Drinking water DOES prevent agonising cystitis – this is how much you should be drinking
If you're suspectable to UTIs, then don't bother with the cranberry juice - you're much better off flushing out your system with lots of H2O
THERE'S nothing quite like a urinary tract infection to cause you misery.
But if you thought you had to fork out a fortune on cranberry juice to protect yourself against things like cystitis, then think again.
Around half of all women and one in 20 men will get a UTI at some point in their lives - which will see them rushing to the loo in agony and in some cases, develop into serious kidney infections.
Protecting yourself from one, however, couldn't be more simple.
An updated study claims that all you have to do is drink an extra six glasses of water a day to ward off agonising infections.
It found that women who get frequent infections like cystitis could cut their risk in half if they managed to drink an extra 1.5 litres of water a day, compared to women who don't increase their consumption.
Doctors have long recommended women at risk from UTIs drink more water but this study has found just how much is enough to make a difference.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, involved 140 healthy women under the age of 45 who had had at least three UTIs in the past year, and who typically drank under six eight-ounce glasses of fluids a day.
IT'S NO OLD WIVES TALE This is the reason WHY so many women get cystitis over and over again
Half of the women were told to drink an extra six eight-ounce glasses of water a day (1.5L), while the others didn't make any changes to their water consumption.
After a year, those who drank more water had had around 1.5 UTIs over the course of the study, compared to the other half's three.
In total, the well-hydrated group was drinking eleven glasses of water a day, compared to just five in the other group.
"For decades, it has been said that increasing fluid intake could help prevent or cure urinary tract infections," Dr Deborah Grady, deputy editor of JAMA Internal Medicine, wrote in an editorial accompanying the published study.
The new study "confirms that folk wisdom," Grady said.
So why should drinking water help?
Well, drinking more fluids increases the rate at which bacteria gets flushed out of the bladder and also reduces the concentration of bacteria that end up entering the bladder from the vagina, researchers explained.
Symptoms of a UTI include:
According to the NHS, signs include:
- needing to pee suddenly or more often than usual
- pain or a burning sensation when peeing
- smelly or cloudy pee
- pain in your lower tummy
- feeling tired and unwell
- in older people, changes in behaviour such as severe confusion or agitation
It's important to point out that UTI symptoms might be difficult to spot in people with dementia.
If you are a man, are pregnant, a woman who hasn't had a UTI before or you're caring for someone who has one, visit your GP.
Seek help if you have blood in your pee or your symptoms don't improve in a few days.
Most of these women's UTIs were caused by E.Coli bacteria; by pushing more fluids in and out of the body, you're giving bacteria fewer opportunities to attach cells to the lining of the urinary tract.
Despite the study being funded by Danone Research - which sells bottled water and provided water for the test - Dr Grady insisted that regular water will serve just fine.
She said: "It seems clear that any safe-to-drink water will do, including your local tap water."
Does that mean ditching the cranberry juice once and for all?
Earlier this year, health officials warned that drinking cranberry juice doesn't clear up painful UTIs, although some studies have claimed that it might help.
The National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) have said that there just isn't enough evidence to support the old wives' tale that cranberry juice eases the pain.
MORE ON HEALTH
But it is worth saying that drinking a tonne of any fluid (not alcohol...obviously) will have a flushing effect on your system. It's probably the juice's water content rather than the fruit per se that helps.
urologist Courtney Moore said that while "there is an active ingredient in cranberries that can prevent adherence of bacteria to the bladder wall, particularly E. coli...most of the studies have shown that juice and supplements don’t have enough of this active ingredient, A-type proanthocyanidins (PACs), to prevent bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract”.
If you want to protect yourself, water and painkillers are probably your best options.
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