Urinary tract infections (UTI) are a surprisingly common health problem and may be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. The bacteria E.coli causes over 80% of all UTI’s. E coli is a normal resident of the intestinal flora that can pass through the peritoneum into the urinary tract and bladder. Urine found in the bladder should be sterile. UTIs are more common in women with 1 to 3 % prevalence in non-pregnant women. Prevalence increases with age and in the elderly, infections are more common in women
The benefits of cranberries for the treatment and prevention of urinary tract infections have been demonstrated. Drinking 8-16 ounces of cranberry juice per day is unrealistic for most. Self-medication with cranberry juice cocktail is common in the treatment of UTIs, unfortunately cranberry cocktails contain a lot of sugar and only 23% juice. They are not a good choice for the therapeutic use of cranberries and should not be used by diabetics because of the high sugar content. Also, cranberry tablets are more cost effective than cranberry juice in the treatment and prevention of UTI. Cran-UTI is a concentrated extract containing 630 mg of cranberry, the equivalent to roughly 1 1/2 cups of cranberries.
