Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Now I know I'm known for explaining how not to do certain things. Just look at my books,

how not to die. The one I'm working on right now, how not to die it. But what I actually

have to share with you is quite positive and boils down to this. What's the best way

to live a healthy life? Here are some answers. If you're looking for a better bladder, then you're

not alone. Today we're going to explore the role diet may play. It turns out that handling chicken

can lead to the colonization of one's colon with antibiotic-resistant E. coli that may then creep

up and result in bladder infections in women. Here's the story. Where do bladder infections come

from? Back in the 70s, longitudinal studies of women over time show that the movement of

rectal bacteria up into the vaginal area preceded the appearance of those same types of bacteria in

their urethra before they infected the bladder. But would be another 25 years before genetic

fingerprinting techniques were able to confirm this so-called fecal perineal urethral theory.

Indicating that indeed it's the E. coli strains residing in the rectal flora that serve as a

reservoir for urinary tract infections. Yet it would be another 15 years still before we

tracked it back another step and figured out where that rectal reservoir of bladder infecting

E. coli was coming from. Chicken. Researchers were able to capture these extra intestinal meaning

outside of the gut pathogenic disease causing E. coli straight from the slaughterhouse to the meat

to the urine specimens obtained from infected women. We now have proof of a direct link between

foreign animals meat and bladder infections. Solid evidence that urinary tract infections can be

zoonosis, urinary tract infections as an animal to human disease. And UTIs were talking millions

of women infected a year costing over a billion dollars. Even worse, the detection of multi-drug

resistance strains of E. coli and chicken meat resistant to some of our most powerful antibiotics.

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