One day I woke up on very disturbing news my grandmother had fallen unconsciously on her head and now she is being transported to the hospital, later we have discovered that what caused this is that she had an episode of UTI.
Her doctor, I would say; didn’t manage her in the best way so this falling on the head incident had been repeated 3 or 4 times in the following year or year and a half.
At that time I realized that my granny has recurrent UTI, find out how I made my granny say goodbye to UTIs forever and how you can use these tips to rid your elderly loved ones from recurrent UTIs.
first off let us acknowledge that there is not too much literature on this subject more researches and studies need to be done on this subject.
many references and websites suggest the use of long-term antibiotics to deal with recurrent UTIs especially in elderly UTI sufferers and when we say elderly or senior UTI sufferers we know that it will be mostly females.
I don’t think that’s the right approach, antibiotics should be used only when it’s necessary to use them and for this kind of situation, there are better alternatives than long-term antibiotics.
One of them is one that I personally used on my grandmother, I told her to drink a hell of a lot of water as much as she can and when the summer comes (summers in my country are very hot and long) I told her to drink even more water.
Not just that I also advised her to drink fresh lemon or orange juice on a daily basis.
since then she never had a UTI (except for a time when she was travelling to another city and spent a lot of time without drinking water or going to the bathroom) except for that time my grandmother UTI situation was good and yours or your loved ones should be good too if you use these tips.
you can find more tips about how to prevent UTI in this article.
another tip that I want to tell my grandma and you should use it too is one that I have discovered recently, it’s to drink green tea on a regular basis or for some period of time if you or a loved one are currently having UTI or feel that you are susceptible to it, this tip works also for younger adults who are prone to UTIs.
you can find more about the benefits of green tea for UTI sufferers in this article.
as we said earlier recurrent UTIs in elderly females are very common things so every elderly woman and women around the age of menopause should take precautions for this disease.
estrogen therapy has proven its effectiveness in helping in the treatment and preventing UTI.
But why recurrent UTIs are this common in elderly women in the first place
UTI is the most common infection that makes people go to hospital in the united states according to NCBI.
well, there is no one reason for it but there is one that is mostly responsible and it’s the lowered capacity of the immune system to combat infections that come with age.
In senior females usually, the immune system is less powerful and effective than that in younger females or adults in general, and that leads to less difficulty for bacteria like E. coli to cause urinary tract infections.
it also means a greater chance for the bacteria to come back after the antibiotics treatment has finished.
many antibiotics rely on the immune system to kill the remaining of the bacteria after they have stopped the bacterial growth even the bactericidal antibiotics will leave a portion of the bacteria for the immune system to deal with after they have done their job.
this means that a weak immune system like the one that is found in many of our elderly females will not complete the job of eliminating the rest of the bacteria which will lead to maybe reinfection or the infection coming back after some time.
and this time the bacteria will be stronger and may even be resistant to the antibiotic that inhibited their growth previously.
this most probably is how recurrent UTIs are generated in older females.
with women around the age of menopause, there may be another reason.
this group of women has low estrogen levels which means that the protection for the uterus and other parts of the urogenital tract like the urinary tract will be lower too, for example, the blood supply for these areas will decrease leading to dryness in the urinary tract which is a very good way to get a urinary tract infection.
in addition to the previous factors, there are also many other factors that can increase the susceptibility of senior females and senior people in general to UTI.
factors like the presence of other diseases or conditions especially diseases like diabetes which has a very strong relationship between it and UTI according to NCBI.
cystocele (bladder prolapse) is also a condition many elderly females have which can make them prone to UTI.
many elderly females have kidney stones which is a contributing factor for UTI
incontinence due to nervous system disorders is also not a good thing for UTI prone elderly females.
for various reasons many elderly people will need catheterizations in the hospital, this is one of the common causes of UTI in elderly females.
symptoms of UTIs in elderly females
symptoms of UTI or recurrent UTI in elder women and in elderly people, in general, are different from that in younger people.
usually, these symptoms are more behavioral in their nature than the regular UTI symptoms in young women like frequent urination, burning sensation with urination, passing small amounts of urine but frequently, lower back and abdominal pain and etc…
while in many cases elderly females may actually have a UTI but will show none of these symptoms instead they may have confusion, restlessness, fever, chills, hallucination, and inactivity.
pain with urination has also been noticed in elderly UTI but that may not be present in the early stages of their UTI.
the reason for these behavioral symptoms is unclear at this moment there are many theories about the subject.
treatment and what the caregivers and the doctor should do
when you notice any signs of behavioral changes like delirium, hallucination, confusion, agitation, or restlessness on your senior loved ones you should contact the doctor immediately for the possibility of UTI presence or another disease.
because these symptoms are not of a regular UTI the doctor will tell you to do some tests, these may include urine analysis and culture and sensitivity tests.
the doctor will try to make a decision based on the signs and symptoms presented by the patient, the only way to 100% tell if that’s a UTI is by the culture and sensitivity test but these are somewhat expensive and will take a long time.
the nitrite test has proven that it’s very effective in identifying UTI in elderly patients as the common bacteria that cause UTI in the elderly like E. coli and klebsiella will turn the nitrites compounds found in urine into nitrates which can indicate the presence of UTI according to NCBI.
as we said earlier the most common type of bacteria that can cause a UTI in elderly people, in general, are the E. coli and klebsiella bacteria so the doctor will have to initiate therapy based on that fact and also based on the other diagnostic signs that the doctor may notice.
but it’s very important to initiate antibiotic therapy quickly even if the doctor doesn’t know for sure what’s the type of bacteria that caused the UTI.
it’s a good idea to use broad-spectrum antibiotics (antibiotics that kill a wide range of bacteria types) if that’s the first time the elderly female has a UTI but if it’s a recurrent UTI the patient should have done a culture and sensitivity test at that point of time and the most suitable antibiotic should be determined based on the test.
the most important thing in both cases whether it’s a first time UTI or if it’s a recurrent UTI is that the chosen therapy should eliminate the bacteria completely so as the infection will not return the future more dangerously.
UTI prevention tips and home remedies will aid in the treatment process making the treatment more successful and will also help in preventing UTI from coming back if the treatment was not so much successful and a recurrent UTI was feared.
sometimes it’s okay if an elderly female (or male) had bacteria in her urine but without showing any signs of UTI in that case you should just resort to the UTI preventing tips and home remedies without the need for antibiotics
but if behavioural or other UTI signs start to appear, call the doctor immediately.
other UTI preventing tips that may help elderly females having a recurrent UTI.
_ whipping from the front to back
_ sanitizing the toilet seats and other things in the bathroom
_ using cotton underwear
_ eating nutrients and vitamins rich food or taking vitamins and minerals supplements if they don’t interact with their medication if they have any
_ making some light exercise or small walks
_ trying to control Diabetes Mellitus especially by getting away from refined sugars and carbohydrates
_ trying to remove other conditions that may lead or worsen the recurrent UTI like kidney stones and bladder prolapse
_ trying to control the urinary incontinence if present_ treating large intestines and digestive problems
_ eating low sugar watery fruits like watermelon
_ and finally taking probiotics supplements if suitable or probiotics rich yoghurts
for more information please visit the UTI prevention article and also the home remedies article
so that was it, thank you for reading until the end of this article please feel free to check out other UTI related articles on this website KNOW AND TREAT UTI.