The female anatomy is as peculiar as it can be and no matter how much you try to take care of it, statistics show that about 50% of women in the world contract a urinary tract infection (UTI) at some point in their lives. That’s not all – About 70% of said women also suffer from recurring UTIs within the same year. Whoever said that having a vagina was fun?!
If you aren’t familiar, UTI is caused by bacteria like E. coli that invades the urethra, which then travels up to the bladder. There are many ways this can occur, whether from sex or simply not cleaning up properly after going number two in the bathroom. If this isn’t treated, UTI can go on to infect the kidneys.
Symptoms include a burning sensation while urinating, a frequent or intense urge to pee although nothing much gets excreted when you do, pressure in the back or lower abdomen, cloudy, dark, bloody or weird-smelling urine, feeling lethargic or shaky, or having fever or chills.
While you can take preventative measures to avoid contracting UTI, there is another extremely simple way around it – Drink more water! This has recently been proven by a 12-month study conducted by a team of researchers based in Texas, Florida and France to find out how fluid intake affects UTI risk.
140 women who suffered from recurrent UTIs were reported to have consumed less than 1.5 litres of water daily. Half of them were then asked to drink an extra six cups of water daily. After one year, the low-fluid intake group reported 216 UTIs whereas the women who consumed more water reported 111 infections.
The study concluded that drinking extra H2O can in fact help prevent UTIs from happening often, “Increased water intake is an effective antimicrobial-sparing strategy to prevent recurrent cystitis in premenopausal women at high risk for recurrence who drink low volumes of fluid daily.”
We’ve been told to drink more water our whole life, and this is one more reason you should be convinced to do so!
