Glenville Nutrition Clinic

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What Is Cystitis And Can A Change In Diet Help?

Cystitis is an inflammation of the bladder, and it can be the result of infection, irritation, or bruising, or even a combination of these three factors.What symptoms can you experience?

An overwhelming urge to urinate every few minutes, normally with little urine to pass.

Burning pain during urination.

What can cause cystitis?

There are two main types of cystitis: bacterial (infectious) and non-bacterial.

Bacterial cystitis is responsible for about 50 percent of all cases of cystitis. Bacteria (normally the E-coli bacteria, see below) enters the urethra in one of a variety of different ways. Once in, it can stick to the walls of the bladder and occasionally travels to the kidneys. The urinary tract itself is normally kept clean by the rush of urine when we eliminate waste products, but infection can develop in the urethra if the bacteria sticks to the walls and multiplies. It then travels up the urethra to the bladder causing inflammation and infection.

Women who use tampons are more susceptible to bacterial cystitis than women who use pads. The chemicals from tampons can irritate the delicate lining of the vagina, encouraging inflammation and bacterial infection which then travels to the urethra. Furthermore, the string on a tampon can act like the fuse on a stick of dynamite: providing bacteria with easy access to the body.

 Non-bacterial or non-infective cystitis is normally caused by bruising or irritation. This type of cystitis is often nicknamed ‘honeymoon cystitis’ because sex can irritate or bruise the entrance to the urethra, causing inflammation. This inflammation can also make infection more likely. Sex can also cause infectious cystitis; when body fluids are mixed, bacteria can more easily be transferred to the urinary tract.

Other causes of non-bacterial cystitis include: chemical irritants, including soaps and bubble baths. Even swimming pool chlorine can irritate the delicate lining of the urethra. Vibrations, such as riding a motorcycle, can also cause bruising, which leads to symptoms of cystitis. Drinking too little can make the urine over concentrated, causing irritation of the urethra and the bladder, which is never properly emptied. Some foods can also irritate the bladder and the urethra, including spicy foods, alcohol, strong coffee and any foods to which you may be allergic. Fresh fruit juice is also highly acidic, which can cause irritation in some people.

Some women experience cystitis during pregnancy because the urethra is relaxed by the extra progesterone produced by the body. In later pregnancy, urine can remain trapped in the bladder due to the size of the expanding foetus, also causing inflammation.

Cystitis is also more common around the menopause because, as oestrogen levels fall, the walls of the vagina become thinner and the walls of the urethra shrink, encouraging bacterial infection and making women more susceptible to irritants.

THE NATURAL APPROACH

Using your diet

Eating healthily will help to boost your immunity and encourage your body to overcome infection. In particular, pay attention to the following, which will help to kill off the bad bacteria, as well as restore balance in your system.

Avoid acidity
Acidic foods and drinks, such as tea, coffee, alcohol, sugar, meat, spicy foods and undiluted citrus juices, can trigger cystitis, so if you are prone to the infection try to avoid them, and if you are overcoming an infection eliminate them from your diet completely. Instead, six to eight glasses of pure, filtered or mineral water every day to help dilute the acid in your urine.

Drink barley water
Barley water makes a great anti-inflammatory agent for the urinary system. Buy whole barley, put 1.5oz (40g) in 2 pints (1.2 litres) water, boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add a slice of lemon or the juice of one lemon and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Allow to cool, then sip the water throughout the day.

Eat live yogurt Organic
Live natural yogurt contains lots of beneficial bacteria to help recolonize your system, especially if you have been taking antibiotics.

Avoid all sugar
Sugar feeds bacteria and weakens your immune system. Avoid anything with sugar in it – this includes not only obvious sugar products, such as sweets and chocolate, but also refined carbohydrates, such as white flour (which is found in cakes, pastries, bread and so on), and sauces such as tomato ketchup.

Drink cranberry juice
As long as it is unsweetened, unpasteurized and wholly natural, cranberry juice will help overcome cystitis because cranberries are high in substances called proanthocyanidins. These prevent the E coli bacteria from attaching themselves to the mucus lining of the bladder and urethra. If they can’t attach, they can’t multiply and this means they simply get washed away in your urine. You can use cranberry juice as a preventative, if you are prone to bouts of cystitis. However, do make sure that it is unsweetened, unpasteurized natural cranberry. Or, take a powdered cranberry supplement, or eat handfuls of the fresh fruit if you prefer.

Eat garlic
A wonderful, natural medicine, immune-boosting garlic helps eliminate the E coli bacteria, along with others indicated in cystitis. Raw garlic is much more effective than cooked, so chop it finely and sprinkle it over salads or in dressings; or eat whole cloves if you can bear it. Alternatively, take it as a supplement.

