Medical research on cherries and gout
While the medical research isn't exhaustive, there have been a couple of serious studies regarding the efficacy of cherries in treating gout attacks. Essentially, what they found was strong evidence that eating the cherries flushes uric acid from the body. Since excess uric acid is the cause of gout, removing some of it from the body is a very good thing. Here are brief summaries of the research studies.Cherries reduce uric acid levels:
Researchers at the US Agricultural Research Service Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, California ran a study on the anti-inflammatory impact of fresh cherries. The researchers found that levels of uric acid - the main compound that forms painful urate crystals which cause gout attacks - decreased significantly in volunteers' blood over the 5 hours after they ate a breakfast of 45 Bing-cherries. Levels of urate removed from their bodies in urine also increased over those 5 hours. The results were reported in a 2003 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.Very encouraging, though I think 45 cherries a day might be more than my stomach (or budget) could take.
Wheelchair bound gout-suffering doctor eats cherries, walks again within days.
One Dr. Ludwig W. Blau had very severe gout to the point of being unable to walk. After eating a large bowl of cherries one day, he found the pain in his foot had subsided by the following day. He continued to eat 6 cherries per day, and after a time was able to get out of his wheelchair and walk again. Dr Blau's informal research was reported in Prevention magazine and led to many other gout people sufferers reporting being helped by cherries.Well, 6 cherries a day sounds a lot more practical, doesn't it?
A 1950s study found that 1/2 pound of cherries or juice equivalent prevented gout attacks.
According to a 1950 study of twelve individuals with gout, eating one-half pound of cherries or the equivalent amount of cherry juice prevented attacks of gout. Black, sweet yellow, and red sour cherries were all found to be effective.A half pound, huh? I guess that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 cherries, similar to the more recent ARS study. Still, it is scientific evidence supporting the use of cherries and cherry juice for gout treatment, and the researchers need to be a bit extreme in order to maximize the chances clearly measurable results for or against their hypothesis.