According to a new study, staying hydrated is the key to keeping your nether regions infection-free.
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Researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine recruited 140 women who suffer from recurrent Urinary Tract Infections and who typically down fewer than 1.5L of water (about six standard glasses) per day. For 12 months, they asked half the participants to stick to their drinking habits, while the others doubled their usual intake of fluid.
Over this period, they found that those who drank more water experienced 1.7 UTIs on average, compared to an average of 3.2 among those who didn’t.
“The data strongly suggests that hydration status is associated with UTI risk,” explained the study’s lead author, Dr. Thomas M. Hooton. “If a woman has a recurrent UTI, she should consider her daily fluid intake and try to increase it to at least two to three litres a day.”
According to the JAMA Internal Medicine, around 50 per cent of all women will experience a UTI at some point in their lives. Of these, 27 per cent will develop another one within six months of their first (and 44 to 70 per cent will develop another within a year). Yikes.
Yup, UTIs are becoming increasingly common, which is why these findings are so darn interesting. But it begs the question, how does water help!?
“The theory is that drinking more water results in more urine production, which flushes out bacteria in the bladder and prevents infection,” Dr Deborah Grady of the University of California told Reuters.
“More water isn’t harmful, but it can result in the need for frequent urination and having to get up at night to urinate.”
We know which one we'd rather, tbh.
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