Anna's Story

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:

"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 super clean - enough said about that!

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. The bacteria that cause cystitis problems live 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. There is a lot of evidence now that the bacteria can colonise layers of the bladder epthelium.

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 some 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. 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, for them or us, and I think I went through about seven doctors to find one who understood the pain and dangers of cystitis.

At first, 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. You might want to read John's blog on this subject. How to create a lifelong urology patient...

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. I had kidney problems. I would drink gallons, and issue a tiny cupful. I had huge abdominal bloating, and extreme pain, especially in my joints. 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. It took months go finally get rid of that propensity for new episodes to threaten, but now, four years later, I haven't had a urine infection since.

Now I am left with the after-effects of using a fluoroquinolone-based antibiotic. There is plenty of research on this subject. 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 failed to flush it out of my system.

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.I only wish I had found it sooner! "

                                                                               Anna McNamara

PS: Update, four years after writing the above... I've never had to resort to antibiotics since Waterfall D-Mannose came into my life. I still suffer from the effects of taking antibiotics, but I don't get UTIs any more. And that was after 30 years of getting them continually.