Around one in two women, and around one in twenty men will experience a UTI, or Urinary Tract Infection, in their lifetime. If you’re one of those not-so-lucky people, you’d be all too familiar with the symptoms: needing to pee all the time, excruciating pain when you try to pee, a feeling that your bladder is always full and general pain and discomfort.
Having a UTI is pretty damn awful – it means you’re confined to your bathroom, chugging down litres of water or cranberry juice, or whatever other natural remedy your mum told you about, in the hopes of flushing it out.
It’s in these moments of pain that one might ask themselves: can you die from a UTI? And it’s a fair enough question – having one can feel like you’re going to explode at any minute.
Before answering this, it’s important to understand what a UTI actually is. According to Therapeutic Guidelines, a UTI or Urinary Tract Infection is “a general umbrella term used to describe an infection anywhere in the urinary system, most commonly caused by bacterial microorganisms.” This includes an infection in your urethra, bladder, or kidneys.
Most UTIs can be treated effectively via a speedy trip to the doctors for a prescription for antibiotics, however if an infection isn’t identified quickly enough or completely ignored, it could cause more serious health issues.
So, a UTI can kill you? Not necessarily. According to the Sepsis Alliance, “an untreated UTI may spread to the kidney, causing more pain and illness. It can also cause sepsis,” or more specifically urosepsis.
The Alliance calls sepsis “your body’s overactive and toxic response to an infection,” and according to the Mayo Clinic can occur when “the body’s response to these chemicals is out of balance, triggering changes that can damage multiple organ systems.”
The Sepsis Alliance states that “people shouldn’t die from a UTI, but if sepsis begins to take over and develops to severe sepsis and then to septic shock,” it could occur.
Okay, so this all sounds pretty terrifying – but it’s not all bad news. The good news is, UTIs can be treated.
To ease your mind even more, UTI symptoms can be relieved by drinking URAL. URAL Effervescent Powder is a urinary alkaliniser which works by raising the pH of urine. This makes the urine less acidic which provides effective relief from the burning pain of cystitis which is the most common type of UTI.
If you’re prone to getting UTIs having a couple of packets of URAL Effervescent Powder in your purse is a game-changer. It helps to relieve the burning, stinging symptoms while you are waiting for antibiotics to kick-in.
There are also a bunch of things you can do to prevent getting them in the first place, like drinking lots of fluids, peeing frequently and not holding it in, taking showers instead of baths, wearing cotton undies, drinking cranberry juice or taking cranberry supplements like URAL High Strength Cranberry 60,000mg capsules, wiping from front to back, and always peeing right after you have sex.
UTIs are awful but they’re awfully common and they definitely don’t have to ruin your life, or end it for that matter. Now go forth and pee with ease.
ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR USE. IF SYMPTOMS PERSIST, WORSEN OR CHANGE UNEXPECTEDLY TALK TO YOUR HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.