NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Antibiotics were better than cranberry capsules at preventing urinary tract infections in a new study of women in the Netherlands who suffered from recurring infections.
Women taking the ***** had fewer UTIs over the next year than those taking cranberry capsules, but they also built up resistance to the antibiotics - meaning that their bodies might not respond to the ***** if they needed them to treat another infection.
When it comes to antibiotics for UTIs, "there's a really important need here to look for alternatives and to reconsider both what we've done in terms of treatment and prophylaxis," said Betsy Foxman, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor who didn't participate in the new research.
Cranberries have long been thought to help prevent UTIs through "anecdotal evidence," she told Reuters Health, but doctors aren't sure how they might work, and more rigorous studies have shown mixed results on their effectiveness.
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