Cranberry juice and heart conditions

RE: Cranberry juice and heart conditions

Hi Tina, and welcome to HP 🙂

Couldn't find any reference to cranberries and cardiac conditions.

Did the nurse perhaps mention the reason?

Here's what I did find:

(Taken from: )

Complications

Nephrolithiasis
In a recent study, five volunteers in good health were given cranberry tablets for seven days. During this time the patients’ urinary oxalate levels, a main cause of kidney stones, increased by 43.4%. A rise in ionic calcium, phosphate, and sodium was also discovered, which could further increase a patient’s risk for developing kidney stones. Fortunately, the study also found that magnesium and potassium levels increased concurrently, which may work to offset the increase in nephrolithiasis risk. Previous studies have shown that just thirty milliliters of cranberry juice can help prevent UTIs in the elderly. Unfortunately, this volume contains 1.89 mg of oxalate, which represents a medium to high dose of the compound. The average cranberry tablet claims to have a much higher concentration of cranberry and in turn oxalate, which may lead to more than a 142% increase in the normal dietary intake of oxalate if taken regularly and which theoretically could cause a significant increase in patient’s risk of nephrolithiasis.

Diarrhea / Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Large quantities of cranberry juice consumption may lead to loose stools.

UTI
Some patients believe that drinking cranberry juice will cure an already existing UTI. This is yet to be proven. If symptoms or signs of a UTI develop, patients should see their physicians. Some herbalists do recommend taking 10-32 oz of concentrated cranberry juice daily to treat UTIs.

Urinary Obstruction
While some literature noted this as a relative contraindication to cranberry juice consumption, other sources noted the possibility of cranberry juice helping in this situation, although no scientific studies have proven this association.

Contraindications

Warning to Diabetics
The high sugar content of cranberry juice should be considered by diabetics before using it as a preventative approach for UTI prevention. Sugarfree brands of cranberry juice are available.

Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy/Urinary Obstruction
Use cautiously

No known drug contraindications

Love,
Neo

RE: Cranberry juice and heart conditions

Hi
If you are taking Warfarin, then you must avoid cranberry juice as this can interfere
Don`t think it would otherwise harm heart, only if on warfarin, ask your nurse if this why she warned you.

Further more...

Hi Tina, and welcome to HP 🙂

UTI
Some patients believe that drinking cranberry juice will cure an already existing UTI. This is yet to be proven. If symptoms or signs of a UTI develop, patients should see their physicians. Some herbalists do recommend taking 10-32 oz of concentrated cranberry juice daily to treat UTIs.

Neo

Just to add to this a little further.

It seems that due to over 95% of UTIs being caused by the bacteria known as e.coli (or a combination of bacteria -including e.coli), Cranberry juice is actually one of the worse things that you can use to try to make yourself well again. The e.coli can reproduce at about double it's normal rate in an acidic environment. Since Cranberry juice has an acidifying effect on your urine, it's a very bad idea to use it whilst you're suffering with a UTI. It continues to baffle me as to why people are still told to drink Cranberry juice (and by many Doctors, of all people. Tut, they should know better!) when all the research shows that it has a negative effect on your health unless you're in the sub 5% minority.

I hope that this helps.

Chiyaki.