Most often antibiotics are prescribed to clear up a UTI, but sometimes these medications can have unwanted side effects. The Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine recently published a study testing ba zheng powder as an alternative treatment for recurrent UTIs in a randomized trial, and found it to be able to effectively rid bacteria and lower the rate of recurrence.
Traditional Chinese medicine uses ba zheng powder or ba sheng san powder to promote urination and leach out dampness, as well as to address distension, pain and difficulty urinating and bloating in the lower abdomen. This eight herb powder or dianthus formula is used as an herbal medicine can be found in powder and capsule form, and despite the name has between 8-10 herbs in it that are known to have therapeutic applications such as Chuam mu tong, Hua shi, Che qian zi, Qu mai, Bian xu, Zhi zi, Ji da huang, Deng xin cao, and Gan cao.
Ba xheng formula is used in Western cultures to treat acute UTIs, bladder stones, urethritis, urinary tract stones, cystitis, acute nephritis, acute pyelonephritis, and kidney inflammation due to bacterial infection.
122 women suffering with RUTIs were involved in this randomized and double blind trial, some of which received ba zheng treatment for 4 weeks and others were treated with antibiotics for one week to evaluate the clinical rate and microbiological cure and recurrence after treatment.
The clinical cure rate was 90.2% in the ba zheng group and 82% in the antibiotic group after one month; ba zheng was found to clear bacteria from 88.5% of those receiving it and the antibiotics cleared bacteria from 82%. Recurrence of UTI at a 6 month follow up was 9.1% in the ba sheng group and 14% in the antibiotics group.
Based on their findings ba zheng may be more effective than antibiotics in treating UTIs and to prevent recurrence. The researchers concluded that ba zheng powder is an effective alternative treatment for recurrent urinary tract infections.
