Ever since my husband had several gout attacks this year, we are forced to pay more attention to this problem. It is not so hard to find the long list of foods that are supposed to avoid. It makes you wonder what are there left to eat?
Reading through different forums, multiple people saying that cherry or cherry juice is working for their gout. So I spend sometime to learn more about this.
It is always very encouraging to see a remedy has been working on other people. Several examples:
"I have had a little soreness for the last couple months in my right foot. Last night; it got so sore after work that all I wanted to do was lay down and watch tv so my wife and I went out to Price Choppers and found Sour Cherries in a Jar Sweetened). I ate a small dish of them when I got home. This am; my foot feels great."
"The Cherry juice remedy works. I have gout and ran out of medicine so I tried concentrated cherry juice it took away the gout in under 24 hours. I did not believe it till I tried it."
"My husband had a very painful gout attack in his large toe which was going into its second day. He drank an eight ounce glass of water mixed with two tablespoons of black cherry concentrate. He felt 80 percent better within a few hours. He then drank another glass of the same mixture and could bend his toe without pain after 6 hours. "
But is there any scientific evidence suggesting cherry is actually good for gout? Any possible explanations?
In one article I found in Natural Medicine Journal, "Health Effects of Tart Cherries", there is a section dedicated to "Cherris and Gout". In fact, the very first credible report of medical benefit from cherries was published in the Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine in 1950 by Ludwig Blau, MD, who himself noticed that eating cherries reduced his own gout symptoms. He tested his ‘remedy’ on 12 other gout sufferers before writing his article. Here is the reference of the original publication.
Blau LW. Cherry diet control for gout and arthritis. Tex Rep Biol Med. 1950;8(3):309-311
"The research conducted by the US Department of Agriculture research facility in Davis, Calif., in 2003 is probably the most direct research related to cherry's effect on reducing uric acid. Ten healthy women, aged 22 to 40 years, consumed about 45 sweet cherries (Prunus avium), or 280 grams, after an overnight fast. Five hours later plasma urate levels had decreased from 214 to 183 umol/L. At 3 hours after consumption, urinary urate levels had increased from 202 to 350 umol/mmol creatinine. Consumption of other fruits did not produce significant changes."
There are also multiple publications showing that cherry has effect on reducing blood levels of substances associated with inflammation and immune cell activity.
Jacob RA, Spinozzi GM, Simon VA, Kelley DS, Prior RL, Hess-Pierce B, Kader AA. Consumption of cherries lowers plasma urate in healthy women. J Nutr. 2003;133(6):1826-1829.
Tall JM, Seeram NP, Zhao C, Nair MG, Meyer RA, Raja SN. Tart cherry anthocyanins suppress inflammation-induced pain behavior in rat. Behav Brain Res. 2004;153(1):181-188.
He YH, Xiao C, Wang YS, et al. [Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of cyanidin from cherries on rat adjuvant-induced arthritis]. Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2005;30(20):1602-1605.
He YH, Zhou J, Wang YS, et al. Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of cherries on Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats. Scand J Rheumatol. 2006;35(5):356-358.
However, none of these experiments enrolled people actually having gout and specifically assessed the effects of cherries or cherry juice to prevent or treat gout.
Be careful of fructose!!
A glass of tart cherry juice made by diluting concentrate contains about 12.5 grams of fructose. Based on a 2010 study that consuming fructose-rich beverages is associated with a higher risk of gout. This finding resulted from an analysis of data from the Nurses' Health Study, a cohort study that spanned 22 years and included data from 78,906 women. One glass of orange juice, containing about 10.5 grams of fructose, per day increased the relative risk of a gout attack to 1.41.
Considering this fructose information, one could argue that cherry juice is not suitable for gout patients to drink frequently. Fructose-free cherry extracts might be more appropriate and effective for gout patients than juice concentrates.
My takeaway
I really do not see too much harm on trying cherry. As long as not to eat or drink too much, considering the fructose level. I personally believe more in natural food than medicine. So if it has been working on so many people and have some scientific support, it is good enough. Besides, I have not really read any case after eat or drink cherry become worse.
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