Cranberries
if you're prone to bladder infections, drinking cranberry juice daily won't cure them, but it can help prevent them, say the urologic disease experts at NIH. Just be careful if you are taking blood-thinning medication like warfarin ( Coumadin). Plavix or aspirin, warns Hagen: Possible interactions between cranberry juice and warfarin may lead to bleeding.
Taking a 500 mg cranberry extract pill twice a day is also effective at preventing urinary tract infections.
A Dutch study published this year compared women who took a daily low dose of an antibiotic to prevent infections and women who took the cranberry pills. The antibiotic was somewhat more effective, but it also caused more antibiotic resistance int the bloodstream.
Unlike antibiotics, which kill bacteria, cranberries keep bacteria from attaching to the the bladder walls.
Posted by: aarp.org/bulletin.com November 2011
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