Cranberries can be simple solution to a common, irritating infection

LAKEVILLE-MIDDLEBORO, Mass. - Thursday, April 28th 2016 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Women today do it all and don’t have time to be slowed down by pesky infections like urinary tract infections (UTIs). Luckily, there’s a simple solution to stave off that unwelcome sensation, and it’s been around for nearly a century – cranberry juice. Chock-full of powerful nutrients, cranberries have unique anti-bacterial properties that help prevent the bacteria that cause UTIs from sticking in the body. That’s great news for your busy schedule, and even better for you!

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A Super Pain
If you think urinary tract infections won’t affect you, think again. According to researchers, approximately 60 percent of women will experience one UTI in their lifetimes and one in four women will suffer a recurrence within six months1, 2.

Urinary tract infections are typically remedied with a course of low-dose antibiotics, but you may not be in the clear even after the infection has passed. That’s because even after treatment, bacteria may still be lurking in the bladder, leaving room for yet another infection – and who has time for that?

A Super Problem
While UTIs may seem like a small problem, they affect 150 million people annually worldwide, making them the second most common type of infection3.

Ocean Spray commissioned studies in Australia and Turkey to understand how UTIs affected quality of life across the regions and found they are truly disruptive. In Australia, 4.8 million working hours are lost each year due to UTIs and contribute to an economic loss of $197 million. More than half (53 percent) of the women surveyed in Turkey said UTIs impacted their everyday life. That number increased to 69 percent for those who experienced a UTI in the last year.

Concurrently, the bacteria that cause UTIs are becoming increasingly resistant to the strongest antibiotics used to treat them. This is fueling a dangerous increase in antibiotic resistance worldwide as this limits the body’s ability to fight off common infections like UTIs. According to the World Health Organization antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest challenges to public health today4.

A Super Fruit, A Super Solution
Despite the reports, there is good news for consumers. Research suggests that consuming cranberries daily may be a nutritional approach to help reduce the recurrence of UTIs and decrease the worldwide use of antibiotics.

How exactly? Up until recently, it was thought the secret to the cranberry’s abilities came from a single component within the fruit, Type-A PACs, that provide an antibacterial effect by preventing bacteria from sticking5, 6. New studies point to a unique combination of compounds in cranberries, including a newly discovered class of compounds, xyloglucan oligosaccharides, which have similar anti-bacterial properties against E. coli as PACs7. This means there are multiple, powerful elements within cranberries working hard for your health.

So the next time you head to the store, consider stocking up on cranberry juice – one 8-ounce glass (236 mL) of cranberry juice or ¼ cup (40 g) of dried cranberries daily could be one of the best ways to prevent irksome infections like UTIs.

About Cranberry Health Benefits

For more than 85 years, we have been actively researching the cranberry’s unique healthy benefits to deliver products that not only taste good, but are good for you. Cranberries are an exceptional fruit that provide one-of-a-kind health benefits. Besides helping consumers meet the recommended daily intake of fruit, consuming cranberries may be a nutritional approach in helping to reduce certain infections in the urinary tract and stomach. This is increasingly important as the bacteria that cause these infections are becoming highly resistant to the strongest antibiotics used to treat them, fueling what the World Health Organization believes is one of the greatest challenges to public health today – antibiotic resistance.

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry and grapefruit growers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. Formed in 1930, Ocean Spray is now the world’s leading producer of cranberry juices, juice drinks and dried cranberries and is the best-selling brand in the North American bottled juice category. The cooperative’s cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. With more than 2,000 employees and nearly 20 cranberry receiving and processing facilities, Ocean Spray is committed to managing our business in a way that respects our communities, employees and the environment. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com or www.oceanspray.coop.

1 Foxman B. Urinary tract infection syndromes: occurrence, recurrence, bacteriology, risk factors, and disease burden. Infect Dis Clin North Am 2014;28:1–13.
2 Wang CH, Fang CC, Chen NC, Liu SS, Yu PH, Wu TY, Chen WT, Lee CC, Chen SC. Cranberry-containing products for prevention of urinary tract infections in susceptible populations: a systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med 2012;172:988–96.
3 American Urological Association. “Adult UTI: Epidemiology/Socioeconomics/Education.” Available at: https://www.auanet.org/education/adult-uti.cfm
4 Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance 2014; WHO; http://www.who.int/drugresistance/documents/surveillancereport/en/
5 Howell AB, Reed JD, Krueger CG, Winterbottom R, Cunningham DG, Leahy M. A-type cranberry proanthocyanidins and uropathogenic bacterial anti-adhesion activity. Phytochemistry, 2005; 66(18): 2281-2291.
6 de Llano DG, Esteban-Fernández A, Sánchez-Patán F, Martínlvarez PJ, Moreno-Arribas MV, Bartolomé B. Anti-Adhesive Activity of Cranberry Phenolic Compounds and Their Microbial-Derived Metabolites against Uropathogenic Escherichia coli in Bladder Epithelial Cell Cultures. Int J Mol Sci. 2015 May 27;16(6):12119-30.
7 Hotchkiss AT, Nunez A, Strahan GD, Chau H, White A, Marais J, Hom K, Vakkalanka MS, Di R, Yam KL, Khoo C. Cranberry Xyloglucan Structure and Inhibition of Escherichia coli Adhesion to Epithelial Cells. J Agric Food Chem. 2015 Jun 17;63(23):5622-33.

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Contacts

Weber Shandwick for Ocean Spray

Kelly Vesty, 617-520-7061

kvesty@webershandwick.com

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