Can drinking more fluids help prevent recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs)? Until recently, no one had looked.

So scientists at Danone Research—Danone sells bottled water—randomly assigned 140 premenopausal women to drink either an extra 1½ liters (about 6 cups) of water a day or no more water than usual. (All the women had been diagnosed with at least three UTIs in the previous year and all typically drank less than 1½ liters of fluids a day before the study started.)

Over the following year, those assigned to drink no extra water averaged 3.2 UTIs. Those who drank extra water averaged only 1.7 UTIs.

What to do

Getting UTIs? Aim for about 12 cups of water or other unsweetened fluids a day. (Don't count on cranberry juice.) Fewer UTIs won’t just help you.

Roughly 15 percent of antibiotics used by humans are prescribed to treat UTIs. Fewer UTIs lowers the risk that bacteria become resistant to the drugs.

Photo: Monet/stock.adobe.com.