Dear Friends,
You may know that cranberries have been linked to urinary tract health for a long time.
However, what’s relatively new is that a few years ago, the FDA issued what they call a qualified health claim for cranberry supplements and urinary tract infections, which reads…
“Limited scientific evidence shows that by consuming 500 mg each day of cranberry dietary supplement, healthy women who have had a urinary tract infection (UTI) may reduce their risk of recurrent UTI”.
So the FDA is saying it’s not definite, but some evidence indicates 500mg of cranberry powder may help reduce the recurrence of UTIs.
One of the key studies the FDA relied on to reach this conclusion was conducted with the same Pacran whole cranberry powder you’ll be reading about today.
In fact, the FDA noted that the Pacran research was a high-quality study, and it provided the most scientifically appropriate basis for the 500mg minimum daily amount of cranberry powder the FDA mentioned in the qualified cranberry UTI claim.
This study was published in the journal Phytotherapy Research and found that women with a history of UTIs who took 500mg of Pacran daily for 6 months, reduced their risk of a UTI recurring by about 58% compared to the placebo group. That’s a meaningful and pretty impressive effect.
In addition, the researchers found that supplementing with Pacran may help reduce common symptoms experienced with UTIs, including urinary frequency and urgency, and uncomfortable or difficult urination.
As mentioned, the FDA called the existing evidence “limited” for cranberries and UTIs, so the makers of Pacran recently conducted another high-quality study to demonstrate the effects of this whole cranberry powder.
This study was recently published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and we’ll go through the results and findings in a moment.
First, I just want to briefly cover a couple of questions we commonly get on this topic.
What About Cranberry Juice?
The FDA did indicate the UTI qualified claim applies to drinking cranberry juice too.
However, the concern and challenge with drinking cranberry juice daily is it typically contains a lot of added sugar.
The cranberry fruit itself is naturally low in sugar – but the juice is very bitter. To compensate, a lot of added sugar is used to make it taste better.
If you check the label, it’s not uncommon to see 30 grams of sugar per serving of cranberry juice, which is bad for our health and adds a lot of excess calories to our diet.
Over a month’s time, this would mean you consume 3,600 extra calories from drinking cranberry juice. Some other products use artificial sweeteners, which we’re not fans of either.
With Pacran you don’t have this sugar concern – and in a bit I’ll review how we use it in a drink mix at NatureCity.
Don’t I Need 36mg of PACs?
The other question we frequently get is “why doesn’t Pacran have 36mg of PACs? I heard this was the magic number to get urinary health protection.”
In case you’re not familiar with PACs, it stands for proanthocyanidins, which are important polyphenol compounds in cranberries, that play a key role in the berry’s “anti-adhesion” properties.
One of main ways cranberry helps protect urinary tract health is by working to reduce the amount of potentially harmful compounds that adhere or stick to the urinary tract.
Instead, unwanted substances get excreted before they can cause problems.
Some in the industry believe you need to consume 36mg of PACs to get this effect, and perhaps that’s one way to do it, but the research with Pacran shows its whole cranberry approach is beneficial too for supporting urinary tract health.
It’s not just the US FDA that has acknowledged the quality of Pacran research - in total
Pacran has achieved health claims from 4 countries. In addition to the United States, there is Canada, South Korea, and Columbia.
Pacran is made from the entire cranberry – the juice, flesh, skin and seeds – just as nature made it. That’s very different from isolating cranberry PACs in an extract to reach 36 PACs.
Why We Prefer the Whole Cranberry Approach
We prefer the whole cranberry approach of Pacran because it involves minimal processing and refining. As a general matter, at NatureCity we feel the less processing, the better.
And sometimes we forget that Mother Nature is smart at designing plants.
The fruits and vegetables we eat also contain supporting co-nutrients and nutritional co-factors that help compounds like PACs, in the case of cranberry, work in the body.
You can lose some of that when you start isolating specific compounds.
In addition, there’s a sustainability aspect to this. The cranberries used to make Pacran come from cranberry bogs that have been cultivated and harvested by many generations of the same families – and some of these cranberry bogs are over 100 years old.
Cranberries typically only contain around 1% of PACs, so to make an extract with 36mg of PACs it takes a lot more cranberries, or cranberry biomass, than the amount needed to make Pacran.
We feel that a quality whole cranberry powder like Pacran is more environmentally friendly and efficient, and as the research indicates, it does provide the desired urinary tract health benefits. That’s a win all the way around.
New Study Results
So let’s now turn to the new study that was just published with Pacran, which is the 3rd human study for urinary tract health involving Pacran.
This new study included 150 women between the ages of 18 and 65 with a recent history of UTI occurrence. They were randomized into 2 groups - those taking either 500mg of Pacran, or a placebo, daily for 6 months.
One wrinkle for this study is the incidence of a UTI was confirmed by cultures of urine.
In the previous study, the diagnosis was made by relying on symptoms. Using urine cultures is arguably more precise.
After 6 months, the researchers found that Pacran reduced the recurrence of UTIs by 52% relative to the placebo group.
This result is in line with previous research with Pacran. You may recall earlier we said in the previous study the rate of recurrence was reduced by 58%.
In addition, like in the previous study, Pacran also helped with symptoms like urinary frequency and urgency.
If you or a loved one struggles with urinary tract health, this new study provides additional evidence that taking Pacran daily may help.
Although women are about 3x more likely to experience a urinary tract problem, men can be affected also.
Sugar-Free Way to Drink Pacran
At NatureCity, our customers have been enjoying the benefits of Pacran for about 20 years and counting.
Each serving of our sugar-free AloeCran drink mix contains the same 500mg of Pacran used in research.
In addition, you get the digestive health and metabolic health support of organic Aloe vera, and 5g of prebiotic soluble fiber that supports regularity and healthy bowel movements.
AloeCran has been part of my day for many years, and I recommend you give it a try too.
Yours for Good Health,
Carl Pradelli
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