Marijuana/ UTI connection?

[theycallmebitch.livejournal.com]

This is purely out of curiosity. I smoke a fair deal of pot (I am a stoner, but it also is the only thing that really helps my migraines). I also get a pretty killer UTI every few months, one of which I am slowly recovering from now. My friend, who is more versed in the medical field than the average Joe, seems to think there is a correlation between marijuana use and UTIs. I understand how this connection could be made, seeing as smoking cigarettes can cause bladder cancer because the carginogens are in part washed out of the body through urine. Thoughts? Facts?

Comments

[hkitsune.livejournal.com]

Mutagenicity/carcinogenicity and overgrowth of bacteria in the urethra have nothing to do with each other, so far as I know. I don't think smoking could do anything but potentially lower your immune system's ability to cope with an infection (in which case it's an indirect corrolation), but I don't know too much about marijuana specifically and you'd have to be sick for a really long time before your immune system couldn't effectively handle most infections.

Personally, I think UTIs have more to do with personal susceptibility and environmental factors like "down there" hygiene, but if someone else knows better the corrolation between marijuana and how it affects the immune system, I'd be glad to take back any incorrect statements.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_chandra/]

I smoke pot everyday and I haven't had a UTI in a few years.

[blacksambuca.livejournal.com]

Thirded! In fact I've never had one.

[borghalrantipol.livejournal.com]

Fourthed. Anecdotal evidence, of course, but I can definitely say that I haven't had one since long before I started smoking.

[missravenx.livejournal.com]

I also smoke pot every day (unless I'm out!) and I've never had a UTI. Ever.

[littlebluegrrl.livejournal.com]

I have to agree about cigarette smoking making people more likely to get bladder cancer...my urologist told me that after a cancer scare (and I've quit smoking since) but I'm not sure about pot...it seems likely that it could have some effect, though, since cigarettes do.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_knivesxout/]

i get uti's often and my doctor told me that smoke and smoking can irritate your bladder so i try not to smoke anything, pot included, when i have a uti.

[kuni-bob.livejournal.com]

Are your UTI's coming back positive for bacterial culture (ie: a week or so later), or are they just doing the dip-test? If they aren't growing the culture, I'd recommend that you ask them to do a grow on the next one. There are autoimmune disorders that can mimic UTI's (right down to the leukocytes in the blood). I recommend this for everyone who has frequent UTI's, because that's what they thought was going on with me for a long time (but it turned out to be Interstitial Cystitis).

If it is bacterial, I have heard tell of pot surpressing the immune system over long-term use, but it's hard to tell if that's medical fact or just propaganda!