (the most common bacteria on the skin near the meatus) will also often cause urethritis. 
• Cystitis is an infection of the bladder. (Strictly speaking, "-itis" means inflammation, and there are non-bacterial reasons for bladder inflammation, but they are much less common than bacterial infection.) This is the most common form of UTI; it can be aggravated if the bladder does not empty completely when you urinate. (Some people have valves at the bladder end of the urethra as well as at the bladder ends of the ureters. You aren't supposed to have urethral valves except for the sphincter; these "extra" valves usually prevent complete bladder emptying and make cystitis more likely.) 
• Ureteritis is infection of a ureter. This can occur if the bacteria entered the urinary tract from above, or if the ureter-to-bladder valves don't work properly and allow urine to "reflux" from the bladder into the ureters. 
• Pyelonephritis is an infection of the kidney itself. This can happen with infection from above, or if reflux into the ureters is so bad that infected urine refluxes all the way to the kidney. 

Symptoms of UTI's

The symptoms a person has with a UTI depend on how old the person is and on where in the urinary tract the infection is located. 

Urethritis usually appears as burning on urination. Often this burning occurs mainly when you start urinating, since the bacteria and infected urine in the urethra cause the inflammation but are flushed out when "fresh" urine flows through the urethra on its way out of the bladder. 

Cystitis may show up as burning on urination, often in the "middle" of urination. However, it may have no symptoms other than fever, lower abdominal (way down -- just above the pubic bone) pain, or even just a funny smell or colour or appearance (cloudy, dark, even blood-tinged) to your urine. 

Since the kidneys are located in your back, just below the bottom ribs, pyelonephritis may appear as pain in your back or flank(s), or in the abdomen. Fever usually (but not always) comes along with the pain. If the kidneys are severely affected, you may also start seeing some of the complications due to kidney malfunction. 

Treatments for UTI’s 

There are many treatments for UTI,s, most of which include the use of antibiotics. We do not recommend that anyone do anything contrary to what is recommended by their physician or other health care practitioner. We have learned, however that many can be successfully addressed through the use of Colloidal Silver. The testimonials below are the only evidence of this we have and we make no claims ourselves. Please read the testimonials and decide for yourself if you want to try this benign mineral as your treatment. We have a money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied.