1. Home Remedies for Mild Cases
Mild, lower-urinary-tract infections are common among women, although fairly rare in men, and most of these infections tend to go away on their own after a few days. If you'd like to hurry yours along, the best thing you can do is drink a lot of water to flush your system and rid it of the bacteria that cause the infection. Cranberry juice is also recommended, as it can make the urine slightly acidic, which will help to reduce bacteria levels. You do need to make sure, though, that you drink pure cranberry juice, not a sugary juice cocktail. If you do not like the taste of the plain cranberry juice, you may dilute it with water. However, sugar will only aggravate your condition and so will caffeine, alcohol, artificial sweeteners and carbonated beverages.
2. Medicines Your Doctor Can Prescribe
If your lower-urinary-tract infection worsens or persists for more than a few days, you should see a doctor, as you may need a course of prescription antibiotics to kill off the infection-causing bacteria before the infection spreads to your kidneys. Depending on what type of medication is prescribed, you may need to take the antibiotic for 3 to 10 days, but it is important that you take the entire dosage prescribed by your physician in order to prevent the infection from recurring. Some of the medications commonly prescribed to treat lower-urinary-tract infections are amoxicillin, doxycycline, nitrofurantoin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, cephalosporins, sulfonamides and quinolones.
3. When Things Get Complicated
A complicated lower-urinary-tract infection, or pyelonephritis, is one that has spread to the kidneys and to the ureters. If you have an acute, complicated, lower-urinary-tract infection, intravenous antibiotics may be necessary in order to control your bacterial infection. Such a course of antibiotics will likely be given for 10 to 14 days. Chronic pyelonephritis will usually be managed with long-term antibiotic therapy using amoxicillin, cephalosporins, levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin or sulfa drugs, such as sulfisoxazole and trimethoprim. In rare cases in which chronic infection results in serious damage to a kidney, it may be necessary to remove or replace the kidney.
