Cystitis: causes, remedies and a new ‘agile’ management

by time news

Cystitis is a disease that affects 9 million people in Italy. It is mainly women who are affected. The therapy to manage it is still above all antibiotic, in a context in which resistance by the main bacteria has a worrying increase all over the world. A new strategy emerges from clinical practice and scientific literature, which the group of young urologists Time.newsLE (Italian group for advanced laparo-endoscopic and robotic urologic surgery) and Federfarma Servizi want to share with urologists, family doctors and pharmacists. With the aim of improving the quality of life of women affected by cystitis, also providing them with five simple rules to manage and prevent it.

So here is an information and communication campaign presented on 25 March.

What is cystitis

Cystitis is a bacterial infection of the bladder that manifests itself with a need to urinate more frequently than usual, accompanied by burning, pain, a sense of perineal weight and incomplete emptying and often with the presence of blood in the urine. One in two women is affected at least once in their life. One in four women who have had a first episode of cystitis will have another within the next six months. One in five develops a recurring form with more than three episodes a year. The main symptoms of this infection are precisely burning, pain, frequent urge to urinate, sometimes there is even blood in the urine.

“At least one in two women in Italy has cystitis problems during their lifetime – said urologist Filippo Annino of the Hospital of Arezzo, President of the Time.newsLE Group – and it is a pathology that can have important repercussions on the quality of life. This is why it is useful to prevent and, at the appropriate time, to intervene in an organic way, not only by focusing on drugs “.

It is therefore necessary to follow a few simple rules that should become an integral part of the lifestyle: drink at least two liters of water a day, avoid the use of aggressive vaginal cleansers, do not use antibiotics where possible, prevent relapses with D-mannose at high levels. doses and take care of the intestinal microbiota, integrating it with fibers and lactic ferments. What does the microbiota have to do with cystitis? “The antibiotics used to treat it – explains Fabio Pace, director of the Gastroenterology Unit of the” Bolognini “Hospital in Seriate (Bergamo) – modify the composition of the intestinal microbiota in an acute and sometimes persistent way, with a reduction in bacterial diversity, including urinary ones , an important risk factor for recurrent urinary tract infections. In this sense, an integration of lactobacilli or other probiotics as well as prebiotics is demonstrated and indicated for the maintenance or restoration of a correct balance ”.

Not just antibiotics

Antibiotics aren’t always the only possible answer. Also because women often regulate themselves, without consulting a doctor and perhaps asking their pharmacist for advice. In Italy, in acute hospital care, 20% to 50% of the antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary or inappropriate.

This is why it becomes important to have alternative solutions to antibiotics available that allow you to treat this disorder avoiding relapses. In particular there is D-mannose. It is a sugar, a low molecular weight monosaccharide that is largely eliminated in the urine. “Its action – explains Antonello Mirone, president of the National Association of Pharmacy Services Companies – is expressed by preventing Escherichia coli from adhering to urothelial cells and favoring their detachment and disposal with the urinary stream. By now the scientific evidences are numerous: the systematic reviews of the literature show that the D-mannose in high doses has a protective role in adult women, in urinary tract infections, recurrent and acute “.

The project dedicated to women

The project “Cystitis, an agile management” was created with the aim of creating awareness of the management of the disease that is faced by resorting to the use, and too often the abuse, of antibiotics. “Thousands of family doctors, urologists and pharmacists will be involved, in an interactive way, on clinical cases dedicated to the themes of antibiotic resistance, treatment and prevention of this pathology and finally on the importance of the intestinal microbiota”, explains Cindolo. We will then complete training and updating with a series of territorial webinars and Distance Training that we will propose between May and June ”. June for cystitis will be the month of prevention: an awareness campaign will be promoted in all participating pharmacies with the rules for avoiding and treating the disease that in Italy compromises the quality of life of 9 million people and affects above all in the warmer season.

For info: Time.newsLE

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