I have had frequent chronic UTI's all of my life, and have occasionally tried to cure them naturally, without any luck, just ending up sicker and needing antibiotics. Usually, if I didn't get drugs in the first few days, it moved right into the kidneys. I've tried herbs, accupuncture, energy healing, and nutrition. This time, I was determined, and let it go for a week, trying several things. I tried a whole jar of cranberry juice plus pills every day, and that seemed to help (the urine smelled bad for about a day, but then the smell left. However, about that time, the infection moved up to the kidneys, and the condition got worse over a week's time. Finally, by Friday, I was desperate, as I'd have to get through the whole weekend before I could give up and get to a doctor....and I was having trouble even walking, from the pain. Then, I remembered that I had heard Olive Leaf extract could help. I happened to have some on hand for something else, and took a couple. I googled it and found that you can take up to 16 of the 500 mg pills per day, so I took 4, then 4 more a few hours later. When I got up from my nap, I felt a lot better. I was still in a lot of pain, but less, and somehow, my energy felt stronger, like I was heading out of the woods. I continued to take it overnight, and this morning, I woke up about 70% better! Since I was so ill, I'm still in pain, but not enough to need pain killers.
Some people experience die-off symptoms with Olive Leaf, and it can be used as a prophylactic, which would allow for gradual cleansing, in case you needed to use it in high doses for an infection. However, I didn't experience any of that, as I've done a lot of cleansing before. Still, if I were going to, I'd do it anyway, as it really kicked the infection.
I also tried Ted's salt remedy, but it was at about 10 pm, after the Olive Leaf was obviously working, so I can't be sure what its effect was. However, it didn't make me feel ill, as some here have reported.
As an aside, I recently went to see a Korean doctor, who described about three sets of symptoms I've been having as being connected to an original problem of weak chi in the kidneys and spleen. He gave a very reasonable explanation of how the seemingly unconnected symptoms are all part of a developing problem based on the weakness in the two organs. After a month on his custom tincture, I experienced a reversal in the most recent symptom (period coming a week earlier each month for a few months, with a lot of spotting). So, I believe that if I continue with that treatment, eventually, the internal weakness which leads to the chronic symptoms will be eradicated.
One last thing - I've just read that a high percentage of women with chronic UTI's have a lack of immunoglobulins, which you can supplement with collostrum, so I'll try that, too.