Yes, taken to excess cranberries can cause diarrhoea. I wouldn't say 5 tablets a week was excessive, but maybe you're just slightly intolerant of them. If you've just started taking them you may find this passes (sorry) in a few days.
You may be allergic to something in the tablets... or the cranberry extract itself.
The only contra thing I can think of with cranberry tablets or cranberry juice for that matter is they have mild blood-thinning properties so you shouldn't take / drink cranberry products if you are due an op or already on blood thinning medication.
E2a: and even that information appears to be out-of-date according to this article from mid-2013.
I agree with Normandie, I'd be surprised if it were the cranberries causing the problem. More likely it's one of the other ingredients in the capsules. I suppose the simplest thing would be to stop taking them for a while and see what happens. Then perhaps take the cranberry in another form?
I take Cranberry tablets, on most days. I do this because a chap on TV said they were good, and I could not see any harm resulting. They most certainly do not give me the runs. Obviously things affect different people in different ways, but I do not think it is likely at all that they affect bowels badly.
If you are eating plenty of fruit and veg, you might need a bit more fibre. Try some jacket potatoes weekly, and a sprinkle of All Bran on your porridge.
Certainly as someone said, if the runs last more than a short few days, ask the doctor - you can ask for a phone chat to save both of you time. This is not because it might be serious, it is just the thing to say when a person is bothered about their health.
As with a very high percentage of pills of this kind sold in health food shops, it is highly unlikely that they are beneficial in any way.
Beetroot juice can help to lower blood pressure due to its high nitrate content, but I think there are very few other such pills and potions that have anything more than a placebo effect.
Some of them must have some kind of active ingredient, but often not beneficial.
Grapefruit juice has the strange ability to make many medicines more speedily absorbed, so that you get too much of the effect over a short period of time.
St John's Wort can make you over sensitive to sunlight and cause rashes.
Cranberry tablets probably just give you an overdose of Vitamin C, which is often associated with diarrhoea.
Cranberry tablets probably just give you an overdose of Vitamin C, which is often associated with diarrhoea.
Thanks for this and to everyone else for the helpful advice, really appreciate it.
I got the pills from the doctor and have an appointment next week so will mention the (suspected) side effect then. I´ve been taking them for about 4 or 5 months with positive effects apart from the occasional diarrhoea, which seems to have become more frequent.
You may develop a bout of diarrhea as a common side effect of cranberry supplements because of the irritating effect on your intestinal lining, Drugs.com indicates. Any form of supplement including cranberry tablets may produce a disturbance in your digestive tract that may result in diarrhea while you adjust to it. This side effect should stop after a day or so. If it becomes bothersome and continues, call your doctor for help.
My sister was told to take a daily Cranberry supplement by a hospital physiotherapist treating her bladder condition. (Her GP had referred her to a gynaecologist, who referred her to the physiotherapist; both GP and gynaecologist fully support their use, particularly when improvements were noted). The GP had already prescribed an antimuscarinic drug, and the physiotherapist highly recommended the cranberry tablet in addition.
Buying foreign drugs off random websites on the internet is a huge mistake. You can never be sure what exactly is in them, and subsequently, how you will react to them. I get supermarket own brand cranberry tablets for my sister. The physiotherapist who recommended them warned us not to get them off the internet (unless it's via your supermarket's online grocery service of course). Tesco & Asda both do them. If you're still intolerant to them, at least you'll know it's the cranberry and not some random dodgy ingredient that shouldn't be there.
My sister was told to take a daily Cranberry supplement by a hospital physiotherapist treating her bladder condition.
Indeed. I was advised by a UK doctor and consultant years ago - about 15 years ago - to try cranberry supplements to see if they worked for my urinary tract health and that was reconfirmed about 8 years ago by my GP in France. He actually offered me a prescription but the otc price from Tesco / Boots etc is much lower for the same thing.
The medical profession isn't as blinkered as some posters on DS appear to be... but no surprises there. E2a: and I'm also unsurprised to see that the main critics are (apparently!) male. ;-)
Re the buying from overseas websites: in general, I agree with you but I wondered if the OP might be resident in Spain and therefore it would make sense using a Spanish website which, for all I know, might be a Holland & Barratt equivalent. But that was only vague conjecture on my part.
I wasn't having a casual dig at men... I was alluding (obliquely, I agree) to the fact that cranberry supplements are usually taken by women to help prevent UTIs. Most men don't get UTIs* because of their physical differences, eg, longer urethra. In women, repeated courses of antibiotics are the usual treatment for UTIs but not a perfect solution, often causing additional problems such as thrush. So if cranberry supplements appear to reduce the occurrence of UTIs in some women, they're A Very Good Thing and doctors, as you've read, recommend or even prescribe them.
