My Natural Ways for Healing Interstitial Cystitis / Chronic UTI / Bladder Inflammation
*post updated May 22, 2018So I just started seeing a Vancouver BC naturopath for my undiagnosed bladder / pelvic pain. So far, I've heard I may have Interstitial Cystitis, chronic UTI, bladder inflammation or Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. This post will keep getting updated as I keep visiting the naturopath for my chronic bladder healing.
On May 7th, 2018, the first recommendations I was given to do were:
- a full food sensitivity blood panel test (also recommended by another IC blogger who got healed), it's a little under $600
- a microbiology stool test - about $250
- a SIBO breath test - about $260
(The dollars are in Canadian dollars.) The blood test was done immediately at their lab. The other two I will have to do at home and then bring it back to their lab. My poor wallet, I haven't been able to work since my IC symptoms started so these were a big financial hit to me, but I want answers and clues to what I may have!
Then the naturopath had me go to my family doctor to get the following done at Life Labs:
- H Pylori breath test - free, covered by public healthcare
- blood test for: iron level, celiac, and vitamin B12 - free, covered by public healthcare
By the way, I highly recommend getting your blood test shots done at Life Labs. They never hurt! I had painful blood tests done at other labs because they would keep pulling and pushing the needle out multiple times if I had to give out more than 1 vial of blood. But at Life Labs, they keep one needle in you, and replace the vials without jabbing or moving you. So for example, say I had to give 4 blood vials, they put one needle in me and rotate the vials so I'm jabbed only once. Sorry if my explanation doesn't make sense, I don't know medical terminology too well.
- I read on the Healing Interstitial Cystitis Naturally Facebook group that organic marshmallow root tea helped a lot of bladder pain sufferers to coat their bladder. I bought mine from Shanti Teas since it's based in Toronto Canada, which arrived on May 21st. Make sure you order organic and from a legitimate supplier. I don't boil mine with hot water, I leave it in a cup overnight filled with spring water and sip it the next day in the morning. If you want to know how to make it most effective, join that Facebook group and do a search for "Marshmallow Root" to see how others are doing it and which method is most effective. I read that most people felt soothed with this. But I didn't really feel soothed from this, it kind of made me twinge and want to pee more, so I stopped it for a bit. I might go on-and-off it once in a while. I did read a review from a lady who bought from Shanti Teas that the marshmallow root tea really helped her Interstitial Cystitis, so give it a try, maybe it'll work for you. (I sent that reviewer an add request on LinkedIn to ask her more questions, yes, I'm such a stalker.)
- I drink bottled natural Spring water only, not tap water. I'm drinking the Fiji brand. I tested it with a PH strip and it was around the 6.6 mark. If you can find one at 7 PH, even better since 7 is neutral, neither acid nor base. My tap water was so acidic at 5.2, no wonder my bladder was flaring when I was drinking tap water. Don't trust all fancy bottled waters to be "clean" or "non-acidic". Do the PH test on some water bottle brands as shown in this YouTube video.
- I am taking 2 - 3 teaspoons of "NOW" brand's D-Mannose powder. One teaspoon is worth 2000mg. So I'm taking a whopping 4000 - 6000mg per day. If you are worried about the overdose, just google D-Mannose powder overdose and most articles explain why overdosing on it doesn't have any problems. I only take it in pure powder form without cranberry extract because cranberry actually flares the bladder. I don't take it in pill form, only powder because a lot of IC patients in Facebook groups are saying the powder form works best. I don't know if it helps or not, but I just keep doing it because it helps get rid of e-coli bacteria. Even if I don't have an e-coli UTI, at least I can make sure my environment won't start up a new UTI from e-coli.
- I take out the sting in my urine by taking 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda powder (depending how good or bad I feel that day) with 4 ounces of water. Then after I glug that down, I drink 1 full cup of spring water right after. I do this once in the morning right when I wake up on an empty stomach. Then again once at night before going to sleep. Some people take it 3 times a day. I take the Arm & Hammer brand that I get at the dollar store. You have to be careful which baking soda you buy, and how much you take in a day. So just read on the net about which brands are safe to ingest, and how much is too risky. But this does really help! My doctor was okay with me doing this, she said as long as I don't take it in huge doses. I tested a PH strip on my water after adding baking soda and it shot up to a very high alkaline number. The PH strip turned dark blue so I know this makes your urine super alkaline. About 1 or 2 hours after I take the baking soda, my urine's PH shoots up alkaline too.
- How to get a good night's sleep when your bladder wants to keep peeing. I knock myself out with 1/4 or 1/2 or 1 full Benedryl every single night since I got this stupid bladder problem. Depending on how bad I feel by the evening, I will decide which dose to take. I use the Benedryl to make me fall asleep. It's an over-the-counter allergy pill, so it's a lot safer than taking a sleeping pill, anxiety pill, or a depression pill to fall asleep. My doctor was going to prescribe me a depression & anxiety pill to help me fall asleep, but I found out that IC patients were using Benedryl to get a nice deep sleep. The Benedryl helps me sleep a full 8 - 10 hours per night, and I get up 0 to 1 times in the night! If I didn't take the Benedryl, I'd be getting up 3 - 5 times a night to urinate. I take the ones that are in the hard pink pills. I don't know if other forms are better or not.