Claim That Urine is Sterile Debunked

You may have heard it before. The idea that urine is sterile is often treated like common knowledge. However, new analysis of "healthy" urine samples show that they too contain a number of bacteria, some of which could prove harmful.

Researchers from Loyola University in Chicago presented these findings on Sunday at the 114th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston.

The researchers reportedly used an expanded quantitative urine culture (EQUC) technique to screen urine samples for a great variety of bacteria not normally identified with traditional urine testing.

"While traditional urine cultures have been the gold standard to identify urine disorders in the past, they do not detect most bacteria and have limited utility as a result," Paul Schreckenberger, PhD, director of the clinical microbiology laboratory at Loyola University, said in a university press release. "They are not as comprehensive as the EQUC protocol used in this study."

According to the researchers, fresh urine samples from 90 female study participants showed the presence of numerous bacteria in the bladders of all the women. Interestingly, the researchers found that the bacteria found in healthy women differed greatly from the bacteria found in the bladders of women who reported having an overactive bladder (OAB) - which causes a sudden and difficult-to-control need to urinate.

This may indicate that "certain bacteria in women with overactive bladder may contribute to OAB symptoms," lead investigator Evann Hilt explained.

According to Hilt, the Loyola team will now be moving on to investigate which of these bladder-dwelling bacteria can prove detrimental to the human body, especially among patients with OAB.

These findings were presented at the 114th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology on May 18.

As they have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, it is recommended that these results be viewed as preliminary findings until the time of official publication.