Bladder Health
How quickly does e.coli multiply in alkali, neutral and acidic urine?
If you have ever spoken to us here at Sweet Cures®, or a urology specialist, you will know that it is suggested that people who suffer from E-coli related Urinary Tract Infections can use their diet to adjust their urine ph. Tipping it to being slightly alkaline (about 7.5 on the pH scale).
The reason for this, as you may already know, is that E.coli bacteria can multiply at nearly double their normal rate in an acidic environment. It is not difficult to see the impact that this has when an infection is underway.
In this example, the E.coli multiplies every 20 minutes in a neutral environment. In an alkaline environment they are slowed to multiplying every 30 minutes, and in acid, they can multiply every 10 minutes. Let's look at how that works out over an eight hour period, showing the results every hour;
Time | Alkali | Neutral | Acid |
00:00 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
01:00 | 4 | 8 | 64 |
02:00 | 16 | 64 | 4,096 |
03:00 | 64 | 512 | 262,144 |
04:00 | 256 | 4,096 | 16,777,216 |
05:00 | 1,024 | 32,768 | 1,073,741,824 |
06:00 | 4,096 | 262,144 | 68,719,476,736 |
07:00 | 16,384 | 2,097,152 | 4,398,046,511,104 |
08:00 | 65,536 | 16,777,216 | 281,474,976,710,656 |
It becomes clear that the difference between neutral urine and alkaline urine is enormous, and when compared yet again with acidic urine, the numbers are staggeringly different!
It is imperative to note that urine is naturally acidic, so by doing nothing at all to change that, it is easy to see how a minor infection could quickly turn into a full-blown attack with a possibility of the outbreak spreading to the kidneys.
Also notable is that, in this demonstration, we started with a single bacterium, this is very unrealistic. When you are at the point of being able to feel or smell early indications of an infection, there are already billions of bacteria, every one of which can produce a similar output to the single bacterium we started within our table. Enough, in fact, that this web page hasn't the space to display the figures involved!
With those numbers in mind, and the knowledge that Cranberry Juice, orange juice, alcohol, and Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) tablets have a potent acidifying effect on the urine, do you want to be making your urine more acidic during a UTI as popular myth would dictate? Our grandmothers new best, it seems when they suggested Lemon Barley.