For urinary tract infection, antibiotics beat cranberries

(CBS) Cranberries are a familiar folk remedy for urinary tract infection (UTI), and some research has supported their use as a way to curb recurrent UTIs. But how did a cranberry extract fare in a recent head-to-head comparison with antibiotics?

Not berry good.

For the comparison - published in Archives of Medicine - researchers at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam recruited 221 premenopausal women with recurrent urinary tract  (bladder) infections. Half of the women took capsules containing a cranberry extract every day for 12 months, while the other half took the antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim) every day for the same period of time.

What happened? Urinary tract infections were almost two times more common in women given the cranberry extract capsules than in those given the antibiotic. On average, women in the cranberry group developed a new infection after four months, as compared to eight months for the antiobiotic group

But women in the antibiotic group were three times more likely to develop antibiotic resistance. That's a phenomenon in which infectious bacteria become resistant to the effects of antibiotics - meaning they are harder to control.

"Cranberries are less effective in the prevention, but do not result in resistant microorganisms," study author Dr. Suzanne Geerlings, an infectious diseases expert at the center, told HealthDay.

So what's the study's take-away message?

Since many women with recurrent urinary tract infections are reluctant to take antibiotics for a long period of time, Dr. Geerlings said, they should discuss the study's results with a doctor to figure out the best treatment approach.

WebMD has more on urinary tract infections.