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This is a very common question I get from my female patients, both young and old. Many seem convinced that cranberry juice or pills can stop a urinary tract infection (UTI) in its tracks when they feel it coming on, or take cranberry to prevent them. Well…they may not be wrong.
After many years of grandma’s advice, in 1994 a study was done on elderly women who consumed 300 ml of cranberry juice for three months and showed less bacterial counts in the urine. This is where the whole cranberry-UTI link picked up some steam. But there is more...
I used to tell patients that cranberry juice or pills can improve the acidity of the urine, and acid is a natural defense against bacteria. Common sense would dictate that more acid is better, and cranberries are a good source. Correct? Cranberry juice however may contain a lot of sugar, and it may require drinking A LOT of it to get the effect. This isn't necessarily good for diabetics or those watching their weight. Cranberry pills may be helpful, but how many should you take to get the desired effect?
Not too long ago, a well designed study showed a trend, but no significant improvement in preventing UTIs with cranberry, and cranberry products, however, have not been shown to significantly reduce acidity. So now what?
Cranberry is seen as a natural element people can take, in order to prevent overconsuming antibiotics. Antibiotics help, but they must be tailored to the infection, and be given at the right dose, for enough period of time to prevent recurrence, persistence or development of resistance by the bacteria. However, there are women who are most susceptible to bacterial adherence, and certain bacteria are more likely to stick to the body surfaces than others.
So, what’s so special about cranberries?
In raw cranberries there are at least six chemical compounds that can interfere with bacterial adherence to the body. These compounds modify the surface properties of the bacteria to make them less sticky to the lining of the bladder. When someone consumes cranberries, the bacteria itself are actually altered by the cranberry products that dwell in the urine, changing how the bacteria express certain proteins on their surfaces leading it to cling less effectively to the bladder. This is how cranberries reduce infection. If the bacteria are less sticky, then the bladder is more capable of washing out the bugs with good urine flow. Drinking more fluids helps to create a better flow.
Interestingly, once the bacteria are removed from exposure to cranberries, they regain their “old ways” and their adhesive properties return. A recent study showed that just 6 hours of exposure to cranberry products resulted in an 84% decrease in bacterial attachment to bladder cells. Continuous exposure resulted in the continued inability of the bacteria to attach!
Now everybody go out and get some juice!!
Dr. Matthew Karlovsky is a urologist that specializes in female pelvic health in Phoenix, Ariz. For more information, visit www.urodoc.net or www.femaleurologyaz.blogspot.com/
Add a Comment18 Comments
Anon - That's a great tip. Please thank your grandmother for us. :-) Pat
February 15, 2010 - 5:41pmThis Comment
I used to get UTIs four times a year. And it even worsened in the first half of this year. And then a urologist checked me left and right, even the kidney, and found no problems at all. He told me some women go through cycles in their body, and this may be one of them. He prescribed me antibiotics to take whenever I feel it's coming. Usually it helps but after I stopped taking them, the UTI came back sooner or later. So i started to drink cranberry juice religiously, almost one bottle every day. Simple Ocean Sray LIGHT Cranberry Juice. It helps! it contains 27% juice in it, and seems to work. I haven't had an UTI for almost four months, and hopefully it continues that way! I don't like the sourness and sugar in the juice at all, but it's better than antibiotics and the pain UTI brings.
December 1, 2009 - 3:54pmThis Comment
What I meant by going and getting juice- was simply going to get some cranberry help. YOu would have to drink 16oz of cranberry juice 2 or 3 times a day- whereas 2 cranberry pills twice a day will usually do the trick. -Matthew Karlovsky, M.D.
August 7, 2009 - 5:57amThis Comment
I've been using a pee pill for 10 years now, asthma. I noticed yesterday my body felt like it had been beatin with a stick, especially around the rib cage. After not using Advair for a month, I decided to try anything and used it. An hour later I was peeing stronger than ever, and my muscle aches subsided. My left leg is 201/2" wide below the knee, my skin is nearing the ucler state. I can't move to exercise, thought I be alright till my body begin to hurt too.
