Dietary factors protecting women from urinary tract infection.
This article finds that dietary habits can have an impact on UTIs in women. Cranberry juice has been used for UTIs and it is believed that D-mannose, the sugar present in the juice, prevents bacteria such as E. coli from adhering to the wall of the urinary tract and bladder. Probiotic supplementation has also helped with many patients in my office. I usually recommend douches; however, patients have reported benefits even with oral use (it is believed to positively affect the flora of the GI tract and thus lower cross contamination). It is refreshing to see a study supporting something other than recurrent antibiotic scripts (leading to yeast infections and more scripts…). Which, if you think about it (and hopefully you will…) antibiotics kill off one of the substances that were shown to protect against UTIs. Hmmm…
AJCN — Abstracts: Kontiokari et al. 77 (3): 600