Cranberry has been found to be as effective as antibiotics in treating recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) in older women. Although cranberry has been used in alternative medicine for decades to forestall UTIs, the new study which was published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, showed that Cran-Max, a cranberry concentrate, prevented UTIs about as well as trimenthoprim, a commonly prescribed antibiotic.
“Our trial is the first to evaluate cranberry in the prevention of recurrent UTIs specially in older women, and the first head-to-head double-blind comparison of cranberry versus antibiotic prophylaxis,” said lead researcher Marion E.T. McMurdo. “Trimenthoprim had a very limited advantage over cranberry extract in the prevention of recurrent UTIs in older women and had more adverse effects.”
The randomized controlled clinical trial included 137 women who had been treated with antibiotics for a urinary tract infection at least twice in the previous twelve months. Half the group received 100 mg of trimenthoprim for six months and the other half 500 mg of Cran-Max, a cranberry concentrate. At the end of six months, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the time to a recurrence of UTI.
“Prevention of UTI with antibiotics is effective but undesirable due to side effects,” said Sherry Torkos, pharmacist and author of The Benefits of Berries. “Antimicrobial resistance is another concern,” she said. “In fact, resistance to trimenthoprim in bacteria causing UTIs has been steadily increasing in Northern European and American countries from 10 to 15 percent in the 1970s to about 24 percent in 2004.”
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
