“This randomized controlled clinical trial enrolled 137 women who experienced two or more antibiotic-treated urinary tract infections in the previous 12 months,” stated lead researcher Marion E.T. McMurdo, “The women received either 500 mg of Cran-Max or 100 mg of the antibiotic, Trimethoprim for six months.” She added, “Our trial is the first to evaluate cranberry (Cran-Max) in the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections, and the first head-to-head double-blind comparison of cranberry versus antibiotics. Trimethoprim had a very limited advantage over cranberry extract (Cran-Max) in the prevention of recurrent UTIs in older women and had more adverse effects.”
According to Sherry Torkos, pharmacist and author of The Benefits of Berries, “McMurdo’s research is a landmark study for Cran-Max and the nutritional supplement industry demonstrating the benefits of a natural product for prevention. Prevention of UTI with antibiotics is effective but undesirable due to side effects (most commonly diarrhea, upset stomach and yeast infection). In some cases, a potentially fatal superinfection with the bacteria Clostridium difficile can occur due to antibiotic use.”
“Antimicrobial resistance is another concern,” said Torkos. “In fact, resistance to trimethoprim in bacteria causing UTIs has been steadily increasing in Northern European and American countries from 10 to 15% in the 1970s to about 24% in 2004.”
Earlier research on Cran-Max published in Can J Urol. 2002;9:1558-
