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Comment by adav | Hacker News Reader

My partner is particularly prone to UTIs. In the UK, people in her position are given a virtually endless stream of antibiotics. Often doctors end up recommending taking a small dose every time after sex. No wonder resistance is increasing!

After a lot of research and self-testing, we came across D-Mannose and had an idea [1] to help others in a similar position. We were very excited to be able to help reduce peoples’ recurrent pain and to decrease overall antibiotic use.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been popular as of yet. Any feedback would be appreciated!

[1] https://chickpea.care

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A lot of people with chronic conditions are on constant small dose antibiotics. I have a daughter that contracts pneumonia from every little common cold. She’s on small-dose antibiotics every day now with good results.

Her doctors say a very good reason to keep the use of antibiotics down in the general population is just because those people would be extra vulnerable to resistant bacteria. Doctors here have effectively stopped prescribing antibiotics for things they prescribed it for almost always just a few years ago, such as regular tonsillitis. That’s the sort of thing that helps. Obviously a total ban on antibiotics in healthy livestock that the EU adopted is even more important. I wish we could see that in China/India soon.

Have you looked into the effects of zinc supplementation of common cold frequency and severity? I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice, etc.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/e...

I haven’t but I could. The part where colds turn into pneumonia is due to a congenital issue (a surgically fixed EA+TEF) so that’s probably hard to do anything about except growing, but if the initial viral infection could be stopped that would be good. My saying trick for preventing colds currently is normally a lot of saying e.g “no! don’t lick elevator buttons!”

Tripped across this while trying to confirm that it is what I think it is:

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1114/d-mann...

It is what I thought. It's a glyconutrient and probably basically the same stuff I took for, I'm not sure, maybe a few years.

I have a genetic disorder that predisposes one to infection generally. A friend who was a former nurse bought me glyconutrients as a gift on the condition that I agree to just take it long enough to give it a fair shot.

I did. It helped. I kept taking it on my own dime.

One year for Christmas, she hand packed me low dose, additive-free guaifenesin. That helped me make it through Christmas without a trip to the ER requiring antibiotics for the first time in years.

Those are not the only things she did for me and my health. There were others. She very much helped save my life and start me on the road to recovery.

So, anyway, I was spending $100/mo on glyconutrients and $300/mo on supplements overall. If I missed a single dose of glyconutrients, I began deteriorating.

I was curious why. What the hell was this doing for me?

So I began googling around and I found that a lot of the important stuff in your immune system are classified as glycoproteins.

So I surmised it was providing targeted nutritional support for my immune system so it could crank out "soldiers" for the war effort and keep cranking them out.

Have you ever looked into zinc supplements? If I recall correctly, a huge (50%) part of the population are zinc deficient, and zinc deficiency lowers white blood cell count, amongst other things.

I took zinc for a time. The aforementioned former nurse recommended it for other reasons.

It seemingly helped those other issues. It was not a magic bullet in terms of my immune function.

Will pass that on to someone I know. They are using high-strength cranberry extract and zinc, with great success (cranberry specific for UTIs, zinc just to ensure not deficient, as that impacts immune system). UTIs still occur occasionally but rapidly subside without antibiotics. Zinc supplementation should be early in the day, or there will be some wild dreams. Avoid zinc oxide though, imho. I am not a medical doctor, this is not medical advice, everyone must do their own research/talk to doctor etc.

I can confirm this can help based on what I know from relatives. Such supplements try to make the urinary tract inhospitable for bacteria.

If the infections are caused by specific bacteria, Uro-Vaxom is a drug that may help.

Doctors typically recommend some basic things to avoid UTIs, like wiping from front to back and peeing after having intercourse. Having the partner shower before can't hurt either.

D-mannose is surprisingly effective.

Wow, that's not cheap (normal price of £32 per month, currently on offer for £24 per month). Is there support from the healthcare system or do you have to pay everything yourselves?

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