Cranberry May Be Better than Drugs in Urinary Tract Infections

The use of cranberry extract is almost as good as a prescription medication for the treatment of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), and in some respects it's even better, according to a study by Scottish researchers.

Marion E.T. McMurdo, MD, and her colleagues studied 137 women who had experienced at least two antibiotic-treated UTIs during the previous year. The subjects were asked to take either 500 mg of cranberry extract or 100 mg of the drug trimethoprim for six months.

Although more of the women taking cranberry went on to develop a UTI, the average time for a recurrence of the infection was almost the same: 84.5 days for women taking cranberry versus 91 days for those taking the drug.

McMurdo wrote that the drug "had a very limited advantage over cranberry extract in the prevention of recurrent UTIs in older women." The drug also led to a greater number of side effects.

"Our findings will allow older women with recurrent UTIs to weigh up with their clinicians the inherent attractions of a cheap, natural product like cranberry extract whose use does not carry the risk of antimicrobial resistance or super-infection with Clostridium difficile or fungi," wrote McMurdo and her colleagues.

Reference: McMurdo MET, Argo I, Phillips G, et al. "Cranberry or trimethoprim for the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections? A randomized controlled trial in older women." Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2008: doi 10.1093/jac/dkn489.