April 18, 2009 - 1:31pmThis Comment
Cranberries are filled with antioxidants and have long been considered a very valuable ally for our health. In addition to these antioxidants, cranberries contain hippuronic acid. This compound has been shown in some studies to make it much more difficult for the bacteria that causes urinary tract infections to attach to the bladder wall (because this acid works to acidify the urine). This lowers the risk of getting a UTI in some cases.
April 7, 2009 - 12:48pmHowever, once you have a UTI, cranberries in any form will do little to help treat it, and can actually exacerbate painful urination, one of the main symptoms associated with a UTI. This pain is caused by irritation and inflammation of the urethra and urethral opening. The best thing to do is to go to your doctor for proper antibiotic treatment (he or she will take a culture to confirm the UTI), and, in the meantime, take an over-the-counter urinary pain relief medication like Cystex® to help calm the symptoms. Cystex® Urinary Pain Relief Tablets is the only over-the-counter (OTC) medication that has a dual-action formula, with both a pain reliever to help with the discomfort and burning, as well as an antiseptic to help keep the bacteria in check and the infection from worsening before you can get into your doctor’s office
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Thanks for this article...I'm one of those women that asked their doctors about this when I was younger!
I am confused by your last sentence, and would love some clarification. You say, "Now everybody go out and get some juice!!", but after reading your article, I was under the impression that we should not go down a container of cranberry juice.
From my understanding of your article, the cranberry juice does indeed work to make the bacteria less sticky, and that "exposure" to cranberries reduces bacteria's attachment to the bladder...so cranberries "work" in theory...but in practice, it is not practical. In practice, you suggested that women would need to drink a lot of cranberry juice, and a lot of it continuously ("the bacteria return to their original sticky-selves once cranberries are removed").
Can you clarify this for me? It is obviously not practical to consume a substance like cranberry juice on a continuous basis, and as you mentioned, drinking a lot of it is necessary for it's positive effects. We all know drinking "a lot" of juice is unhealthy due to its sugar and caloric content, so the cons may not outweigh the pros.
Thanks!!
April 5, 2009 - 5:52amThis Comment
The fact that vitamin C was used in the placebo group and that cranberry juice contains vitamin C is very important in this trial and could certainly explain why there was such a low incidence of UTI recurrence. Natural Standard, a complementary and alternative medicine information database, examines evidence for both cranberry juice and vitamin C for it’s use in UTI’s. Cranberry juice is a popular urinary tract infection home remedy for treating and preventing bladder infections.
January 21, 2012 - 3:23amSure cranberry juice can help you avoid urinary tract infections and it might be a good idea to replace your morning OJ with cranberry juice. But it isn’t a cure all. The symptoms of UTIs – urinary frequency, urgency and pain – can also be caused by other problems such as kidney stones and even bladder cancer.
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I was wondering the same thing, Alison! I'm a cranberry specialist in Maine, and came by this article via GOOGLE. I realized I wasn't sure, either, how MUCH cranberry juice one is supposed to take in order to get the UTI preventionary benefit, but I didn't think it was all that much per day, so I did a little digging. I went to the Cranberry Institute's site online at http://www.cranberryinstitute.org/health/urinarytract.htm and based on what they report, just one serving per day does the job, although they indicate that two servings per day may be more dependable. I drink cranberry juice every day, just for the taste & health, and because of my obvious love for cranberries (being my bread and butter, so to speak), and what I like to do and would recommend to anyone, is to buy pure, 100% cranberry (no sugar added). I've only found a single supplier of it, sold in medium-sized bottles, under the name "Just Cranberry." It's TOUGH to try to drink that stuff straight, but what I love to do is to mix a portion of the bottle into the Ocean Spray jugs of cranberry juice, in order to make them less sweet and to increase the cranberry content, both of which make it much healthier! The "Just Cranberry" bottles are expensive, but one bottle usually lasts me a month when I just use it to mix in with my other juice jugs. It's great!! In Maine grocery stores, the bottles are kept in health food sections of the stores and not with the regular Ocean Spray juices, etc. AND they are available in some health food stores I've visited. The company making the "Just Cranberry" is a bottling company from somewhere in California, of all places, and they do the same thing with various other juices, too, like pomegranate, concord grape, etc. Hope this helps you!!
April 6, 2009 - 8:11amThis Comment