8 Effective Home Remedies For Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Symptoms

If you want to get over a uti fast, most doctors will prescribe an anti-biotic to kill off the infection and get you feeling better faster.

However, if you want to try a different approach, there are several home remedies you can try to get rid of your uti. While these home remedies should be safe to do while you’re taking an anti-biotic, it’s always best to talk to your doctor before trying any new treatment plan.

Not all home remedies are safe – those who try to drink baking soda to fight a uti can wind up with baking soda poisoning. So definitely be safe when trying new remedies and always discuss it with your doctor.

more: The Urinary Tract Infection Guide (utis): Everything You Need To Know

These remedies are great for helping to prevent utis from happening, and also to give you relief from the painful uti symptoms if you do contract one.

The Top Home Remedies For Urinary Tract Infection Symptoms

1. Get Rid Of Anything In Your Diet That Will Irritate Your Bladder

When you have a uti, your bladder is already severely irritated. That’s what’s causing a lot of your most painful symptoms.

That’s why avoiding things that irritate your bladder even further is super important for minimizing your symptoms. (1)

Avoid things like carbonated drinks, spicy food, artificial sweeteners, nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol. That will give your body some time to recover and give your bladder some breathing room.

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2. Use Heat To Melt Away The Pain Of A uti

utis come with many symptoms – inflammation and irritation being two of the chief ones. That’s what causes the majority of the pain, pressure, and burning that unfortunately comes in spades with a uti.

Heat has been found to be effective at soothing your pubic area and relieving some of those symptoms.

Make sure to set your heating pad to low and never apply it directly to your skin. Only use it for up to 15 minutes at a time and you should see relief from your symptoms. (2)

more: 17 Effective Home Remedies To Relieve Constipation

3. Stay Super Hydrated To Flush Out Your uti

Drinking lots of water is one of the best remedies for a uti, and is the first thing you should think of when trying to get over one.

When you drink lots of water, it flows through your system constantly, flushing out your urethra and kidney and helping to clear out the bacteria that are causing your utiin the first place. (3)

A good rule of thumb for how much water to drink is to drink as many ounces of water per day as equals half your body weight in pounds. So if you weigh 130 pounds, you should aim to drink 65 ounces of water each day.

For those with kidney disease, talk to your doctor about what amount of water is right for you.

more: 8 Simple Home Remedies For Stomach Aches And Cramps

4. Make Sure To Go To The Bathroom When You Have To Go

It might be painful, but every time you use the bathroom when you have a uti, you’re getting rid of some of the bacteria causing your problem by urinating.

So don’t hold it, and keep going to the bathroom – no matter how little comes out each time. (4)

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5. Try UvaUrsi Or Goldenseal To Get Some Relief

These two herbs have been used as treatments for urinary tract infections and could help you heal.

However, you need to be very careful with both of them – and definitely talk to your doctor before trying either of them as a remedy.

UvaUrsi (bearberry leaf) can cause liver damage if you’re not careful, and if you take it for 5 days or more it could hurt your liver. (5)

Goldenseal is another herb that can be effective against utis, but again, talk to your doctor before you try either of them as a remedy.

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6. Make Some Lifestyle Changes That Prevent utis

There are several good habits and lifestyle changes that can help prevent utis from happening to you.

Wiping front to back helps to keep the bacteria that cause utis away from your urinary tract, helping to prevent utis from forming. (6)

Wearing loose clothing and underwear, especially made from cotton, helps to prevent the moist environment that utibacteria thrives in, which means you’re less likely to contract a uti.

Try to use personal hygiene products that have no fragrance to avoid utis, and also avoid smoking if you want the lowest chance of a utipossible.

7. Try Probiotics For Stubborn utis

While it sounds paradoxical, this counter-intuitive remedy can actually help prevent utis in the first place.

It sounds crazy to use a remedy that promotes bacteria growth when bacteria are responsible for your uti in the first place, but there’s a method behind the madness.

Probiotics like fermented foods including kefir, raw cheese, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, and probiotic yogurt all work to improve the benign and beneficial bacteria in your body. (7)

When those benign bacteria are healthy and flourishing, it makes it harder for the bacteria that causes utis to multiply and run rampant.

So if you want to have less utis, try probiotics to keep your good bacteria healthy.

8. Get A Ton Of Vitamin C To Keep Yourself Healthy

Vitamin C is great for your body for tons of different reasons, and you can add helping to prevent utis to that list.

That’s because the Vitamin C that your body can’t use is expelled from your body via urination. The Vitamin C in your urine makes it more acidic, which stops the bad bacteria you’re trying to avoid from growing around your urinary tract and your bladder. (8)

Eat plenty of foods with lots of Vitamin C, and also consider taking supplements.

In summary…

The Best Home Remedies For Urinary Tract Infections

1. Get rid of anything in your diet that will irritate your bladder
2. Use heat to melt away the pain of a uti
3. Stay super hydrated to flush out your uti
4. Make sure to go to the bathroom when you have to go
5. Try UvaUrsi or Goldenseal to get some relief
6. Make some lifestyle changes that prevent utis
7. Try probiotics for stubborn utis
8. Get a ton of Vitamin C to keep yourself healthy