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| bladder infections can be a significant problem for some women . . . 55 percent will eventually involve the kidneys, since the same conditions that allow reoccurring infections can allow the infection to ascend up the urinary tract. Recurrent kidney infections can cause progressive damage resulting in scarring and, for a few, kidney failure. By the time the kidneys are involved, herbs and natural approaches are often inadequate, since such infections, more dangerous and profound, usually need medical intervention. |
| Herbs are most effective in the lower urinary tract and support the lessening of metabolic stress. |
| Urinary tract infections in males are much less common and usually indicate an anatomical abnormality, a sexually transmitted disease or a prostate infection. Urinary tract infections are rare in boys (0.05 percent) while only 2 percent of girls have excessive bacteria in their urine. Part of this is because growing children, with a rapid rate of growth and metabolic heat tend to have strongly acidic urine and maintain a strong charge in both the urine and the urinary tract mucosa. Few bacteria can thrive under these circumstances. |
| Factors that increase the risk for UTIs are pregnancy (twice as frequent), sexual intercourse (nuns, as an example, have only 10 percent as many), trauma and irritation (such as a 1,000-mile trek in a subcompact car with only coffee breaks), anal intercourse and any structural blockages, such as urethral scar tissue and BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). |
| A number of other factors can affect an individual's predisposition to UTI. As mentioned, women are more susceptible than men since the urethra is shorter and more easily in contact with colon flora. Further, some women are naturally more disposed to recurrent infection, presumably the result of genetic factors that allow the mucous membranes to be more receptive to bacterial attachment. |
| Age in another factor, with between 1020 percent of |
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