“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Benjamin Franklin
I’m working with Ocean Spray on their #DrinktoDefend Campaign to bring more awareness to women’s health issues, and I’m focusing on one of the most common recurring infections women face…
UTIs are one of the most common illnesses that lead to antibiotic prescriptions.
A UTI is the worst. You constantly feel like you need to pee, and when you run to the bathroom barely anything happens. You might have a burning sensation every time or you might just get cramping pains in your abdomen and your lower back. If you’re really lucky you can get both! Even more fun, the infection makes you tired so you want to sleep but your bladder wakes you up frequently throughout the night.
Great, right?
With all that irritation and frustration, you would probably welcome a prescription for antibiotics that will get rid of the infection. Here’s the problem—the more you take antibiotics, the less effective they become at fighting infections down the road. The CDC even refers to antibiotic resistance – when the germs become immune to the medication – as “one of the world’s most pressing health problems” and one of the biggest infectious disease threats we are facing right now.
That’s no small issue.
More than 2 million people in the United States get infections caused by antibiotic resistant germs every year, including pneumonia, meningitis, and c. difficile. Worse, at least 23,000 Americans die each year from those very infections.
And you were worried about the zombie apocalypse? This is more frightening and way more real. Misuse and overuse of antibiotics could turn the clock back a century to a time when people died from the simplest infections!
Leaving something like a UTI untreated isn’t really an option—left to their own device they can lead to kidney infections. But popping antibiotics isn’t necessarily the best choice either.
How do you take care of yourself?
Well, to start we need to make sure we are only taking antibiotics when we absolutely must, and we have to look to natural options to prevent illnesses and conditions before the fact whenever we can. My family’s health is important to me just like yours is to you. I want to protect them but I don’t want to potentially harm their health when I try to take care of them.
Using cranberry juice as a preventive measure is a great option to take their health into my own hands without exposing them to scary risks. Enjoying some cranberry juice on a daily basis is a simple way to reduce the occurrence of UTIs which leads to reducing the over-prescribing and overuse of antibiotic medication. And this isn’t woo-woo healing either—there is research dating back over the past 50 years that demonstrates how cranberries can block the bacteria that causes Urinary Tract Infections.
I got to interview Dr. Jennifer Berman from The Doctors about the benefits of using cranberry to offset infections in a completely natural way. Here’s what she had to say:
60% of women of reproductive age will experience a UTI. 1 in 4 will suffer a recurrence within SIX months.
The most commonly used treatment is antibiotics.
Overuse of antibiotics creates “smarter” organisms, which mutate and modulate to become stronger than the antibiotics. As a result, doctors have to “bring out the bigger guns.” Higher level and more expensive antibiotics have to be used to fight infection, and patients suffer more serious side-effects from their use.
These stronger organisms pose an even greater health risk to the most vulnerable members of society, the elderly and pediatric populations.
Cranberry juice is a natural, potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant that can help prevent infections like UTIs and even help with the aging process.
Drinking one 8 oz. glass of cranberry juice a day can help prevent UTIs in women.
Other ways to proactively prevent infections naturally are to eating a healthy diet, complete with colorful fruits, and engaging in practices that reduce stress, like meditation.
Ocean Spray® Cranberry Juice Cocktail is a delicious and easy way to ensure you are getting enough natural defense against urinary tract infections. My family is always on the go, so a quick drink of juice is the fastest and most efficient way to make sure the whole family is taking care of their health, whether I serve it straight up or blended into a green juice or smoothie.
All I need to do is make sure everyone gets a simple 8 oz of cranberry juice every day. Most people I know start drinking it once an infection has already settled in, but by then it may be too late, and you’ll still need some form of antibiotic. Taking in cranberry juice consistently on a daily basis is the most effective way for me to keep my family infection-free. Then they spend less time in the doctor’s office and more time running around outside!
Are you using Ocean Spray® Cranberry Juice Cocktail to take your health into your own hands so you can fight back against antibiotic overuse? Let me see your photos and stories on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Make sure you continue the conversation by using the hashtag #DrinktoDefend and tag @OceanSprayInc so we can all see how you bring natural remedies into your daily life!
DISCLOSURE: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Ocean Spray®. The opinions and text are all mine. Drink up!
