Cranberries help fight urinary tract infections
Cranberry Supplement For UTI Support
Updated Feb. 16th, 2024 | Read Time: 3 Minutes | What You Will Learn:
- Understanding How a Cranberry Supplement Can Help
- The Powerful Nutritional Benefits Found in Cranberries
- The Great Debate: Concentrated Cranberry Supplement vs Cranberry Cocktails
- Shopping For Quality, Highly Concentrated Cranberry Supplements
Cranberries are the fruit of a bush (Vaccinium macrocarpon) that have a tart flavour and are commonly used in cooking, baking, juice, or eaten plain. Cranberry sauce is frequently paired with turkey during Thanksgiving celebrations in North America. Traditionally, cranberry has been used for hundreds of years to prevent and and treat urinary tract infections and today, the cranberry supplement are available in concentrated forms to support urinary tract health.
In the current medical model, a large amount of scientific research has been performed to confirm this traditional usage, and has also shown it to decrease the severity of established Urinary Tract Infections as well. It is now widely used by naturopathic and medical healthcare practitioners around the world.
Understanding How a Cranberry Supplement Can Help
Cranberry contains compounds called lectins that prevent bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. When they cannot stay stuck to the bladder wall, they are easily flushed out with the urine and do not lead to infection. This is particularly true of the most common urinary tract pathogen, the bacteria commonly called E. coli.
The increased activity against E. coli may also be due to the mannose content of cranberry. Supplementation with cranberry also acidifies the urine, which makes it an uncomfortable environment for many bacteria to live and reproduce.
The Powerful Nutritional Benefits Found in Cranberries
In addition to the antibacterial sugar mannose, cranberries also contain significant amounts of vitamin C, which is important for the healing of the lining of the urinary tract. The chemical compounds called proanthocyanidins found in cranberry have been shown to have positive effects on healthy cell growth in preliminary laboratory testing. More studies are needed to determine if cranberry will be clinically useful such purposes.
The Great Debate: Concentrated Cranberry Supplement vs Cranberry Cocktails
It is important to avoid drinking sweetened cranberry cocktails, because they often contain little actual cranberry juice and lots of sugar. Sugar actually feeds the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, and can allow them to reproduce more quickly.
Shopping For Quality, Highly Concentrated Cranberry Supplements
Cranberry can be purchased as raw or dried berries, encapsulated dried berries, encapsulated extract, pure, concentrated juice or in powder form. The concentrated unsweetened, pure juice is the best way to consume cranberry for its medicinal qualities. The juice is very tart but be sure to only dilute the juice with water, not other fruit juices to avoid adding extra sugar.
Encapsulated cranberry ranges in strength and quality. Purchase a product that gives an equivalent value of raw cranberries or concentrated cranberry juice. Combination products for urinary tract infections may contain cranberry. The dose of unsweetened juice recommended is generally 300ml daily (diluted as desired with water), and the dose for tablets is 400mg three times a day for at least a month. In children, the dose of concentrated juice is 15ml per kg of body weight (diluted as desired with water).
The article provides a thorough, readable review of the health benefits of cranberry. Appreciated the explanation of why sweetened cranberry and cranberry extract taken with fruit juice is not recommended. Quick facts offer a useful summary of cranberry's health benefits and dosage details. My understanding of how cranberry supports urinary tract health and prevent UTIs is much improved - thank you!
Hello Northern Girl,
Glad you enjoyed the article and found some great/useful information for yourself and health! Cranberries are an amazing healer as are many other antioxidant rich supplements! Hope to see you again soon and have a healthy day!
This is wonderfully helpful if you have a urinary tract infection
Hello, Sharon,
Thank you for sharing. D-mannose, the active compound in cranberry, is very beneficial for UTIs. You can get that as its own supplement and learn about it here: https://www.nationalnutrition.ca/articles/supplements/d-mannose/
Have a healthy day