Top Natural Remedies for Interstitial Cystitis Relief

Cornsilk tea for IC

This tea, along with marshmallow tea, really helped! Several cups per day (at least 3). I would try and let it steep for as long as possible so that it is nice and potent. I forget as I have been IC free (and so have not used this tea) for about 3 years, but I believe my naturopath said to put very warm but NOT boiling water over the tea so that it does not over heat the tea and destroy the healing nutrients.

I suffered with Interstitial Cystitis since I was four years old. My older sister had it to and went to countless doctors and physicians, who didn't help her at all. I also tried a number of things that never cured it. When I was about ten years old, a woman that we knew who was knowledgable about health suggested a few things for me. The biggest thing was CORNSILK tea. You can buy this in any health store, or you could make it yourself. They dry the silk from corn and then you brew it to make tea. I drank it for a few weeks and noticed a difference. I continued drinking it for years because it actually worked! I was cured! While I was a teenager, I occasionally had the problem and the cornsilk tea always fixed it. I'm writing this now because after about 8 years, the problem came back. I've been taking cornsilk tea again, and it's been helping. I'll probably drink it for a few months before I stop again.

SO...drink about 4-8 cups of cornsilk tea each day as well as plenty of water each day. Do NOT drink juices, sodas, coffee, or milk except very rarely and in very small doses. Let your liquids simply be cornsilk tea and water.

Eat lots of vegetables. Avoid sugars and any processed foods. Eat organically. Get lots of exercise and sleep.

I actually used corn silk herb. I started taking 1/2 tsp twice daily for about a week, then decreased to 1/2 tsp once per day. The pain had stopped after the first day, that's why I only use it once per day for maintenance.

The corn silk that I purchased in the herb shop, I just further grind it in the vita mix. It lasts longer that way. I have also used the tea.

Couch grass works wonders for IC. Take it in pill form or in a tea and after about 30 days you will never knew you had it.

After suffering with urinary pain, I sought out the usual cures. The pain was alleviated by drinking 100% cranberry juice (not ones with sugar added), and eating watermelon and celery. I finally went to my gynecologist to find out if I had a urinary tract infection. She was on maternity leave, so a nurse practitioner saw me. She gave me the usual UTI prescription, but told me to start taking it BEFORE the tests results came back. I wasn't happy about this so I waited a while. Eventually, I took one dose of the prescription, when I got the call that my UTI test came back NEGATIVE for a UTI infection. I immediately stopped taking the anti-biotic.

I ran across a website that explained what I had was IC. A friend recommended D-Mannose, which is a supplement that comes in powder and capsule form. The recommended dosage is 1 level teaspoon 1 to 2 times daily. Add to a glass of water or unsweetened cranberry juice. (I only add it to water). This supplement has been a tremendous help in fighting the symptoms of IC. It is expensive, but worth it!

I carry the capsule form when traveling and when I know I will be unable to mix the powder with water. Sometimes, I take both in the same day - powder in water in a.m., then two capsules in p.m.

UPDATE::: Ok guys, the vitamin C cure DID not work, as the cream of tarter in a few inches of water, DID NOT WORK EITHER. Baking soda didnt work, and I got sick and could have possibly poisoned myself, (i just read about the dangers of taking too much baking soda online) UGH.... I was beginning to despair, so NOW, Im feeling great, and for the last week or so Ive been taking massive doses of Echinacea, (4 4oomg pills 4 times thruout the day) but altho I was feeling better, it wasnt really nipping my problem in the bud, as I was beginning to have excrutiating pain at night, and by now I starting to feel fully convinced I have the dread, interstitial cystitus!!!

Guys, D MANNOSE!!! I have tried D mannose TWICE before in the past and it seemed to do nothing for me. It was like drinking sugar water, it seemed to be the most rediculous cure ever!!!!! However, after tireless internet google research, all these women were swearing by it, (even saying things like, 9 out of 10 women are cured by D mannose, and I have interstitial incurable bladder disease and this cured me) so I decided to give it another go.

I tried a really cheap brand of D mannose before, and some women claimed that it DOES make a difference to go with a high quality more expensive brand, and that not all d mannose are created equal, I guess, so I spent about $25. 00 for a little jar.

