EATING TART CHERRIES AS GOOD AS TAKING IBUPROFEN.
Tart cherries or juice as good as ibuprofen
I wrenched my neck a few days ago and wondered whether there was something else I could take for the pain instead of ibuprofen.
Based on what I’d read in magazines, I searched for the answer in my fridge, which happened to contain a huge amount of tart cherries I had just picked.
Actually, much research has found that these cherries are packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that help relieve inflammation, pain and damage to cells, organs and blood vessels.
That’s probably why nearly 100 professional and collegiate sports teams have their athletes drinking the stuff, say sports medicine experts.
And now is the season for this super-fruit.
I use them to make the most fabulous pies, or so my coworkers say.
Tart cherries are different from the sweet cherries typically sold in the supermarket.
You’re not going to find fresh tart cherries in the grocery store because they’re so perishable. But you can find tart cherry juice and dried tart cherries in stores and online.
Depending on where you live, you can get fresh tart cherries at farmers markets.
If you’re really lucky, you might even be able to get them at pick-your-own orchards.
“What we found is that this food is as good as ibuprofen in terms of pain reduction,” said Kerry Kuehl, a practicing internist and chief health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
“It worked as well as 600 to 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, post vigorous exercise.”
Kuehl and other Oregon University researchers found that runners who drank tart cherry juice before and the day of the Oregon Hood to Coast relay race — a 318-kilometre course that crosses two mountain ranges — had much less pain than runners who drank a fruit punch. (The amount of juice they drank each day was equivalent to eating about 90 to 100 tart cherries.)
Tart cherries are among the foods with the highest levels of anti- inflammatory compounds and antioxidants of any studied food, Kuehl said. Some foods are high in one or the other, but tart cherries are high in both.
All cherries contain these nutrients, including anthocyanins and flavonoids, but tart cherries have much higher amounts.
Here’s what the research shows: Tart cherry juice has benefits for people suffering from arthritis, gout and fibromyalgia, a common chronic pain disorder. Montmorency is the variety of tart cherry most commonly grown, and what scientists use in research.