Men and women can get them, but the chance of getting them is high on women. The reason for this is that women's urethra is shorter that gives easy access to the bladder causes more exposure to bacteria.
Women are frequently told after using the bathroom to wipe from front to back because the urethra is closer to the anus. E. coli, a bacteria from the large intestine are in the right spot to escape the anus and march into urethra. Right there, bacteria travel up to the bladder which is the start of Urinary Tract Infection.
Urinary Tract Infection symptoms can be burning feeling upon urinating, frequent or intense urge to urinate even though little comes out, pain or pressure in the back or lower abdomen, cloudy, dark, bloody or strange-smelling urine, feeling tired or shaky and fever or chills which is a sign that the infection may have reached the kidneys.
As a natural way, cranberries are often recommended to avoid urinary tract infections. However, a study found out that it could be futile to continue doing so.
Researchers found out that the nursing home residents who took high-potency cranberry capsules ‘did not have fewer episodes of urinary tract infection than those taking a placebo [a pill or substance that is given to a patient like a drug but has no physical effect on the patient]', CNN reported.
"Although our study was only in nursing home women, many other studies have been done in other populations, which have not shown a benefit. For women that enjoy eating cranberry products or drinking cranberry juice, I encourage them to continue doing so but spending money on cranberry capsules with limited potential benefit for preventing urinary tract infections does not seem worthwhile", said Dr. Manisha Juthani-Mehta, the lead author of the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association who is also an associate professor at the Yale University School of Medicine.