It says on the jar to take a teaspoon every 4 hours, (like 4 times a day) and double for a raging case, (like mine) I took a teaspoon and a half every 2 hours like SEVERAL times a day, and by the third day, I really almost feel normal again, I feel great. I ordered another jar, I really think its working!! Its pricey but worth it.

I suppose the d mannose receptors attract e coli to them and then they attach off the wall and get flushed out of the bladder. Ive also read the d mannose can do this to sperm! So be careful ladies, if your trying to conceive, I read d mannose might interfere with pregnancy. They are even trying to patten a contraceptive using d mannose, lol! I was thinking of using d mannose as a preventative, as many women have had success doing that, but since I want to have a baby... I'll have to try something else when I dont have an infection. Im gonna try a brand of herbal cranberry supplement sold on amazon. One women claims after intercourse she takes 2 pills and a full glass of water and she hasnt had an infection in 10 years.

Im going to continue the d mannose for another week after my symptoms have fully gone. A teaspoon three times a day. Good luck ladies, and I will report back with my progress!!

Dear Ted and EC Community,

Pray you are well. I am 35 years old and since I was 14, I have suffered form chronic cystitis (i have never been diagnosed properly). I have had 9 cystoscopies and all doctors confirm that I have severe inflammation in my bladder wall. One doctor said my bladder lining has ‘holes' in it which makes the urine seep in to the surrounding tissue which causes me a lot of irritation and leaves me with the sensation of wanting to urinate all the time.

For the last 21 years, I have suffered immensely in all facets of my life and am extremely despondent. I have never felt any sense of relief!!! I have been taking D-mannose for the last 5 weeks but with minimal relief. I would sincerely appreciate all your guidance and help as I have lost all hope in conventional medicine.

My Symptoms:

1. Severe frequency and urgency – constant sensation to urinate. - While I don't have to ‘run' to the toilet, I constantly have an urge to urinate.

2. When I do urinate, the flow is poor and I have to ‘push' to get the urine out.

3. A visit to the toilet, takes me three voids before I feel some relief. Basically I could always go! . I never just urinate once and feel relief.

4. After urinating I feel a horrible sensation, like I have an infection

5. On average I urinate 20 times a day.

6. I have no pain but I experience discomfort and a sense of tightness in my pelvic area and lower back.

7. There are certain times in the day where the sense of urgency is exacerbated – in the afternoon between 3-5pm. I can urinate at least 10 times in an hour between those times.

8. When I experience a little bit of stress, (taking a flight, work deadlines) my bladder goes haywire and the symptoms are the same as symptom 6. This makes it very difficult for me to concentrate on anything and I quit my job last year as I cannot cope. This issue of stress makes me feel like I have no control. Please help me with this.

Effect of change of diet:

1. Have become vegetarian and a vegan in the last 2 weeks

2. The discomfort around the pelvic area and back has subsided, but not disappeared

3. Feel much more relaxed

4. The severe symptoms that I experiences in the afternoon are now less (2-3 times a week, as opposed to 6 times a week).

5. While a typical visit to the washroom needs 3 voids with lots of ‘pushing' I don't push as much.

After trying several remedies and acupuncture that would temporarily relieve the pain but would not prevent flare ups, I finally found one that worked. I haven't had a flare up in 5 months! First thing when I wake up in the morning, I dissolve 2 tablespoons of Diatomaceous Earth in 1/2 cup of water. I will drink coffee but won't eat breakfast until 2-3 hours later. This allows the DE to sit in my bladder and absorb any inflammation.

This was a game changer for me! When I first started taking DE, I was in the middle of a bad flare up. It took a week to fully subside the inflammation but I could tell it was working. I take DE every morning. If I start to slack off, I begin to feel tingles in my bladder.

Don't miss a dose.

