Cranberry Juice may break its promise for staph, Super Body Care comments…

Sunday, September 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Not so fast….
“Cranberry Juice Shows Promise Blocking Staph Infections” – see the article via the link.

Abstract:
A professor at an educational institution conducted an experiment with cranberry juice that explores e.Coli and urinary tract infections, although included staph aureus since MRSA is on the rise significantly. The professor recruited healthy female students to drink a cranberry cocktail. Then at measured intervals, took samples of their urine, placed the samples in petri dishes and measured results. For e.Coli, the results reiterated why millions of women drink cranberry juice to ward off UTI’s. (e. Coli is the most common cause of a UTI). However, to their surprise, they found that staph wasn’t able to multiply as usual, thereby, showing “promise”.

Now is when I proceed to debunk this article.

Problem#1: “Leading the witness”
The title leads the reader into presuming that drinking unspecified amounts of cranberry juice will prevent or decrease the likelihood of staph infections for the body.
FALSE: Science is forever focalized in order to create proper tests and proper results. Therefore a hypothesis and testing the hypothesis must be accurately defined and repeatable. In this case, the experiment only measured urine samples. It did not take blood samples that would have made for a better test to mimic what happens in the case of skin wounds or surgery, etc. exposed to staph bacteria that have the infection potential of causing death. This is the one “we the people” are most concerned with.

Problem #2: Testing urine instead of blood
It is important to know also that urine is sterile and contains vitamins and liquid that the body does not absorb upon digestion; therefore, one may argue the chemical components of cranberry are found more concentrated in urine from processes of digestion than one would find concentrated in the blood. To create the same concentration of cranberry chemical-makeup in blood would require a lot more consumption of cranberry juice to be equivalent to the levels found in urine.

Problem #3: Contradiction
The study is using staph bacteria in the petri dish instead of what they considered most concerning, the rise in MRSA – multi-resistant staph aureus. MRSA is a version of staph bacteria that mutated in the 1970′s to survive most antibiotic treatments. Darwinian theory played out, the strongest staph survived and mutated to withstand common antibiotics. This mutation of staph into the super bug MRSA took place because patients did not consume the prescribed quantity of antibiotics. Although you want to avoid antibiotics, if you must take them, you must take them ALL…or risk contributing to a similar mutation result.

Problem #4: Neither MRSA nor staph Aureus infects the urinary tract or bladder.
E.Coli is the most common cause of UTI’s. This is often not an ailment that affects men due to the long urinary tract in men vs. the short urinary tract in women. However, further snooping around using the keywords “staph” and “urinary tract infection” showed that on the rare occasion staph was the culprit; but only with young women, who ONLY get infections from staph saphrophyticus… a completely different version of staph not mentioned in this experiment.

Additional questions for repeatable results:
What cranberry juice was used?
Was it sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup, as many are.
Was it conventional or organic?

In summary, I believe this article is jumping to conclusions in its staph “promise”; by using a completely different system (digestive) in the human body to make this claim, rather than circulatory and/or immune systems and measuring blood levels. Meanwhile the article lacks consistency in its concerns with MRSA while testing with staph aureus.

Do not depend on cranberry juice to stave off an infection of an undiagnosed wound.
Often times, washing the wound area with soap like from Super Body Care, immediately upon injury or within at least ~4 hours of activity that leaves you exposed to unsanitary environments is sufficient. Super Body Care wipes are also very convenient and effective for times when showering or washing aren’t available.

Super Body Care is the GREEN alternative to antibacterials. Instead of using chemicals we use Peppermint, Tea Tree, Rosemary and Lavender. Find out what all the tingle is about and order some online or check a retailer close to you!!

http://www.SuperBodyCare.com

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