Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial infections in humans and it disproportionately affects women. Currently there are only a few alternatives to antibiotics for treatment of UTI. Although symptomatic relief occurs more quickly in women treated with oral antibiotics for uncomplicated UTIs, patients appear to successfully resolve their UTI without antibiotic therapy. While antibiotics are the mainstay of therapy, there are growing concerns about collateral effects impacting healthy microbiomes and anti-bacterial resistance patterns. Recent estimates from the CDC indicate that more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result.~The proposed research fills a key knowledge gap that will be critical in determining the role of a non-antibiotic substance with the potential to treat UTIs by modulating the urinary and gut microbiome to restore health and minimize the reliance on traditional antibiotic therapy while also preventing antibiotic resistance. In addition, this study will provide early evidence of the short-term symptom and urinary and gut microbiome changes following ingestion of two botanical food substances (cranberry and quillaja) that have the potential for beneficial effects on the microbiome and UTI symptoms.
This study will investigate the effects of cranberry and quillaja capsules on symptoms of uncomplicated urinary tract infections.