By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

WOMEN OVER 45 with recurrent, painful urinary infections are being invited to participate in a Dundee University study.

Researchers led by Professor Marion McMurdo want to see whether cranberry juice has a role in preventing urinary infections and how effective it is compared to using antibiotics.

Doctors are reluctant to give patients repeated courses of antibiotics as bacteria become resistant to the drugs, which can also cause mild stomach upsets in some people.

Professor McMurdo said women described the misery of urinary infections as feeling like they were passing razor blades when going to the toilet.

Urinary infections were the most common bacterial infection in mature people, particularly women.

As well as pain, the infection also causes frequent need to go to the toilet. “They have to pass water around 20 times a day,” she said.

Her team is aiming to recruit 120 women who have had two or more courses of antibiotics in the last 12 months to treat urinary infections.

They will participate in a random trial where everyone will be given a red capsule to take daily for six months.

The capsule given to half the group will contain low dose antibiotics and the other half will contain cranberry extract. Participants will not know which capsule they are taking.

“There is great interest in cranberry juice and whether it really has a role to play in preventing infection, particularly in people prone to get infections repeatedly,” said Professor McMurdo.

“The studies that have been done so far with cranberry juice have all been done in very young women in their 20s and 30s but urinary infections are most common in women who are a bit older than that.

“Nobody has done any studies in that older age group.”

Professor McMurdo said participation in the study would not involve any visits to hospital.

Researchers would visit participants in their own homes to fill out an initial questionnaire, make arrangements to have the supply of capsules delivered and keep in contact to check whether women have infections during the period of the study.

Anyone willing to participate, who meets the criteria for the study, is asked to telephone 01382-632436 during office hours.