In The Fight Against UTIs, Cranberry Juice Is All You've Got

By Margaret Hartmann | October 31, 2011 | 2:55pm

If you’re interested in warding off urinary tract infections you should learn to love cranberry juice, because scientists won’t be coming out with a pill version anytime soon. Proanthocyanidins or PACs, a group of flavonoids found in cranberries, were thought to be what makes the juice effective at fighting infections, but a study found drinking the juice is far better than consuming extracts. Lead author Terri Camesano, professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute explains:

“What we have shown is that cranberry juice’s ability to prevent biofilms is more complex than we may have originally thought … For a while, the field focused on these PACs, but the data shows that they aren’t the silver bullet.”

Image via Volosina/Shutterstock.