Interstitial Cystitis and Candida

I have read so many helpful things to try on here so I would like to give something back. I only found out I had IC by trial and error and a lot of research. The pain was so bad a couple of years ago that I went to the emergency room. You know how they have you in those curtained partitions, right? So this older Dr. Comes in with a learning the ropes young intern and they are just not taking me seriously about how bad the pain is and saying I didn't have kidney stones and didn't have this or that and I got enough of that and yelled, " Look! My VAGINA is killing me! " You should've seen their faces, lol. I had no infection of course and they were clueless. My regular Dr. told me I would need to see 3 different specialists to rule out different things and after we pay over $600 a month for insurance there's no money for 1 office visit, let alone 3 specialist ones.

Anyway I am still on a journey to find what will work best but I do have some experience with cleaning out parasites and/or Candida and since 80 to 90% of your health starts in your gut and has to do with your immune system I thought you all might benefit from this. Diatomaceous Earth food grade is totally organic and natural. There is even a test you can do in the morning first thing to see if you have Candida and I promise you most of us do. It is a powder with no taste and are actually very tiny little fossilized skeletons? that have edges that will clean out and kill parasites and also clean out the sludge that has been building in your colon for years. (Poor John Wayne's autopsy showed he had over 25 lbs. of well poo in his intestines). It does not give you diarrhea at all I promise but you must start off small and build very slowly to 2 full Tablespoons. You will not believe the stuff that will come out of you.

Try to stay away from anything with sugar as that just feeds the little sh1ts. Do Kefir to restore your good gut bacteria but not dairy kefir. Very simple to do your own from coconut milk or even water. It is good for your pets too as unless you feed them raw they have Candida too. As a bonus you can sprinkle some on them to keep fleas off natural if you let them out in the yard. Remember ONLY food grade and I got mine on Amazon really cheap. Best to you all and I was so heartened to see so many of you spurning main stream medicine and their treating of symptoms rather than fixing the problem. In today's world, we have to take our health and our loved ones into our own hands. Stay away from Cymbalta; thought I would die from the withdrawal. No liver tests for 6 years, very bad.

I am so glad someone mentioned stress as a huge underlying reason for IC. I have been dealing with IC for about 2 years. Oddly enough it began with a horrible episode of kidney stones and 1 Lithotripsy treatment. (not sure if that started my IC??) However, my flare ups definitely come when I am super stressed. Usually work related. I have read all of the websites I could about treatments for IC....but I don't believe one remedy will work for all....because IC can be caused by a variety of things. Including infections, stress, high acidity. The problem is finding the right fix can take lots of money and bathroom visits. Also, I also noticed that drinking water (tap from a well) can be very high in acidity....so stay with the better brands of bottled water. I believe managing my stress a bit better and watching what I eat and drink; although may not be a cure...but will definitely help in dealing with flare ups.

I am so thankful I found this site. I thought I was going insane with all the negative tests and fine kidneys from the hospital... Until one smart doctor, tonight, told me I most likely have IC. I couldn't have more similar symptoms. I have had 5 years of recurrent UTIS and am 20 years old. It is, indeed, an awfully painful disease...

However, diet and tumeric are crucial to this matter. I'm surprised, however, a lot of you are disabled, yes, but, we all are well aware that exercise couldn't be more important. In order to strengthen the linings, we must strengthen the muscles... So, do your best! I find leg lifts reduce my pains, as well as running, more than any other exercise... Simply because running is generally beneficial cardio and leg lifts target the pelvic muscles.

I also did some research based on my past experiences and cranberry juice can very well make IC matters worsen, as well as D-Mannose. D-Mannose and cranberry juice are for milder urinary tract issues, but for severe matters, they can cause severe damage. If the case is severe, D-Mannose is known to stick to the bacterias, yes, but it can stick to the walls of our organs, obstructing practically every option of ridding/treating IC. Regardless, stay away from acidic and fatty foods, equally.

As for the flares, I have it right now as I'm typing, but walking truly does help, as working out reproduces healthy cells and bacteria. ALSO... VERY IMPORTANT. If you have a lot of stress, be sure to see the doctor. Anxiety is a major cause of my increased symptom pains, and if you are unaware of your psychology stability, it could very well be the underlying reason for your IC and many other illnesses. If you meditate with faith that your body is healing, then it will do just that, and the pain will reduce immediately. I have severe anxiety, so it'll work on anyone if you try and do it right. Just breathe and do your best to keep the symptoms down... Never stop researching... never stop believing and always remember it could be much, much worse! Much love and best regards to you all.

