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Cranberry juice and cystitis
I suffer badly from cystitis and have been drinking cranberry juice to help relieve the symptoms but I read recently, this could in fact, make the condition worse because of the sugar content in commercial brands. Is there a herbal solution?
The reason cranberry can help alleviate bladder infections is that it makes the urine more acidic creating a more hostile environment for bacteria such as E. coli which are usually causing the problem. It also stops the bacteria from establishing themselves on the bladder wall and if they cannot get a 'foothold' they are then flushed out of the bladder alongside the stream of urine.
What cranberry can do is help tackle chronic infections and break the cycle of repeated infections but as you say, the majority of commercial juices are mostly sugar and contain very little cranberry juice which means you need to find an unsweetened source of cranberry juice or a herbal alternative. That said, in trials, women taking even a supermarket cocktail of cranberry and other juice had 58% less bacteria in their urine than those given a placebo pill.
You can now get cranberry in powder and tablet forms from healthstores so try Planetary Formula's Cranberry Concentrate which provides the equivalent of 7oz of cranberry juice in each 500mg tablet. If not available at your local healthstore, mail order from the Nutricentre on 0800-587 2290.
The other herb that is useful for milder urinary tract infections is uva ursi which can help stop the bacteria that are causing the infection from multiplying. Uva ursi works best when the urine is alkaline. What this then means is that taking it with a more acidic remedy, such as cranberry juice, will render it less effective so don't be tempted to combine the two.