Cranberries Confer Infection Protection

As many as 64% of women who undergo elective gynecological surgery during which a catheter is placed may contract a subsequent urinary tract infection (UTI).   Betsy Foxman, from the University of Michigan (Michigan, USA), and colleagues studied 160 women scheduled for elective gynecological surgery, ages 23 to 88 years, who were divided into two groups: for 6 weeks, half the subjects  took cranberry supplements (equivalent to two 8-ounce servings of cranberry juice a day), while the other half took a placebo.   Fifteen of the 80 women who took the women taking the cranberry supplement experienced surgery-related UTI, as compared to 30 of the 80 taking placebo.  Among the women taking the cranberry supplements who did get UTI, they experienced it at a later onset (18 days after surgery, as compared to  8.5 days among the placebo group). The study authors submit that: “Among women undergoing elective benign gynecological surgery involving urinary catheterization, the use of cranberry extract capsules during the postoperative period reduced the rate of [urinary tract infection] by half.”