Everything You Need to Know about Urinary Tract Infections

Bedridden elderly or incontinent patients are often at risk of urinary tract infections. Women are more susceptible to urinary tract infections due to the structure of their urinary tract. What is a urinary tract infection? What causes it? What should you do? HappynCare walks you through the details.

What is Urinary Tract Infection?

Urinary tract infection is due to the invasion of bacteria, fungi or other microorganisms, most commonly Escherichia coli (E. coli). Urinary tract infections can be divided into upper and lower urinary infections. Upper urinary tract infections are infections of the kidneys (pyelonephritis) and ureters (urethritis). Lower urinary tract infections are more common, including bladder infections (cystitis) and urinary tract infections (urethritis). The urethra is adjacent to the bladder, and usually urethritis occurs together with cystitis.

Symptoms of Urinary Tract Infection

Frequent and Urgent Urination: Frequent urge to urinate and very urgent, but the amount of urine is very small.

• Painful Urination: Pain or burning feeling in the urethra during or after urination.
• Cloudy urine or hematuria: Urine may become cloudy, smelly, and may even have traces of blood (hematuria). Most painful hematuria is caused by inflammation of the urethra or bladder, while painless hematuria may be caused by a urinary cyst or lithiasis.
• Pain in the abdomen or lower back: You may feel pressure or discomfort in the bladder area when you urinate. Or you may feel severe pain in the kidneys (lower back).
• Fever: The immune system is working hard, causing fever, sometimes accompanied by chills (especially pyelonephritis)
• Other: People with weakened immune systems may have atypical symptoms of urinary tract infections, and may present with confusion or general tiredness and fatigue.

Causes of Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections are caused by bacterial infections, but what causes bacterial invasion? Improper lifestyle and hygiene habits are the main causes of bacterial growth, which will infect the urinary tract at last.

• Insufficient Water Intake: The human body should consume enough water throughout the day to maintain metabolic activity. Enough urinate dilutes the bacteria and excretes most of them from the body, effectively reducing the chance of urinary tract infections. If there is no enough water, the frequency of urination will decrease, and the bacteria will stay in the urethra for a long time and multiply, eventually leading to cystitis and urethritis.
• Holding Urine: Many people tend to control toilet trips due to busy work or limited mobility. When urination frequency decreases, bacteria in the bladder or urethra remain in the body for a long time, causing bacteria to multiply and resulting in urinary infections. Bedridden people can’t go to the toilet independently. Holding urine to reduce frequencies of bothering others is a high incidence of urinary tract infections.
• Not breathable: If you often wear tight pants or unbreathable diapers, rubbing and sweating on your lower body will create a warm and humid environment, which is very suitable for bacteria to grow and increase the risk of urinary tract infections.
• Poor hygiene: The most common pathogenic bacteria, E. coli usually comes from the stool. If you use an improper cleaning method after defecation, wiping from back to front can easily bring bacteria near the anus to the urethra and cause urethritis. In particular, women are born with a short urethra close to the anus. This poor cleaning habits have a greater impact. For patients who have been bedridden for a long time, if the caregiver does not clean the lower body thoroughly, the risk of urinary tract infection will greatly increase.

How to Prevent Urinary Tract Infections?

If you have symptoms of urinary tract infection, you should seek medical treatment promptly. In addition to prescribing the right medicine, personal hygiene and lifestyle habits play key roles.

• Drink Plenty of Water: Drink plenty of water every day to flush bacteria out of your bladder.
• Urinate Regularly: Don't hold your urine and get into toilet routine. Bedridden patients can use diapers with high absorption capacity and urinate freely without asking for help. NASK nanofiber adult diapers can instantly absorb urine, and the saturated absorption is adequate for adult daily urine output.
• Choose the Right Clothing: Choose breathable fabrics and avoid wearing tight pants or underwear. When choosing diapers for bedridden patients, select products with good breathability. NASK adult diapers are made of nanofiber, which is light and breathable, with low leakage.
• Good Hygiene: Wipe from front to back after defecation, and pay attention to the cleanliness of the private kitchen. For patients with incontinence, diapers with sterilization function should also be used to prevent infection. NASK patented nanofiber technology can effectively kill 99% of bacteria, physical sterilization without side effects, and solve urinary tract infections from the source.

Urethritis and cystitis are mild symptoms, but the recurrence rate is high. Maintaining good personal hygiene, drinking water properly, and urinating regularly are important measures to reduce the risk of infection. Urinary tract infections can be cured or prevented. NASK protects your health as always!