Cranberry juice sucks for urinary tract infections

Millions of women faithfully drink cranberry juice and swear that it does wonders for their urinary tract infections (UTI). Cranberry juice is sold in many pharmacies, health food and grocery stores. For decades, women have consumed millions of gallons of this juice in the hope of preventing a urinary tract infection and this advice had been passed down many generations. Urinary tract infections affect nearly 10-15 percent of young women each year. The traditional method of treatment is antibiotics and the sale of these drugs alone is worth billions of dollars to the drug industry. Now, there is evidence that cranberry juice does jack shit.

For many years researchers have been looking at ways to prevent urinary tract infections. This is because antibiotics are expensive, have many side effects and over time, the bacteria develop resistance to the drugs. This was the prime reason why cranberry juice caught on very fast. Thirty years ago, a few reports revealed that perhaps cranberry juice was an excellent product in preventing urinary tract infections and this myth held until the latest study. All these years, no one had actually done a decent study to determine the efficacy of cranberry juice.

This double blind study included 319 healthy college women who were diagnosed with a UTI. The women were followed for many months. Some women were administered a sugar pill and others were given cranberry juice. The study revealed that women who drank cranberry juice had higher recurrence rates then those who took the sugar pill. Cranberry juice had no impact on symptoms either.

So what should women do to prevent urinary tract infections? Experts say that the best way to prevent UTI is to maintain good genital hygiene, drink lots of water and urinating soon after intercourse- or better still abstain from sex altogether.

Echinacea sucks for the common cold

Many people swear that Echinacea is the best treatment to fight a common cold.  To fight the cold one must take 10 grs of Echinacea on the first day and then 5 gr the day after for 7-10 days. However, the latest study shows that Echinacea sucks.

In the latest study, more than 700 people who took the Echinacea pills did not do better than who took the sugar pill when it came to fighting the cold. This is not the first time Echinacea has flunked the test. Many other high quality studies in the past have revealed the same thing. The plant did not improve the symptoms nor did it decrease the duration of the cold. It did ZILCH.

Echinacea is an American plant and widely used by the native Indians to treat a variety of ailments. The plant is sold in many health food stores as a liquid, pill, powder and even a tincture.The cost of Echinacea are not trivial either. The pills depending on where one buys them from can cost anywhere from $10-$22 for a 2 weeks supply.

While Echinacea is a harmless herb, it is useless when it comes to fighting the common cold. With today’s difficult economy, that money is better put towards gas in your car. 

Bone Drug "Zometa" Sucks in Breast Cancer Study

There has been a lot of hype made about the novel osteoporosis fighting drugs (bisphosphonates) used in post menopausal women. It was shown in an earlier study that some of these bone strengthening drugs could also prevent breast cancer. This excitement grew even more when it was actually observed that women who took these drugs were 33% less likely to develop breast cancer.

However, the latest study on the drug zometa shows that it did diddly squat. The drug did not prevent the breast cancer from returning nor did it extend life of women suffering from this cancer.  In the present study done on 3,360 women in 7 countries with a follow-up of 5 years, zometa did not prevent extension of life nor did it prevent the cancer from occurring.  The only positive finding was that zometa did cut down the of recurrence in a few patients. However, zometa also had a fair number of side effects which ranged from serious ulcers, jawbone decay and blood clots in the lung.

Based on this study it is now clear that these drugs should not be prescribed without a clear indication as they are not totally harmless.

Moreover, what is of  even more importance (considering today's health crises) is that zometa costs more than $,1000 per infusion.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and there are roughly 200,000 new cases each year with 40,000 deaths in the USA. No significant break throughs have been made in breast cancer prevention. As far as the bisphosphonates are concerned, consumers should be aware that these drugs may prevent osteoporosis but there is no evidence that they can also reduce bone fractures.