Peeing a lot will flush out a UTI.
Doctors recommend that you drink plenty of water and empty your bladder every couple of hours to prevent bacteria from worsening the UTI infection by multiplying.
The more water you drink the more you'll need to urinate or pee, which can help to wash the bacteria out of your urinary tract, which prevents them from settling and causing a full blown urinary tract infection.
And keeping hydrated and emptying your bladder often also means that urine does not sit in your bladder too long, which deprives the bacteria of the warm, wet environment that they need to survive.
You should aim to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day to increase production of urine and flushing action.
Don't hold your urine and go to the toilet every 2 to 3 hours and if you do suspect you have a UTI you should see a doctor as you may need antibiotics to fully get rid of the UTI.
Before antibiotics people treated UTIs using home remedies like herbal teas from bearberry, cranberry, douches and sometimes by using methods like surgery for complications and bleeding.
People also used palliative care like bed rest, diet changes and warm compresses for treatment of UTIs.
Before antibiotics people also treated UTIs by focusing on symptom relief and flushing the system out because the bacterial cause was not understood.
Treatments were also largely symptomatic and also varied by culture, including enemas, plasters and diuretics, with some herbal agents also showing promise but disappointing results until the 1930s when sulfanilamide was introduced.
The teas from bearberry or uva ursi, cranberry, goldenrod, and corn silk were also used to promote urination and flush out bacteria.
Bed rest, warm baths and even dietary adjustments were also standard for people with UTIs.
Encouraging of fluid intake to flush the urinary tract was key and sometimes along with cranberry juice.
And warm compresses, plasters which were mustard based or ammonia based and herbal enemas/douches were also used for pain relief during urinary tract infections.
Cupping, leeches and bloodletting were sometimes used to reduce inflammation during a UTI or urinary tract infection.
And early chemotherapy agents like Methylene blue, hexamine and Pyridium also showed initial promise for treatment of UTIs but were not highly effective.
Doctors mainly used remedies to calm bladder inflammation, increase urine flow and manage pain and treatments for UTIs aimed to ease pain and discomfort, as infections were also often seen as imbalances rather than bacterial issues.