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Recurring bladder infections are possibly related to gluten because 
I've heard that food intolerances can cause bladder infections, by causing
irritation in the bladder, which gets infected.  However I just got a new
one recently, so I need to try other things.  Just quitting eating pepper,
which I turned out to have an intolerance to that I hadn't known about, 
didn't work.  I've read that many people 
who get repeated bladder infections actually have a colony of bacteria 
living permanently in their bladder, which the antibiotics don't manage 
to kill all of.

I got some suggestions that might be helpful.  A lot of people suggested 
D-mannose - there are actually studies showing it helps to prevent E. Coli 
bladder infections.  I had heard about D-mannose before, but I hadn't 
tried to
investigate, because those sugars are most all made from corn and I get
sick from even tiny amounts of corn.  But, I found out there *is* D-mannose 
made from birch trees, which I can use.  It's the Pure Encapsulations 
D-mannose, sold by http://www.organicpharmacy.org.  There is another 
company that sells D-mannose that they say is made from birch for a lower
price, but they haven't been very reliable or treated me all that well in 
the past.

One person said, intriguingly, that she'd been able to cure her bladder 
infections by washing them out.  With lots of water!  I had always 
assumed you couldn't do this.  She said when she starts to get symptoms,
she drinks 2 cups of water, then a cup of water every hour after this. 
Intrigued, I tried this with the latest bladder infection, as soon as I 
thought my vaguely-off feelings were probably a bladder infection.  It
didn't work.  I drank even more water than she, I was drinking almost 
TWO cups of water every hour, and I tried this for a day and I just got
sicker.  I guess it works only for some people.

But it may help to prevent them, to drink lots of water.  I've heard in 
reliable places, from doctors, that drinking 8 cups of water/day is 
healthy in many ways.  So I'm trying to get into the habit of doing 
that.  It isn't too hard - a big coffee mug has 2 cups of water and I 
drink more in the morning so I don't have excessive water pressure 
at night :)

So maybe D-mannose and drinking a lot will do it.  I really hope so 
because it's a big drag on my life.  You do really get quite sick from 
a bladder infection and they are can really be dangerous if they reach
your kidneys.

I do get infections, not interstitial cystitis.  I always go to the 
doctor and get them to check my urine for bacteria.

Laura

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