Sick of antibiotics? Those of you who have experienced recurring bouts of
cystitis and are desperately searching for an alternative to antibiotics may
identify with Anna's story from www.d-mannose-uk.com:
"Until I discovered the wonderful properties of D-Mannose, I suffered
repeated and persistent infections of E.coli related cystitis over many
years, with as many as six virulent attacks per year.
At first, I tried the usual things, like drinking gallons of water laced
with baking soda. Raw lemon juice (uugh!). Bottles of Robinson's Barley
Water helped for a while, drinking it neat at the first sign of infection
(not pleasant, but just bearable, and better than cystitis). High doses of
raw garlic helped for a while.
Fortunately, I have a very supportive partner, and he has sat up all night
with me, feeding me the most disgusting concoctions, and gallons of water,
and occasionally, we managed to beat the infection, and do without
antibiotics.
As for personal cleanliness: when we have sex, we are clean enough to go
straight into an operating theatre and perform open heart surgery.
The thing I gradually realised was that I was not being reinfected, I was
simply succumbing to the same infection that was getting stronger and
stronger every time. E.coli lives in the body naturally, but as you continue
to take antibiotics your immune system gets weaker all the time, until even
becoming slightly run down, as from missing some sleep, can cause a
recurrence of the infection.
Gradually, the infections got worse, and it eventually came to the point
with each infection when there was no option but to approach the doctor for
antibiotics.
This was when things began to get really bad. For some reason, many doctors
don't seem to take women's infections with cystitis seriously. The number of
lectures I've had from young male doctors telling me to wipe my bottom from
front to back... I mean, does any girl reach the age of four without
learning that one?
Already having fought an infection and failed, when I eventually gave in and
decided that I needed antibiotics, I needed them then and there. I never
went for antibiotics until I realised that the infection had got as far as
my kidneys, but doctors would insist on a urine sample, and refuse
antibiotics until that had been checked. So I'd have to wait days in pain,
with my kidneys getting more damaged, and causing me more pain with with
each passing day. We are not just talking sore here - it was agony. If I
gave in to the need for antibiotics on a Friday, it would usually be Monday
before I could get an appointment. Then, maybe two more days before the
urine test results came back, and I'd get the antibiotics.
To be fair, some doctors treated me better than this. But it's not easy, and
I think I've gone through about seven doctors to find one who understood the
pain and dangers of cystitis.
But even then, they'd prescribe the lightest possible antibiotic, and that
would fail to kill the infection, so when I went back they'd give me more of
the same. But an antibiotic that has failed to beat an infection will never
again work, because the bacterium has built up a resistance to that
antibiotic. If you attack it with more of the same, as a general rule, it
just becomes more resistant.
You can see the pattern beginning... my infections got worse and worse. The
doctor's well-meaning insistence on the lowest possible dose of antibiotics
caused increasingly resistant strains of E.coli. It takes a bit of focusing
in on, this point - obviously it's not a good thing to give antibiotics as a
general rule, and obviously it is better to give as low an effective dose of
antibiotics as possible, and as innocuous an antibiotic as possible that
works, but when you get down to the individual patient, you can't apply
these rules non-specifically. There are too many variables. (I know doctors
in the NHS just don't have the time to look very carefully at what's going
to work, and what's not).
Soon, nothing would cure my infections but the hardest, toughest, kill or
cure broad-spectum antibiotics that have the most appalling side-effects,
and have left me with persistent abdominal pain, and all the symptoms of
IBS.
Anyway, it was after a very bad episode of cystitis, and treatment with 7
days of a Fluoroquinolone-based broad-spectrum antibiotic that I realised I
was in serious trouble. The infection hadn't gone away. Doctors couldn't
give me anything more powerful. My kidneys were failing. I would drink
gallons, and issue a tiny cupful. My liver was also failing, from the
effects of the antibiotic, and I had huge abdominal bloating, and extreme
pain. Basically, I was at the end of my tether.
Fortunately, that was the day that our first shipment of Waterfall D-Mannose
arrived in a parcel.
I took one level teaspoonful in a small glass of apple juice, and, even
though I had just finished seven days of strong antibiotics, when I went to
the toilet the urine I passed smelled totally foul, and highly infected.
I thought, "Oh no, I've got the cystitis worse than ever!"
I was wrong. The foul smelling urine was caused by the D-Mannose flushing
the E.coli out of my kidneys and urinary tract!
Within hours of taking Waterfall D-Mannose, my symptoms were starting to
abate. WIthin a day I was clear of cystitis symptoms. Free at last from the
pain, I cried with relief.
Now I am left with the after-effects of the antibiotic. I have damaged
kidneys that still cause a lot of pain. I have a liver problem. I have joint
pains, from calcification caused by fluoride poisoning from the
Fluoroquinolone-based antibiotic. I have a damaged immune system that means
I have to be very careful. But at least I can now have a normal sex life,
and I have the comfort of knowing that a small spoonful of Waterfall
D-Mannose, as a maintenance dose, prevents the E.coli from ever getting a
grip. If I forget to take it, with my propensity for cystitis, I
occasionally do still get the first signs, especially if I have not had
enough to drink that day, but a spoonful of Waterfall D-Mannose has never fa
iled to flush it out of my system.
Doctors have known for years that D-Mannose is many times safer and more
effective than antibiotics for treatment of E.coli based urinary tract
infections, but they are mentally locked in to clinical treatments. In
America, it's widely available. In Europe and the UK, it was next to
impossible to get hold of, until now.
It is for women to take responsibility for their own health, and seek out
effective long-term solutions that do not deplete their immune system, cause
side-effects that are ruinous to their health, or destroy the natural
life-enhancing bacteria that the body needs to digest food and have a
healthy body eco-system.
I am convinced that Waterfall D-Mannose can play a large part in creating
that healthy eco-system. It works for me! "
Anna Sawkins
www.d-mannose-uk.com
01904-340916
PS: We export all over the world.