Cranberry Juice for UTI -- Effective or Not?

Monday, August 15, 2011
I got a Urinary Tract Infection last week. I was given Ofloxacin (Inoflox) 400mg this cost around P107 each. I need to take 2 tablets per day. I just finished taking the medicines that was prescribed. However, it feels like the UTI will reoccur. Upon research cranberry juice is good for preventing UTI. However, I got this contradicting findings:

Cranberry juice fights UTI

The researchers discovered that in petri dishes, cranberry metabolites in the juice prevented E. coli from sticking to other bacteria, limiting its ability to grow and multiply. If E. coli is able to connect with other bacteria, such as the bacteria found in the urinary tract, it forms a layer or "biofilm." This allows the bacteria to multiply and produce an infection. 

Science-Based Medicine: Cranberry Juice

In the end, I would conclude that cranberry juice probably does not prevent UTI, and any effects are likely of little clinical value, given the relative rarity of organisms for which it could be effective. It would require a much larger study to prove or disprove efficacy, and not having proper microbiology renders all the studies to date probably worthless for coming up with worthwhile conclusions.

Other reference:

Cranberry juice fails to prevent recurrent urinary tract infection: results from a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

So is Cranberry juice effective for UTI or not? I wanted to buy Cranberry Juice pa naman, but I guess I will just stick to water. Lots and lots and lots of water. No alcoholic drinks, juices, fruit juices, soda, dairy drinks, yoghurt, etc. But I hope tea is okay. ^-^



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