Supplements

Bromelain (500mg, three times daily between meals) This is a digestive enzyme that is found naturally in pineapple and papaya. It has anti-inflammatory properties that help soothe cystitis.

Vitamin C (500mg, four times daily during infection) Studies show that immune-boosting vitamin C can prevent E coli from multiplying and taking hold. Take the supplement as magnesium or calcium ascorbate, which is less acidic than ascorbic acid.

Beta carotene (25,000iu dialy) The precursor to vitamin A, beta carotene is a potent antioxidant that can help your cells fight infection.

Zinc (30mg daily) This is another important antioxidant that can help prevent an infection.

Probiotics (22 billion bacteria, daily) Live yogurt contains lactobacillus acidophilus (healthy bacteria), but the concentration of bacteria in live yogurt is quite thin, so for the best levels of protection against infection eat yogurt and take a supplement.

For more assistance, make an appointment with a Nutritionist at Glenville Nutrition Clinic.

Why Is Vitamin D Crucial For Brain Health?

We have known for many years that Vitamin D is important for bone health and in the prevention of osteoporosis. However, it is only in recent years that we have realised how important this nutrient is for general health and, particularly, for brain health. Here are just some of the main benefits of vitamin D:


• It plays a major role in breast and bowel cancer prevention
• It is important for your immune function, particularly when you need to fight off colds and flus
• It helps protect your body against conditions as diverse as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, dementia, infertility, autism, and allergies
• It reduces the risk of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Vitamin D also balances your immune function (if you have an autoimmune problem, it’s especially important to have your vitamin D levels tested), helps control inflammation, has antioxidant properties, and helps to control beta-amyloid plaque build-up. All these benefits are important for your brain health, so getting your levels exactly right is crucial if you are to benefit from them.

Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D deficiencies have also been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. We get most of our vitamin D quota from sunlight because natural food sources are few. Those most at risk of vitamin D deficiency are those who:

• Don’t go out much in the daytime
• Don’t expose their skin to sunlight
• Constantly wear make-up or cosmetics with built-in sun protection factors

The tone of your skin affects vitamin D production, so the darker your skin, the less your body produces vitamin D. Covering up large area of skin for religious reasons also reduces vitamin D production. It is estimated that we need about 30 minutes exposure to the sun every day to produce enough vitamin D to keep us healthy.

If you are moderately deficient in vitamin D, you have a 53% increased risk of dementia, and your risk of increases by 125% if you are severely deficient. With Alzheimer’s, one study found that those who were moderately deficient had a 69% increased risk, and the risk increased to 122% in those who were severely deficient.

This research showed evidence that these seem to be a threshold level in the blood below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s increases. Levels above 50 nmol/L are the most strongly associated with good brain health. However, I think a level between 80 – 100 nmol/L gives the best overall effect on general health, and this is the level I get my patients to aim for in my clinic.

How To Know If You’re Vitamin D Deficient

A question lots of people ask me when I give talks, is how much vitamin D should I take? The answer, of course, is that it depends on the level of your deficiency. For this reason, I now recommend that everyone gets their vitamin D levels checked, given this nutrient’s far-reaching health benefits, and then supplement to get the level back to normal. We have had instances in the clinics where the lab has even phoned to say there was no vitamin D detected at all.

There is, though, such a thing as too much vitamin D. A vitamin D level that is too low (less then 10nmol/L) increases the risk of all-cause mortality (dying of any cause) – but the same is true if your vitamin D levels are too high (more than 140 nmol/L). That’s why it’s important to get tested regularly, at the clinic we use this test that can be done via the post.

What Vitamin D To Choose?

Choose vitamin D in the form of D3, also called cholecalciferol. There is a cheaper form, called D2 (ergocalciferol), but research suggests that vitamin D3 is 87% more effective at raising and maintaining your vitamin D levels than vitamin D2. Researchers have said that ‘the assumption that vitamins D2 and D3 have equal nutritional value is probably wrong and should be reconsidered.’ Most people (especially older people) do not convert vitamin D2 to the active form that their bodies can use efficiently so it is best to speak to one of our nutritionists for advice.

Phytonutrients – And Their Importance For Hormone Health

sources of phytonutrients like grapes, blueberries, kidney beans and broccoli

Phytoestrogens (phyto meaning ‘plant’) are substances that occur naturally in foods and they have a very interesting effect on our hormones.

Calling them phytoestrogens would imply that we are adding yet more oestrogen into our bodies, but these plant oestrogens work in a special way. They have been shown to have a balancing effect on hormones.
A study recently showed that eating soya increased oestrogen levels when they were low and reduced them when they were high. This could explain why soya beans can reduce hot flushes for women going through the menopause (when it is believed that we have an oestrogen deficiency) and reduce the incidence of breast cancer (which is often due to an excess of oestrogen).

