Urinary tract infections (UTIs) in otherwise healthy women are
very common. In fact, according to the National Institute of
Health, next to the common cold and flu, UTIs are the second most
common infection among women.
For a woman with a UTI there is usually substantial pain,
irritation and an ongoing discomfort until cured. UTIs have been
called "the infection that drives women crazy." The symptoms are
burning, stinging, pain during urination, frequency, urgency and
nocturia (getting up in the night). Pain can be severe, even
excruciating, in the lower back and pelvis.
Any woman who has had a UTI wants to avoid getting another.
Prevention against the onset of a new UTI is the key. Until now
preventive measures have largely relied on the use of antibiotics
, with all the disadvantages. There has been a distinct need for
a satisfactory alternative to antibiotics as prophylactic
regimen. Now there is good news for women - a new natural
solution has been shown to be remarkably effective in stopping
UTIs before they begin.
UTIs are a serious health problem for women
UTIs are a ubiquitous problem affecting women of all ages - from
small children to elderly women. About five percent of
schoolgirls have a UTI by the time they leave high school.
Sexually active women in their reproductive years are prone to
getting UTIs. After menopause the incidence of UTIs increases
steadily with aging. In nursing homes it is estimated that 50
percent of female residents have recurring UTIs.
Recent NIH statistics show that annually in the U.S. alone there
were over nine million doctor visits and over one million
hospitalizations involving UTIs. Add to these numbers the
countless additional millions of infections which are self-
medicated by U.S. women each year.
Why are women so susceptible to UTIs? The basic female anatomy
predisposes them to urinary tract infection. Because the urethra
opening is located very close to the anus, fecal bacteria can
invade the urethra and travel the short distance to the bladder.
If these bacteria are not washed out in the urine stream or
eliminated by the body's immune system, one of several types of
infections can occur. UTIs are caused when the bacteria
successfully adhere to the cell walls of the urinary tract and
colonize.
Many women suffer from frequent UTIs. Approximately 15 percent
of patients experience two or more infections per year. Women who
have had recurrent UTIs are likely to continue having them.
Recurrent UTIs are costly to society in terms of medical costs
and are estimated to be a major cause of lost work days.
Women with recurrent UTIs may either be more susceptible to such
relapse or infection than other women and/or they may experience
more infection because of behavioral factors such as sexual
activity or poor hygiene habits. The frequency of UTIs is best
viewed as an interplay between host susceptibility and the
natural temporal variability of virulence factors in the
colonizing bacteria. Reinfection rates are highly variable and
not really predictable - some women have multiple, very closely-
spaced recurrent infections whereas other will have recurrent
infection separated by infection-free periods of months or years.
Treating a urinary tract infection
Individual episodes of UTIs are treated with a short-course
antimicrobial therapy. For recurrent UTIs the conventional
therapy is repeated treatment with full course or prophylactic
antibiotics. Antibiotics cure an existing UTI by killing the
bacteria then present. But the surprising news is that
antibiotics have little or no impact on whether a subsequent
infection will occur.
This was recently emphasized again in a large randomized double
blind trial of 688 women who were treated with short course
antibiotics when they developed a UTI. Within four to six weeks
between 11 percent and 16 percent of these patients suffered a
recurrence (relapse or reinfection). The rate varied depending
upon which of three leading antimicrobials was used.
In another large study of 179 adult women, 44 percent of the
patients had a recurrent UTI within the following year after
being given antibiotics for the index episode. Other studies
have demonstrated that when continuous antimicrobial prophylaxis
is discontinued, even after extended periods of such regimen,
over 60 percent of women who are subject to getting recurrent
UTIs will reinfect within three to four months.
There are other major problems associated with antimicrobial
therapy: (1) the side effects; (2) the high costs; (3) the
inconvenience; (4) the impact on the friendly flora in a woman's
body, especially in the genitourinary tract; and (5) the rapid
emergence of resistant bacteria.
In the aforementioned study of 688 women, one third of these
women (31-39 percent) suffered adverse events (side effects)
from taking the antimicrobials. The destructive power of
antibiotics on a woman's friendly flora is well-known. It is no
secret that antibiotics are expensive and the antibiotic
prophylactic regimens require a lot of doctor interface and add
burdens to one's daily life. No wonder that many patients have
and aversion to continued use of antibiotics over an extended
time and are asking their doctors for alternative approaches.
Bacterial resistance is now a major concern
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is front page news. The
media is full of alarming stories about the ever-increasing
resistance of bacteria to antimicrobial therapies. A recent U.S.
News and World Report cover story (May 1999) headlines: "Losing
the battle of the bugs. Common bacteria are now so resistant to
antibiotics that they can kill."
Many articles in the professional journals sound a similar
warning. Doctors and scientists agree that antimicrobial
prophylaxis should only be used for a certain time because the
organisms that cause UTI develop a resistance to the drug being
used. The efficacy of antimicrobial therapy prophylaxis is
related to and limited by the prevalence of resistance organisms
in the community. At a certain point efficacy of this
prophylaxis is reduced. These resistant organisms may then serve
as a reservoir for urinary infection. Reflecting this trend, a
woman with recurrent UTIs is likely to be given a round-robin of
rotating medicines as doctors try to keep one generation ahead
of mutating, antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Attacking the bacteria which cause most UTIs
The vast majority of UTIs are caused by E.coli bacteria. They
look a bit like a spider and have hair-like protrusions called
fimbriae (or pili), which they use to adhere to the walls of the
urinary tract.
