TY - JOUR T1 - Can drinking more water prevent urinary tract infections? The evidence says yes JF - BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine JO - BMJ EBM SP - 191 LP - 192 DO - 10.1136/bmjebm-2018-111143 VL - 24 IS - 5 AU - Annette Plüddemann Y1 - 2019/10/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/24/5/191.abstract N2 - Although it is widely recommended to drink more water to prevent recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs), there has been no clear clinical evidence to support this recommendation. This is the first randomised controlled trial that shows the benefits of drinking more water to prevent these infections. EBM verdictEBM Verdict on: Effect of increased daily water intake in premenopausal women with recurrent urinary tract infections: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med 2018; 178(11):1509–1515. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4204.Increasing daily fluid intake to more than 1.5 L per day is a safe and inexpensive intervention that can potentially reduce cystitis frequency and antimicrobial use by approximately 50% and should therefore be recommended in healthy women. Practically, this could be achieved by, for example, drinking an additional two glasses of water with each meal.To prevent recurrent UTIs, the National Health Service (NHS) recommends to ‘drink plenty of fluids’,1 as it helps to ‘flush out’ the bacteria or does it? There is limited evidence to support this recommendation. Clinical studies done in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s … ER -