urinary tract infection baking soda

I am prone to urinary tract infections and these strips are an economical way to test frequently, and they are accurate for that purpose (I haven't used them for any of the other parameters). They are much more economical to use than the Azo strips that cost about $3 each.

I can't understand why people complain that the colors run together if you don't hold the strips horizontally. All you have to do is follow the instructions, folks! Hold the strip horizontally! What's the big deal?

It's important to time the test accurately. I use a kitchen minute timer. A certain level of leukocytes in the urine is normal, and you'll get a false positive if you leave the strip for much longer than that. (The test is for leukocytes, not bacteria - leukocytes are white blood cells, which are the body's response to infection.) It's designed to be accurate at two minutes; be attentive to that instruction.

For people prone to chronic UTIs, I highly... Read more

I worked in a vet clinic for over 2 years and these were the strips we used. I buy them now to test my five dogs, two of whom are extremely prone to UTI's.

There are a few tricks I've used to make them work the best. First off, I never dip the entire strip into the sample and I always do the test on a paper towel. I pull up the sample with a syringe and do one drop onto each box of the strip. After that, I turn the strip on it's side so that the edge of each box is touching the paper towel for just a second to get the excess urine off. If you submerge the strip in the sample, sometimes things can run together and it can invalidate some results. Second of all, the specific gravity is not very reliable in these tests so I would not use them specifically for that.

The last tip I can give is to make sure you read the results at the given times.

The only negative I can say about this product is that I wish they sold them in smaller quantities because... Read more

I've used both these and the name brand (multistix). For some reason, I prefer the name brand. That may be simply because I started with the expensive brand.

I've read some of the other posts concerning accuracy (e.g. someone commented about trace amounts of protein showing up in tap water. I thought that was interesting, so I tried it. My results were somewhere between none and trace (matched neither shade perfectly.

I'd suggest keeping a few things in mind. For one thing, these test strips aren't made to replace certified laboratory tests, or 24 hour urine tests. Secondly, they are very time dependent (when they say check the color after 45 seconds..there is a reason ;-).

Another complaint I read above, is that the colors will bleed. I can promise you that the name brand (costing 2-3 times this amount) will also bleed. My solution to this problem is to immediately blot the excess urine(along the side of the strip) with a tissue,... Read more