Cystitis is an inflammation of the lower urinary tract, involving bladder and urethra. In many cases it is caused by a bacterial infection, but it can have a mycotic origin or be aseptic, which means not associated to microorganisms but to stresses, irritable chemical agents, drugs use, trauma.
The bacterial cystitis is caused by bacteria coming from the rectum, which cross the urinary tract and colonize the bladder. The bladder has some defense mechanisms, as the acidic pH and urination, but in some cases bacteria can overcome these systems and colonize the bladder, causing cystitis. The most frequently species associated to cystitis are Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus saprophiticus.
The main symptoms of cystitis are frequent and urgency in urination and dysuria, suprapubic pain, blood in the urine, fever.
The most common treatment to cystitis is antibiotic administration, but is has some side effects. Antibiotics contribute to the increasing of the sanitary expanses and to the diffusion of antibiotic resistant genes. Moreover, some cystitis are aseptic, so in these cases antibiotics are useless.
Cystitis is often recurrent: antibiotics solve the symptoms the first time, but few weeks later there is a relapse. If new antibiotics are prescribed, they weaken the urinary tract microbiota, leading to possible vaginal infections and candidiasis, which have to be treated with more antibiotics. This vicious circle determines mucosa sensitization worsening the symptoms, which became in the end chronic.
Interstitial cystitis is a peculiar case: it is a chronic inflammation of the bladder, whose causes are unknown. It is supposed that something damages the bladder, causing hypersensitization to the compound of the urine. It seems that also mastocytes are involved, but their role is still unclear.
All these aspects suggest that cystitis has to be treated with a multifactorial approach. So the use of dietary supplements formulated to simultaneously treat inflammation, infections, pain and restore the immune system.
