DailyDose Blog

Yesterday I got my first tattoo.

With thousands of tiny pricks of a needle, I got something incredibly important inked into my arm.

It’s something that saved me from a life of daily antibiotics and permanent nerve damage. Something that healed me from constant infections. Something that I wouldn’t have even known about if I hadn’t spent 4 years earning a chemistry degree and studying novel antibiotics for resistant infections.

It's something that represents everything we’re working for at Dmanna.

D-mannose is a non-antibiotic preventative for the most common bacterial infection in the world: urinary tract infections.

Why is this so important? Why get it permanently stamped on my flesh?


Because millions of people are suffering from resistant infections. It’s taking a huge toll on individuals, their families, and our healthcare system. The current solution of throwing antibiotics at UTIs is equivalent to throwing gasoline on a fire.

Even if antibiotics were the solution, they’re too expensive. For me, a few dollars a day is a small cost — but for a child in Tanzania? A mother in Mexico? It’s not sustainable.

SEE ALSO: How common are UTIs in Mexico?

D-mannose is a simple sugar that costs a few cents a day to take and has zero side effects. It poses none of the resistance or supply chain problems we face with antibiotics.

The best part? The science — it works.
The worst part? Only 2% of UTI sufferers we surveyed knew what d-mannose was.

You basically need a chemistry degree to find out about it. Which I happen to have. So I got the chemical structure of this life-saving compound tattooed on my arm.


One day, this preventative will by synonymous with UTIs. Right now, the world is still behind.

But we’re working to change that.
One conversation, one ad campaign, one Facebook post, one tattoo at a time 💜

Onward and upward,

Sara Rose Harcus