* until they're 60+ when incidence of UTIs in men starts to increase with age
Buying foreign drugs off random websites on the internet is a huge mistake. You can never be sure what exactly is in them, and subsequently, how you will react to them. I get supermarket own brand cranberry tablets for my sister. The physiotherapist who recommended them warned us not to get them off the internet (unless it's via your supermarket's online grocery service of course). Tesco & Asda both do them. If you're still intolerant to them, at least you'll know it's the cranberry and not some random dodgy ingredient that shouldn't be there.
I don´t buy them from the internet, I just googled the brand I´m prescribed to show the other posters which ones I take. I collect them from a pharmacy about 200m. from my house.
Comments
https://www.farmavalia.com/Shop/tabid/84/ProdID/1797/Language/es-ES/Arkopharma_Arkocápsulas_Cranberry_Arándano_Rojo_Cápsulas_x50.aspx
Taking 1 most days (about 5 per week).
Cranberry's don't stick out as being a cause of diarrhea in my mind, but then again, I'm not a doctor.
If you have a medical issue which is bothering you, and for which you don't know the cause the best thing to do would be to see a doctor.
The only contra thing I can think of with cranberry tablets or cranberry juice for that matter is they have mild blood-thinning properties so you shouldn't take / drink cranberry products if you are due an op or already on blood thinning medication.
E2a: and even that information appears to be out-of-date according to this article from mid-2013.
http://www.ptinr.com/warfarin-you/news-stories/cranberry-warfarin-ok-together
If you are eating plenty of fruit and veg, you might need a bit more fibre. Try some jacket potatoes weekly, and a sprinkle of All Bran on your porridge.
Certainly as someone said, if the runs last more than a short few days, ask the doctor - you can ask for a phone chat to save both of you time. This is not because it might be serious, it is just the thing to say when a person is bothered about their health.
Stop taking them and find out. I'm sure they weren't prescribed by a doctor so they aren't necessary.
Beetroot juice can help to lower blood pressure due to its high nitrate content, but I think there are very few other such pills and potions that have anything more than a placebo effect.
Some of them must have some kind of active ingredient, but often not beneficial.
Grapefruit juice has the strange ability to make many medicines more speedily absorbed, so that you get too much of the effect over a short period of time.
St John's Wort can make you over sensitive to sunlight and cause rashes.
Cranberry tablets probably just give you an overdose of Vitamin C, which is often associated with diarrhoea.
Thanks for this and to everyone else for the helpful advice, really appreciate it.
I got the pills from the doctor and have an appointment next week so will mention the (suspected) side effect then. I´ve been taking them for about 4 or 5 months with positive effects apart from the occasional diarrhoea, which seems to have become more frequent.
Yes, it's a known side effect.
link
My sister was told to take a daily Cranberry supplement by a hospital physiotherapist treating her bladder condition. (Her GP had referred her to a gynaecologist, who referred her to the physiotherapist; both GP and gynaecologist fully support their use, particularly when improvements were noted). The GP had already prescribed an antimuscarinic drug, and the physiotherapist highly recommended the cranberry tablet in addition.
Buying foreign drugs off random websites on the internet is a huge mistake. You can never be sure what exactly is in them, and subsequently, how you will react to them. I get supermarket own brand cranberry tablets for my sister. The physiotherapist who recommended them warned us not to get them off the internet (unless it's via your supermarket's online grocery service of course). Tesco & Asda both do them. If you're still intolerant to them, at least you'll know it's the cranberry and not some random dodgy ingredient that shouldn't be there.
The medical profession isn't as blinkered as some posters on DS appear to be... but no surprises there. E2a: and I'm also unsurprised to see that the main critics are (apparently!) male. ;-)
Re the buying from overseas websites: in general, I agree with you but I wondered if the OP might be resident in Spain and therefore it would make sense using a Spanish website which, for all I know, might be a Holland & Barratt equivalent. But that was only vague conjecture on my part.
Or that most customers for herbal supplements and remedies are female?
* until they're 60+ when incidence of UTIs in men starts to increase with age
Yes, I get them on prescription.
I don´t buy them from the internet, I just googled the brand I´m prescribed to show the other posters which ones I take. I collect them from a pharmacy about 200m. from my house.
Thanks very much! I did not know that.