Healing my painful bladder problems:

For years I suffered with over-active bladder and later Interstitial Cystitis. Major OUCH! I couldn't eat many foods, such as tomatoes or citrus, without it irritating my bladder. I would be up all night, needing to urinate every half hour. The symptoms were much like a bad UTI, of which I had many.

The doctors were of no help, often prescribing antibiotics, ever though the UTI causing bacteria was no longer found in my urine. The symptoms would come and go. Some weeks I would be fine, then the pain would mysteriously start up again. As the years went on, I soon discovered a pattern. Eating too much sugar, or taking antibiotics would bring on a serious flare. Yeah, I'm a slow learner.

After a UTI and being on antibiotics, I would be fine for about a week, and then the painful IC symptoms would return with a vengeance.

Then, while on this very site, Earth Clinic, I ran across a post describing exactly what was happening to me.

The antibiotics I had been taking had killed off the good bacteria in my bladder and had also given me a horrid sinus problem. I had read somewhere that the two issues usually go hand in hand, but I had never connected the dots.

I discovered I had Candida, an over abundance of bad yeast. The sugar I ate had been feeding the bad bacteria. So, this made sense. The yeast had created little holes in my bladder lining, causing certain foods to irritate it. This also made sense.

The cure, for me, was cutting way back on sugar, staying on a good diet, drinking lots of water and taking GOOD Probiotics. Lots of GOOD Probiotics! That was the real answer, but it wasn't cheap. I didn't care at this point and just bought them.

The good bacteria in the Probiotics soon over took the bad bacteria and healed the little holes in my bladder.

For 2 weeks, I would take one pill with every meal. Soon my sore bladder issues were gone and so far have not come back. It's been two months now. Fingers crossed.
I can now eat anything without a problem. No more getting up all night, going to the bathroom. I still have a slight sinus problem, but it's getting better. I am no longer getting UTI's, so am able to avoid antibiotics. I still take daily maintenance Probiotics and can now tolerate Cranberry pills, which keeps the UTI's away.

Why oh why could any doctor not have told me this years ago? All they would say is "Stay away from the foods that hurt your bladder." They could not direct me to the root of the problem.

I have read that there are thousands of women who have over active bladders and now believe that in many cases Candida is the problem.

I hope me taking the time to write this helps at least one sufferer.

I can now enjoy life again. Hugs to you all.

I had interstitial cystitis for years, probably still have it, but I believe I found that my problem lies in too much sugar in my system.....so no carbs, or very little and definitely no sugar and Im pretty ok. As an added help, I take a good antihistamine once or twice a week or as needed and that so far has stopped the symptoms. Hope this can help others.

Pain Erasers for IC:

I have had interstitial cystitis for 35 years, what a blessing....not! I read an article that they think it is caused when you have sex cause you are not born with it so it is a bug. They said there are 3 medicines that help it, not cure it but calm it down is doxycycline 100 mg 2 tablets a day, one in am, one in pm (which is the best of the 3, the other two are augmentin, ) so I use it and it will make you feel so good at first then it levels out and at least gets rid of the pelvic pain.

I found that yeast cream the cheapy stuff works when I have a flare/infection on top of an infection. I have tried the apple cider deal and I thought I was going to die with pain.

Everyone is right, quit the sugar (do honey if you must), no flour of any kind, no sodas of any kind, no preservatives, and the acidic fruit. I also read it gets WORSE as you age and I can attest to that! Watch what kind of soap you use as well. It is a prison sentence but some things definitely help. I am trying the cabbage and colloidal silver next!

Good luck to all of you, if men got it in greater numbers, there would be a cure by now!! It's like ulcers were years ago, they blamed it on stress and it took them 50 years to figure out it was a bug! Sure hope we do not have to suffer another 50 years!

I did an anti - candida diet and supplements and most of my symptoms disappeared within 3 weeks. The first few days my pain and inflammation was reduced by 80 per cent.. I also recommend you have a Urine CULTURE done to find any bacteria not appearing in a standard urinalysis. If you go the antibiotic route remember to increase your probiotics and drink Kefir/yoghurt! Good luck!