Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Type 2 diabetes and cranberry juice.

Why is this important to you? Actually there is no shortage of medical evidence that unsweetened cranberry juice is a good way to treat infections of the urinary tract. Complex polysaccharides found in cranberry juice (and in juices of other bog berries, such as blueberry), coat the lining of your bladder and urethra so bacteria can never "root" and the flow urine simply washes them away.

Many people with diabetes, type 1 and type 2, find when they go for their annual or bi-annual medical check-up, they have a urinary tract infection. Yet they had none of the usual signs which include:


pain and burning when passing urine
frequency of urination and only passing small amounts
cloudy urine... sometimes blood is present
feeling generally "bad" all over... tired, shaky and washed out

By the time you have a fever this indicates the infection has reached your kidneys... usually there is no fever when the infection is in your bladder or urethra.

As you can see, the nature of urinary tract infections is that they can continue unnoticed at low levels for weeks, months, or even years. The bacteria in your urinary tract cause a constant, low level of inflammation that isn't enough for you to mention to your health care practitioner, but it is enough to generate inflammatory proteins that circulate throughout your body.

Uncontrolled blood sugars result in spillover of blood glucose into your urine, and that sugar provides constant nourishment for bacteria. The bacteria can grow into mats and tangles that "hug" the lining of your bladder and urethra so they don't flow out with your urine and this is why they don't get detected in urine tests. And they can pump out just enough of the triggers of inflammation... they encourage the "growth" of belly fat and also hardening of the arteries.

What will help stop low-level bladder infections?

Cranberry juice keeps bacteria from forming colonies. A shot glass of cranberry juice at least once a week may stop in it's tracks any low-level bladder infections. Just be sure you drink real cranberry juice or blueberry juice straight, with no added sugar or aspartame.

A regular dose of berry juice not only will get rid of bladder bacteria, it may even help you control both blood sugar levels and your weight. Try a weekly glass of cranberry juice and see if you can't detect improvement in control of your type 2 diabetes.

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