How Tart Cherries Relieve Arthritis and Gout Pain and Soothe Muscle Soreness

Everyone knows that eating right and getting regular exercise are vital to maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle. However, what should the individual do who wants to enjoy an active lifestyle but suffers from arthritis or muscle pain after exercise? How can these individuals get regular daily exercise if they suffer from these types of aches and pains?

The answer may be as simple as going to the local farmers’ market to seek out a tiny red fruit. Not only have many people been turning to the tart cherry for arthritis relief for a number of years, numerous studies have also been published that establish the anti-inflammatory benefits of the Montmorency tart cherry.

Published research from several medical universities, including Michigan State University, Oregon Health and Science University, University of Vermont and the University of Michigan, all have conducted research and published their results in medical journals on the amazing properties of the tart cherry.

Muscle Soreness

The University of Vermont were published a study in 2006 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The results showed how a cherry juice blend helped to reduce muscle soreness. The participants were asked to consume either a placebo juice containing no cherries or a cherry juice blend twice a day for three days prior to exercise and to continue to drink the cherry juice blend for four days afterwards.

The participants performed flexing and tensing an arm 20 times, twice. During each day of the study, muscle strength, motion, and tenderness were assessed; and each participant rated his muscle soreness on a scale of 1 to 10. The entire study was then repeated two weeks later, and during this time the two groups switched between the cherry juice blend and the placebo, and the other arm was tested.

The results were encouraging: for those drinking the placebo muscle strength fell by 22 percentage points while those drinking the cherry juice blend drink it only fell by 4 percentage points – a significant difference. Meanwhile, while the muscle soreness between the two groups differed little, the average pain score among those drinking the cherry juice was significantly less

Oregon Health and Science University performed a study with similar results. Participants who drank 10.5 ounces of 100% pure Montmorency cherry juice twice a day while training for a long-distance run reported significantly less pain after their exercise than those who didn’t drink the cherry juice.

The study was conducted on 60 healthy adults ranging from 18 to 50 years of age. According to the study, those who drank the cherry juice twice a day for seven days prior to and on the day of the event experienced significantly less muscle pain following the race than those who drank the placebo juice.

Gout and Arthritis Pain

The relief of gout and arthritis pain relief are two additional benefits provided by the tart cherry. In 2003, “Consumption of Cherries Lowers Plasma Urate in Healthy Women” was published in the Journal of Nutrition. The article documented the gout-fighting ability of cherries. (Bing cherries were used in this study.) According to the study, which was conducted on healthy women, blood urate levels went down significantly over the five hours after they consumed cherries.

The first known published study on cherries and gout, however, dates back to 1950s, when the Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine published research conducted by Dr. Ludwig W. Blau on himself. According to the article, “Cherry Diet Control for Gout and Arthritis,” Blau was so affected by gout that he was confined to a wheelchair. He began to eat cherries and noticed that his gout pain and swelling were considerably reduced. When he stopped eating the cherries, his pain and swelling returned. After his discovery, he began working with his family physician and studied 12 individuals and reported that eating cherries helped to reduce the gout pain in all of them.

Michigan State University has published research on the anti-inflammatory benefits of the tart cherry. Researcher have discovered that the tart cherry contains natural anthocyanins which act similarly to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that inhibit the popular cyclooxygenase enzyme without the side effects. They may be more potent than aspirin. Also, research has shown that these anthocyanins, unlike prescription drugs, may protect against stomach damage. In addition, cherries are a high source of melatonin, which may also protect against unwanted side effects. According to lead researcher Muraleedharan G. Nair, PhD, professor of horticulture and national food safety and toxicology at Michigan State, “These preliminary results suggest that daily consumption of tart cherries – or maybe someday a pill containing their active ingredient – has the potential to reduce the pain.”

Where to Find Tart Cherries

Unfortunately, fresh cherries are very seasonal and not always available in your local store. However, here are a few suggestions to get the powerful antioxidant benefits of the tart cherry regardless of season:

• Fresh

  : When in season, you can get fresh cherries straight from a farmers’ market or the produce section of your local store. You can also contact Valley Ridge Farms at 616-647-9477, and they will ship you fresh cherries during the summer harvest.

• Frozen

  : To get your hands on frozen cherries, visit the freezer section of your local grocery store.

• Juice Concentrate

  : It takes approximately 70 to 100 cherries to make just one ounce of cherry juice concentrate. A glass of cherry juice every morning is a supercharged way to get the pain-fighting benefits of this ruby red fruit. One source for cherry juice is Traverse Bay Farms (www.traversebayfarms.com). They even offer free shipping on cherry juice concentrate.

• Extract

  : A source for tart cherry capsules is Fruit Advantage (www.fruitadvantage.com). The company offers free shipping on tart cherry capsules. These dietary supplements are made from whole cherry and deliver highly concentrated amounts of the fruit in an easy-to-swallow capsule without the sugar.

So if you are searching for a natural solution to help ease muscle soreness, arthritis, and gout pain, enjoy some tart cherries today.

References

Blau LW. Cherry diet control for gout and arthritis. Tex Rep Biol Med. 1950;8(3).

Burkhardt S et al. Detection and quantification of the antioxidant melatonin in Montmorency and Balaton tart cherries (Prunus cerasus). J Agric Food Chem. 2001;49(10):4898–4902.

Connolly D et al. The efficacy of a tart cherry juice blend in preventing the symptoms of muscle damage. Br J Sports Med. 2006 Jun 21.

Jacob RA et al. Consumption of cherries lowers plasma urate in healthy women. J Nutr. 2003:133(6):1826–1829.

Kang SY et al. Tart cherry anthocyanins inhibit tumor development in Apc(Min) mice and reduce proliferation of human colon cancer cells. Cancer Lett. 2003;194(1):13–19.

Kim DO et al. Sweet and sour cherry phenolics and their protective effects on neuronal cells. J Agric Food Chem. 2005;53(26):9921–9927.

Seeram NP et al. Degradation products of cyanidin glycosides from tart cherries and their bioactivities. J Agric Food Chem. 2001;49(10):4924–4829.

Tall JM et al. Tart cherry anthocyanins suppress inflammation-induced pain behavior in rat.” Behav Brain Res. 2004;153(1):181–188.

Wang H, Nair MG, Strasburg GM, et al. Antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities of anthocyanins and their aglycon, cyanidin, from tart cherries. J Nat Prod. 1999 Feb; 62(2):294–296.

Joe Thomas

joethomas7044@yahoo.com