Cranberry for Prevention of Urinary Tract Infection?: Time to Move On

The daily ingestion of cranberry products-juice or capsules-has been promoted as a means to prevent recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) since at least the first half of the last century. In that preantibiotic era, acidification of the urine was a recommended treatment for UTI. Initially, cranber...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2016-11, Vol.316 (18), p.1873-1874
Main Author: Nicolle, Lindsay E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Berries
Beverages
Disease prevention
Fruit
Humans
Medical research
Phytotherapy
Plant Extracts - therapeutic use
Urinary tract infection
Urinary Tract Infections - drug therapy
Vaccinium macrocarpon
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Summary:The daily ingestion of cranberry products-juice or capsules-has been promoted as a means to prevent recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) since at least the first half of the last century. In that preantibiotic era, acidification of the urine was a recommended treatment for UTI. Initially, cranberry juice was explored as an approach to treating UTI following the observation that it could lower urine pH. This is attributed to formation of hippuric acid through metabolism of the quinic acid present in cranberry juice. Later studies reported that the concentration of hippuric acid in the urine was insufficient for an antibacterial effect unless very large volumes of cranberry juice were ingested. Here, Nicolle discusses the study by Juthani-Mehta and colleagues where in they evaluated the potential benefit of cranberry products for prevention of UTI.
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2016.16140