A urinary tract infection is one of the most painful illnesses one can contract. It’s also a very common problem, especially in women. More than 50% of all women will experience a UTI some time in their lives. Not only that, most of them will suffer recurrences. This article will talk about why simply drinking lots of fluids can be an effective prevention method.

If your family history includes UTI’s, you may want to consider taking steps to help prevent possible infections. UTI’s are highly hereditary, so if your parents, grandparents, or other relatives are prone to them, chances are that you probably are as well. Even if you are male, who statistically are much more unlikely to contract UTI’s compared to women, you stand higher chance than other men to get a UTI if it runs in your family.

A simple but good way to prevent UTI’s is to drink lots of fluids, particularly water. Each time you urinate, some bacteria that happen to be dwelling in your urethra or bladder get flushed out. It’s not unusual for some bacteria to reach your urinary system, and most of the time they will cause no harm. Your immune system can manage their reproduction to a harmless level until they are expelled by urination. If you don’t drink lots of water, you won’t urinate as much and in turn let bacteria stay inside yourself too long.

However, drinking sufficient fluids does not a guarantee that you will not contract UTI’s. There is no surefire way to prevent them. Whether you get a UTI at a certain point in time or not depends on many factors. For example, perhaps your immune system is weaker than usual due to another illness you had recently recovered from. Or your diet may consist of many foods that can upset your urethra. In addition, some people are simply more prone to contracting UTI’s, and it’s not really known why.

That being said, anything that helps preventing UTI’s should not be overlooked, simply because the pain is quite serious in most cases. Drinking plenty of fluids does the job of slowing down and expelling bacteria. If bacteria get the chance to reach your bladder, they will begin to multiply at a speed us humans cannot comprehend. At that point, your immune system will no longer be able to suppress the bacteria’s reproduction, and treatment will be required.