UPI en Español  |   UPI Asia  |   About UPI  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Cranberry juice effect on UTI transitory

|
 
Published: July 21, 2008 at 10:49 PM

WORCESTER, Mass., July 21 (UPI) -- Regular cranberry juice cocktail and diet sugar-free cranberry juice work the same to try to prevent a urinary tract infection, a U.S. researcher said.

"That's good news for people who do not like to consume a lot of sugary juice," Terri Camesano of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts said in a statement.

Camesano said unpublished work shows that while cranberry juice has potent effects on disease-causing bacteria, those effects are transitory.

"When we take E. coli. bacteria that have been treated with cranberry juice and place them in normal growth media, they regain the ability to adhere to urinary tract cells," Camesano said in a statement. "This suggests that to realize the anti-bacterial benefits of cranberry, one must consume cranberry juice regularly -- perhaps daily."

The juice prevents the microorganisms from getting close enough to latch onto cells and initiate an infection, Camesano said.

The study, published in the journal Colloids and Surfaces: B, shows that, at least for urinary tract infections, cranberry juice targets the right bacteria -- those that cause disease -- but has no effect on non-pathogenic organisms, suggesting that cranberry juice will not disrupt bacteria that are part of the normal flora in the gut.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
'Star Trek Into Darkness' screening NBC upfronts Met Ball 2013
'Great Gatsby' premieres in New York Spire raised on top of One WTC 2013: Celebrity break ups and divorces
Additional Health News Stories
1 of 16
Tornadoes Devastate Moore, Oklahoma
View Caption
A damaged movie theater is seen in aftermath of a series of tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma, May 21, 2013. On May 20 a series of tornadoes swept through severals towns south of Oklahoma City leaving a path of destruction and killing at least 24 people. UPI/J.P. Wilson
fark
If you're going to rob a bank, it's probably best to wear a disguise, not a floor-length, green...
One of the last three surviving Jewish fighters from the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943 has died...
Senator who voted against disaster aid for Sandy: now is not the time to discuss my position on...
Gay man comes out as Boy Scout
3rd Annual Geek Pride Night @SkyBar in Bowling Green, OH, 8p May 22, Farkers welcome to the party...
Vertical Pink Houses may be the future of farming. John Mellencamp unavailable for comment