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.