UTI Cleanse now with Cranberry helps prevent recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and is a source of antioxidants for the maintenance of good health.
AOR™ guarantees that no ingredients not listed on the label have been added to the product. Contains no wheat, gluten, nuts, dairy, soy, eggs, fish, shellfish or any animal by-product.
ADULT DOSAGE: Take 1-2 scoops 4-5 times daily with water and without food, or as directed by a qualified health care practitioner. Use for a minimum of 4 weeks to see beneficial effects.
CAUTION: Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you are taking blood thinners or have a history of kidney stones. Consult a health care practitioner if symptoms persist or worsen.
Although urinary tract infections (UTIs) can involve a variety of Enterobacteriaceae and Gram-positive pathogens (including Staphylococcus saprophyticus and some enterococci species), nearly all infections of the lower urinary tract and bladder are caused by a few strains of E. coli bacteria called uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Various harmless strains of E. coli are normally present in the body - but they don't belong in the urinary tract.
If UPEC get into the bladder or the urethra, the body has ways of fighting them off - including the obvious method of simply flushing them out with the urine. But these bacteria have evolved ways of anchoring themselves to the cells of the urinary tract. The invading UPEC take advantage of receptors naturally found on the cells of the mucosal lining of the urinary tract. Receptors are like molecular "docking bays" for substances that the cells need for their normal growth and development. Like pirates in an old movie, UPEC use "grappling hooks" called type I pili to first hook on to these receptors, and then to invade the cell.
Once inside the cell, these pathogens can live and reproduce in safety, shielded from many of the body's defensive immune responses. In fact, they are so sophisticated that when the body detects that cells have been infected and activates the cell suicide program to destroy the bacteria, UPEC can actually flee the dying host cell before it is flushed out, and look for new cells to invade!
Pathogenic E. coli bacteria's pili "grappling hooks" are composed of long, fibrous chains of a molecular "glue" called adhesin. The effective binding of these adhesin molecules depends on the chemical attraction that exists between them and the residues of a simple carbohydrate called D-Mannose on the cell surface receptors of the urinary tract host cells.
The chemical attraction between UPEC adhesins and D-Mannose is their strength - but it also provides a point of vulnerability. If you can interfere with the binding of adhesins to the D-Mannose residues in the receptors of your urinary tract cells, then you can also prevent UPEC from getting a foothold for adherence and infection. One way to do this, long known to work in a test tube, is by using D-Mannose itself. When isolated urinary tract cells are bathed in D-Mannose, it acts as a molecular "chaff." The bacterial adhesins bind to the D-Mannose in their environment instead of to the D-Mannose residues on the cells. This gums up their pili and prevents them from hooking onto urinary tract cells.
It was discovered in the late 1980s that a small amount of D-Mannose is present in the urine normally, apparently acting as a defensive mechanism against pathogenic bacteria. When D-Mannose is taken as a supplement, much more of the carbohydrate passes through the urinary tract, strengthening this natural defense.
A decade after this discovery, Dr. Jonathan V. Wright of the Tahoma Clinic pioneered the use of D-Mannose supplements to fight off UTIs. For some years, he has been reporting the successful results that his patients have experienced in using D-Mannose to rid themselves of infection. Even patients who had remained infected after having been subjected to a wide range of potent, side-effect-inducing antibiotics have successfully rid themselves of chronic or acute infections using D-Mannose. Other nutritionally oriented physicians and health practitioners have since adopted Dr. Wright's protocols, and the feedback is uniformly excellent from UTI sufferers and their caregivers alike.
Again, not all UTIs are caused by UPEC. So if you try a course of D-Mannose and infection persists, it is likely not caused by these E. coli bacteria but by some other pathogen. In that case, don't just keep going on with the supplement in hopes that it will eventually "kick in:" discontinue use of D-Mannose and consult a physician for treatment appropriate to your case. But for the great majority of urinary tract infections, D-Mannose offers a safe, natural option with a simple, ingenious rationale, no known side-effects, and a great reported success rate