How effective is cranberry (juice and/or supplements) at fighting off a UTI?

When my mom feels a UTI coming on, she buys some fresh cranberries and makes a smoothie as tart as she can handle. (Other ingredients she includes are yogurt, milk, honey, and apples.) It seems to fight it off quite well, she says. This way, it’s much more natural than the cranberry juice you can buy that’s pre-sweetened. It’s also much more concentrated; the stuff in stores is often diluted with cheaper juices, such as apple or pear juice.

Unfortunately fresh cranberries aren’t readily available in the UK except at Christmas, and even then, they’re prohibitively expensive. So it’s either pre-sweetened packaged juice, or pills, for me.

Essentially, no. There’s been very few good studies, and the best show no real effect: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/cranberry-juice/. However, there’s really only one decent study done, so it’s not conclusive. In general, it won’t hurt you, but I wouldn’t spend too much money on it.

That’s rough, man. I have long, long experience with UTIs… I have had great success with cranberry extract pills. And success for a type 1 diabetic means that you don’t get a bladder or kidney infection. So I’m inclined to say that this stuff works, on the anecdotal evidence that I’ve never had a UTI progress into something worse.

“Cranberries (usually as cranberry juice) have been used to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Cranberries contain a substance that can prevent bacteria from sticking on the walls of the bladder. This may help prevent bladder and other UTIs. This review identified 24 studies (4473 participants) comparing cranberry products with control or alternative treatments. There was a small trend towards fewer UTIs in people taking cranberry product compared to placebo or no treatment but this was not a significant finding. Many people in the studies stopped drinking the juice, suggesting it may not be a acceptable intervention. Cranberry juice does not appear to have a significant benefit in preventing UTIs and may be unacceptable to consume in the long term. Cranberry products (such as tablets or capsules) were also ineffective (although had the same effect as taking antibiotics), possibly due to lack of potency of the ‘active ingredient’.”

Cochrane Summaries

Not.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/cranberry-juice/

Bladder infections are common amongst the women in my family, but we discovered a great cure – over-the-counter pills marketed under the name “Uri-Calm.” If you take them soon enough, they usually fight it off. They turn your pee red (maybe they have iodine in them – I don’t know). Also, stay well hydrated with healthy drinks of any kind, and go pee often. Holding it for long periods of time will make getting a bladder infection more likely.

The 19 year old girl who lives with my grandson swears by it. She has frequent issues, uses cranberry juice along with her meds.

I should’ve added that my mom says frozen cranberries work just as well.

You should be aware that the problem with repeated use of antibiotics is not that you become immune to their effects. The real problem is that when improperly used, conditions are created that permit strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics to take hold in your urinary tract.

Always take the antibiotics as instructed and continue taking them until they are all gone.
In addition, since you are prone to UTIs, you should make sure to drink 5 or more litres of water per day, in addition to any other fluids you may consume.
If using cranberry juice or extracts seems to help you avoid or control UTIs then by all means use them. Remember that such juices have a great deal of sweetener added to make the juice palatable. If you are diabetic or if you are at increased risk for diabetes, then make sure the juice is not sweetened with sugar (glucose, fructose and other such sugars are all to be avoided in such a case.

I drink a lot of low-sugar cranberry juice but honestly I’m not sure if it works. I recently spoke with a woman who used to get a lot of UTIs. She says now, the second she feels one coming on, she drinks down a large glass of water in about 5 minutes, and that knocks it out. She hasn’t had one for 5 years now. Also if you are sexually active be sure to pee after intercourse. It’s unromantic but it helps. My doctor told me they call UTIs “honeymooners disease.”

@downtide, just may sound stupid but I am going to ask anyway. Does it help prevent the infections if you use new catheters each time and pay extra special attention to being super clean?

@bkcunningham the catheters are never re-usable. It’s always a fresh one every time out of a sterile packet. Being super-clean helps, but the main problem is that the part of the urinary tract with the most bacteria is the first few millimetres behind the opening. The tip of the catheter picks up these bacteria on entry and carries them into the bladder. Unfortunately there isn’t really any way to avoid this.

@Dr_Lawrence Your advice is completely contrary to what my doctor advised me. I was drinking 2.5 litres of water a day (in addition to other fluids). She told me that was too much for me and advised me to cut down to 1.5 to 2 litres (or 2.5 including other non-caffeinated fluids – though I don’t drink caffeine at all anyway). Not saying that my dr’s advice is appropriate for everyone; it was given in accordance with the way my bladder and bowels work I guess.

I’ve always heard from credible sources that cranberry juice is realy good for UTI, and never hard of it being a negative. I wonder why they just mention the juice though? I know they are sour but they can get mixed with sweet stuff in recepies.

I suspect that sweetened juice works just as well, only it’s worse for your teeth and your waistline. Personally though, I prefer it less sweet; I’m not a fan of sweet things.

@downtide Wow you’re lucky you don’t like sweet things, it must save you a lot of $.

@flo not so much the money; I snack on savoury things a lot (especially nuts). It has definitely helped my teeth though.

And an update on the UTI – after a week, all signs of infection have gone.

@downtide yes, not too much $ wasted on dentist trips. Those how to save $ books, do they mention “Take care of your teeth”, as a major one way?

It works great!!! I have had them before and it is the one thing that I get when I go to the store. Also you can buy the cranberry tablets to take. They make your urine a kinda Orange color but they work great as well. If you don’t like cranberry by itself you can buy a cran-grape mixture at the grocery store. It’s not as tart. If you can’t find that. Put your cranberry juice in the fridge and get it cold, then pour that over some ice. You can also eat the dried cranberrys.