6 tips to prevent UTIs

culled from:pulse.ng

Urinary Tract Infections are an unfortunate part of womanhood, in fact, some health experts rank your lifetime risk of getting one as high as 1 in 2, with many women having repeat infections, sometimes for years on end.

Hence, the need to give you tips on how to prevent it, but before we go into that, a brief introduction and symptoms.

According to webmd, UTIs are a key reason we're often told to wipe from front to back after using the bathroom, that's because the urethra, the tube that transports urine from the bladder to the outside of the body, is located close to the anus.

Bacteria from the large intestine, such as E. coli, are in the perfect position to escape the anus and invade the urethra. from there, they can travel up to the bladder, and if the infection isn't treated, continue on to infect the kidneys.

Women may be especially prone to UTIs because they have shorter urethras, which allow bacteria quick access to the bladder, having sex can introduce bacteria into the urinary tract, too.

Symptoms of UTIs include:

• A burning feeling when you urinate
• A frequent or intense urge to urinate, even though little comes out when you do
• Pain or pressure in your back or lower abdomen
• Cloudy, dark, bloody, or strange-smelling urine
• Feeling tired or shaky
• Fever or chills (a sign the infection may have reached your kidneys)

With all the above, it is really necessary to give you tips on how to prevent them;

1. Drink a lot of water- This is very necessary as it helps flush out toxins from your body.
2. Do not delay your micturition- Urination, the release of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the urinary meatus outside of the body, is also known medically as micturition. Do not delay going to the bathroom as this is the body's way of flushing waste, and holding it might aid the breeding of UTIs.
3. Take showers instead of baths.
4. Wipe from front to back after a bowel movement, also always fully empty your bladder.
5. Wash your genital area before and after sex.
6. Take vitamin C supplement in order to build your body's ammunition and resistance.

Endeavour to always do the above in order to avoid this unfortunately common infection.