Researchers in the United States have found that a common herbal extract which can be bought over the counter at health food stores, has the ability to cut down on urinary tract infections and may also enhance the effect of the antibiotics used to treat such infections.
The team at Duke University Medical Center say an extract from the Indian coleus plant, Forskolin, prevents urinary tract infections in the bladder recurring even after treatment with antibiotics; Forskolin they say has the potential along with antibiotics to kill the bacteria that cause 90 percent of infections in the bladder.
Almost all urinary tract infections (UTI's) in the bladder are caused by the E. coli bacteria and women are far more susceptible to them than men.
All too often the infection returns within weeks of antibiotic treatment; UTI's are a serious health problem affecting millions of people each year and are the second most common type of infection in the body; they account for about 8.3 million doctor visits each year.
One in five women develop a UTI during their lifetime and as many as 20 percent of those will have another, and 30 percent of those will have yet another, with an 80 percent chance of a recurring infection.
Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggests that one factor behind recurrent UTIs may be the ability of bacteria to attach to cells lining the urinary tract and a recent NIH-funded study found that the bacteria formed a protective film on the inner lining of the bladder in mice.
Although a UTI can exist without symptoms, most people experience some discomfort, ranging from a frequent urge to urinate and a painful, burning feeling in the area of the bladder or urethra during urination, to feeling generally unwell.
It is common for a person with a urinary infection to complain that, despite the urge to urinate, only a small amount of urine is passed which may appear milky or cloudy, even reddish if blood is present.
A UTI accompanied by a fever can indicate the infection has reached the kidneys.
The Duke University researchers carried out a series of experiments in mice, and suggest that urinary tract infections in the bladder return even after treatment with antibiotics because some bacteria hide in cells lining the bladder, where they cannot be reached by antibiotics.
They survive antibiotic treatment and wait for the opportunity to emerge and start multiplying again.
They discovered that Forskolin flushes out hiding colonies of bacteria, making them susceptible to antibiotic treatment.