What they say about cherries

Red cherry to combat arthritis
16th November 2001
Help for arthritis may have arrived in the form of the red tart cherry. Research scientists have found a natural source of anthocyanins, the free radical fighting substance in red tart cherries, offering positive results for many arthritis sufferers. According to a study conducted by Michigan State University researchers, tart cherries contain 17 different antioxidant compounds and are up to 10 times more effective in fighting joint pain and inflammation than aspirin or many other NSAIDS, such as ibuprofen (statistics provided by the Cherry Marketing Institute). The tart cherries do not have the potential side effects associated with NSAIDS or prescription products.
They have also been found to have substantial amounts of melatonin, a naturally-occurring
antioxidant. The discovery, made by Dr. Russel Reiter and a team of scientists at The University of Texas Science Centre in San Antonio, means tart cherries can attack free radicals in the system and help protect against heart disease.

Cherries may help prevent gout
18th June 2003
A small study supports the reputed anti-gout efficacy of cherries, write researchers in the
Journal of Nutrition this month. The team found that the plasma urate dropped in 10 healthy women who ate sweet cherries after an overnight fast. Their urinary urate concentrations rose after they ate cherries, with peak excretion taking place three hours later. As well as plasma urate markers, the researchers from the US Department of Agriculture’s ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center at the University of California, Davis, also measured antioxidant and inflammatory markers in the study subjects. After an overnight fast, plasma urate decreased 5 hours postdose to 183 ¼mol/L compared with predose baseline of 214 ¼mol/L on average. This decrease in plasma urate produced after eating the cherries backs the theory that the fruit has an anti-gout effect.

Cherry juice may reduce exercise-induced muscle pain
By Stephen Daniells
21-Jun-2006
Drinking cherry juice could reduce the pain and damage in muscles induced by exercise, says a small intervention study from the US. “These results have important practical applications for athletes, as performance after damaging exercise bouts is primarily affected by strength loss and pain,” wrote lead author Declan Connolly from the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Vermont.
However, the new study, published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (doi:10.1136/bjcm.2005.025429), claims to be the “first study to examine the effect of consumption of cherries, or a cherry product, on symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage”. The researchers performed a randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover study with 14 men. The volunteers were given their placebo or tart cherry juice drink and told to drink two 12-ounce bottles (340 grams) every day, one in the morning and one in the evening, for the next eight days. The development of pain in the muscles, quantified by the volunteers themselves on a scale of zero to ten (zero for no pain, ten for excruciating pain), was significantly lower for the cherry group (2.4) compared to the placebo group (3.2).







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