“You’re not drinking enough water,” “never wave off the urge to go to the bathroom”… These familiar words keep resonating in your ears whenever you’re at the doctor’s office, feeling distressed about your recent, recurring UTI flare up. The truth is you’re probably one of the few who actually have a conscious mind of always keeping some water at hand. Not to say the least, the frequent need to clear your bladder makes you always on the lookout for the ladies’ room anyway.
So what’s really happening? Well, I clearly remember how one of our UTI patients described it. She had no knowledge of medicine, modern or traditional. Over the years of struggling with her UTI issue, she and her body communicated well. She read and understood all the signs and messages her body tries to tell her, especially at times of flare up. At her first acupuncture diagnosis appointment at our Toronto office, she pointed to the area of her abdomen around the umbilicus and declared frankly that it was the root of her chronic UTI problem.
The certainty in her voice clearly showed that she was not joking about her own health. In fact, I was impressed. For someone who had no medical background to make this comment, she had just demonstrated how theories of traditional Chinese medicine were carved out thousands of years ago, via precious anecdotal information or experience of life. According to the theories, chronic UTI is as result of disharmony among organs like the kidneys and digestive system and even the lungs.
If healing can be achieved simply by treating the urinary tract, then those are not real problems. Women suffer from recurring UTI for years and their gut flora is paying a high price of antibiotic use. Even studies have shown that probiotics may prevent UTI. It is not surprising that my UTI patient wanted her gut to be treated.
Many a time we have heard that healing with alternative medicine requires patience. “You will feel worse before you feel better.” Treating chronic UTI with acupuncture is no different. A flare up or two in the course of building immunity in the urinary-digestive-kidney axis is part of the healing process. Our goal is to be UTI-free, not just a temporary relief.
Urinary tract infections are very common. The feeling of frequent infections and having your urine specimen come back negative are enough evidence to convince us to look further and deeper into the problem. With acupuncture, it is not just finding the root of cause, but also to treat it once and for all.
If you believe you have the symptoms of a UTI and have questions, please feel free to contact us for more information or to request an appointment for holistic acupuncture.
