Drinking 8 Ounces Prevents Urinary Tract Infections Better Than 4 Ounces, Researchers Say

By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News

Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD on Thursday, September 30, 2004

Sept. 30, 2004 -- You may have heard that cranberry juice helps prevent urinary tract infections. Now, research shows that the amount of cranberry juice you drink may determine how much protection you get.

Urinary tract infections are common infections that affect millions of people annually. Most are caused by a common bacteria called E coli., which lives in the intestine and requires antibiotic treatment.

There's been evidence that cranberry juice and other products can prevent and even treat simple urine infections, and now researchers may have an indication as to how much is needed to better fight bacteria and stop it from infecting the bladder.

Drinking 8 ounces of cranberry juice more than doubled the protection against infection compared with drinking 4 ounces, according to a recent study by Kalpana Gupta, MD, MPH, of Yale University, and colleagues from the University of Washington and Rutgers University.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) can occur anywhere in the urinary tract, including the kidneys, bladder, and urethra. Women are at higher risk than men because their shorter urethra and hormones make them more susceptible to urine infections. Symptoms include a frequent need to urinate and pain or burning during urination.

Study Results

In the study, three volunteers provided urine samples, drank 4- or 8-ounce servings of cranberry juice cocktail, and then provided more urine samples four to six hours after drinking the two different serving sizes of cranberry juice.

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