Did cranberry fail to show its ability to protect against recurrent urinary tract infections?

Abstract

On 27 October 2016, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, JAMA, published a negative double-blind and placebo controlled clinical study conducted by researchers from Yale (USA) in which a highly standardized, proanthocyanidin- A (PAC-A)-containing cranberry extract was used [1]. According to the conclusion of the trial: ‘Among older women residing in nursing homes, administration of cranberry capsules vs placebo resulted in no significant difference in presence of bacteriuria plus pyuria over 1 year’. An editorial by LE Nicolle in the same issue of JAMA flatly condemns the use of cranberry PACs to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and calls on healthcare providers to stop using cranberry and switch back to antibiotics [2].