In the 1980s, university researchers in both Israel and the U.S.
separately reported in peer-reviewed articles that cranberry was
a natural substance that E.coli didn't like and that cranberry
juice strongly affected the adherence of E.coli to human
urothelial cells. Then in 1999 scientists at Tulane University
announced new findings that cranberry juice caused a change in
the very cell structure of E.coli, disabled the bacteria's
fimbriae and inhibited agglutination (colonization). Shortly
thereafter researchers at Rutgers University identified condensed
tannins or proanthocyandins as the anti-adherence factor in
cranberry.
Cranberry does not kill E. coli - instead it works by
interfering with and preventing the bacteria's ability to adhere
and colonize. Therefore there is no impetus for E.coli to
develop resistance to it or to mutate into new forms. Thus
cranberry looks good in the laboratory but how does this
translate in actual consumer or clinical application in a product
form?
Cranberry food products
Cranberry blended juice sold commercially actually contain only
27 percent cranberry juice. The remainder of the beverage is
usually sweetened water, added because of the tartness of the
berry and to make the beverage palatable for public consumption.
In fact this product is called "cranberry juice cocktail" and
typically has loads of calories. Although for decades women have
sought to self-medicate against UTIs by drinking cranberry
beverage, a landmark study has shown that it may be necessary to
drink large quantities of such beverage daily for at least four
to six weeks before measurable results in reduction of likely
pathogens are detectable.
In the early 1990's cranberry dietary supplements were introduced
, made from cranberry juice concentrate (a food product) spray-
dried into a powdered form. But the cranberry in these products
is greatly devitalized by the processing method of both making
the juice and converting it into a powder. Various chemical flow
agents have been added. The natural potency of the herb is not
here. And the recommended dosage of these products tells the
story - usually from three to eight or more capsules per day.
These devitalized and diluted powders essentially do not contain
enough cranberry actives to effectively prevent UTIs.
The need for a nutraceutical cranberry
There has been a need to create a new nutraceutical cranberry
product - a dietary supplement containing the full value of the
fruit in a powder form, one powerful enough to serve as a new
preventive/prophylactic answer to urinary tract infection.
Ideally this would be a powerful cranberry supplement in a
capsule form that (1) could be taken daily in a health
maintenance regimen by women who are at risk for recurring UTIs
and (2) could be recommended by doctors to their patients for
prophylactic use after they had been treated with antibiotics for
an existing infection. Preferably this supplement would have a
dosage requirement of just one capsule a day and would be
moderately-priced to enable widespread use.
Introducing the nutraceutical cranberry
Now such a true nutraceutical cranberry supplement is available.
Clinically-tested and proven to be remarkably efficacious as a
preventive/prophylactic against UTIs, the trade name of this
product is Cran-Max. It is manufactured by Cape Cod Biolab
Corporation.
Cran-Max is a differentiated product in a 500 mg capsule form
specially designed for its nutraceutical role. It is much more
powerful cranberry than conventional cranberry food juice and
supplements. Recommended dosage is just one capsule a day.
Cran-Max is made from the complete cranberry - the fruit solids,
seeds, skin and juice - and thus contains the full synergistic
spectrum of the cranberry. In addition it has an all-natural,
sustained-release delivery system called Bio-Shield which has
been shown to increase the bioavailability of its cranberry
actives to the targeted sites of action in the body.
Since the development of Cran-Max the product has been evaluated
in a number of clinical studies in the U.S. and Europe, in both
hospitals and urologic clinics.
In a recent six-month clinical trial conducted in the Czech
Republic involving 49 participants (25 on Cran-Max and 24 in a
control group), researchers compared the efficacy of Cran-Max as
a prophylactic against a continuous low dose chemotherapeutic
regimen. The results, reported recently at an international
urologic congress, strongly favored Cran-Max as a preventative
against UTIs. During the study period the control group
collectively suffered 55 UTIs while those patients on Cran-Max
had only nine recurrences. The researchers further noted that
Cran-Max was far less expensive and had no side effects whereas
the control group has 14 adverse events.
Similar results have been recorded in the other studies of Cran-
Max performed to date. Additional clinical trials of the product
are now underway or soon to start in Paris, Finland and in
several cities in the U.S.
There is an ever-increasing emphasis on providing therapy for
treatment of UTI that is effective, economical and is sensitive
to the problem of emergence of resistant bacterial strains. This
new nutraceutical cranberry product now provides women and their
physicians with a helpful and effective new tool to manage
recurrent urinary infections and a means to substantially reduce
the amount of antibiotics used in prophylaxis against UTIs.+
THE SMART WAY TO SUPPORT URINARY TRACT HEALTH!
For years, health experts have recommended cranberry to help
promote urinary tract health.* In a clinical trial it was proven
that just a single CranMax capsule per day proved effective in
maintaining a healthy urinary tract.* Only CranMax gives you all
the natural goodness of the whole cranberry, not just part of
it. Most cranberry supplements are merely extracts made from the
juice and simply do not contain many of the valuable cranberry
constituents. CranMax is unique because it is made from the whole
cranberry.
PROVEN EFFECTIVE IN CLINICAL TRIALS!
CranMax is produced in a patent-pending process during which
concentrated cranberry juice is infused into pure cranberry
fiber. This process enhances and intensifies the natural
beneficial constituents of the whole cranberry without the
addition of sugars, preservatives, flavorings or colors. One
pound of CranMax is equivalent to 34 pounds of fresh cranberries!
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug
Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat,
cure, or prevent any disease.
· Three times more powerful than ANY OTHER Cranberry product!
· More convenient - Just ONE capsule per day!
· Costs less to use!
· 100% pure cranberry fruit!
· No sugar added!
· Clinically proven!