Because these foods have a controlling effect on oestrogen, it is important to include them in your diet – particularly when you are suffering from a condition that is sensitive to excess oestrogen; such as fibroids and endometriosis.
Research has also shown that phytoestrogens can help to produce lighter periods, and to lengthen women’s cycles that are too short.

soy beans which are strong phytonutrients

Phytoestrogens also have other positive benefits. Soya beans have been found to contain at least 5 compounds believed to inhibit cancer. The major research has focused on breast cancer because Japanese women only have one-sixth the rate of breast cancer that we have.
It also appears that when Japanese women move to the West, their rate rises to that of the Western woman.

As well as these benefits on the hormones, phytoestrogens also have a positive effect on your cardiovascular health. Studies have shown that soya can lower the level of cholesterol and specially the ‘bad’ cholesterol called LDL.

Finally, these phytoestrogens are found in almost all fruit, vegetables and cereals but they are most beneficial in the form of something called ‘isoflavones’, which are found in legumes such as soya, lentils and chickpeas.

Beans are easy to use and they are great added to salads, soups and casseroles. Most beans (although not lentils) need to be soaked, sometimes over-night, before cooking.

There is still a great deal of confusion surrounding phytoestrogens, primarily in relation to soya, but there is no doubt that it can be a useful addition to your diet – especially if you are interested in, or have, a hormone condition.

If you would like to find out more, or are interested in finding out how you can help balance your hormones/hormone condition, speak to one our expert nutritionists who have been trained to the protocols of Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD – the leading women’s health nutritionist in the UK specialising in hormone health.

Why Xenoestrogens Are Affecting Your Health

Xenoestrogens or ‘foreign oestrogens’ are oestrogen-like chemicals from pesticides or plastics that have been linked to health problems.
In some parts of the world, some of these problems have been dramatic. For example, some fish are growing both male and female sex organs and male alligators are becoming feminised, with hormonal levels altered to the extent that it is making reproduction difficult!

woman holding cleaning chemicals which contain xenoestrogens

What Do Xenoestrogens Mean For Our Health?

Xenoestrogens are stored in body fat and can affect men and women differently. Overweight people tend to have higher concentrations because xenoestrogens are lipophilic (meaning they love fat). They are also appearing everywhere, currently there are over 3900 brands of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides which are approved for use in the UK. Some fruit and vegetables are sprayed up to 10 times before they reach the supermarkets.

The increasing levels of xenoestrogens in our environment has coincided with an earlier onset of puberty. At the turn of the century, the average age of puberty to begin was 15. Now some girls as young as 8 are growing breasts and pubic hair!
It has been found that girls can enter puberty almost a year earlier if their pregnant mother has higher levels of 2 synthetic chemicals – PCB’s and DDT – while they were pregnant.

Women with higher concentrations of certain pesticides in their bodies also run a greater risk of developing breast cancer than women with lower levels.

plastic free packaging to reduce xenoestrogens in food and food shopping

What Can We Do About Xenoestrogens?

  • Avoid Plastic Containers and Wrap

The first piece of advice would be to avoid (as much as possible) food and drinks in plastic containers or wrapped in plastic as well as trying to buy organic where possible.

  • Don’t Store Fatty Foods In Plastic

This will allow the xenoestrogens to migrate into the foods with the high fat content from the plastic wrap. Try to remove any food packaging as soon as possible and store in beeswax or glass containers.

  • Reduce Your Intake Of Saturated Fats

These are two reasons for this. First of all, you will lay down fat stores that will present a welcome home for xenoestrogens and secondly, the fat you take in is likely to contain xenoestrogens from the animal’s environment.

  • Don’t Heat Food In Plastic

Especially avoid using the microwave. Try to put your food in a bowl, onto a plate or use a glass container to heat instead.

  • Increase Your Fibre Intake

This will help prevent the absorption of oestrogenic chemicals into your blood stream.

  • Eat More Cruciferous Vegetables And Phytonutrients

These help reduce toxic forms of oestrogen as well as cruciferous vegetables being high in a substance called ‘indole-3’carbinol’ which encourages elimination.

There’s no doubt that all of us are affected by xenoestrogens, and they may be at the root of more health problems than we know – and they are far more common than we would have first thought!

However, if you follow the advice above, you will dramatically decrease your exposure and be supporting your body to eliminate these as effectively as possible.


If you are interested in finding out more about your exposure to xenoestrogens, or how you can reduce your intake of these ‘foreign oestrogens’ then click here to speak to one of our expert nutritionists.

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