Cherries for Gout 

Cherries Prevent Gout Attacks

Cherries prevent gout attacks because they block the inflammatory response, they don't cure the gout, but they  prevent further attacks, that is as long as you keep eating cherries every day. Leave off the cherries, and the gout will return, although this is a long way from a cure, at least the cherries do not have the side effects of  prescription drugs which fail to cure, for if you stop taking them, the gout attacks return, and may even continue while you are taking the drugs, worse still you may have to cope with some nasty side effects .

Cherries contain a group of compounds called monoterpenes, perillyl alcohol belongs to this group, and the latter substance is showing promise in the treatment of some cancer patients. Sour cherries contain vitamin C, A and E, and the sweet cherries contain these vitamins but in a much lesser quantitiy.Cherries also contain a quercetin which helps block damage caused by free radicals, and may significantly reduce the risk of stroke.

A large percentage of people who have tried cherries for gout have had positive results. Jean Carper in her book Food Pharmacy writes:" In the 1920s in the USA physicians touted black cherries to cure kidney stones and gall bladder ailments, and red cherries to remove phlegm.In 1950 Ludwig Blau, Ph.D., writing in the Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine, claimed that he cured his crippling gout that confined him to a wheelchair by eating six to eight cherries each day. As long as he ate cherries, he avowed, the gout stayed away".James A Duke,Ph.D , Green Pharmacy, writes about the many people who claim to :stave off gout attacks by eating eight ounces a day of canned or fresh cherries", he mentions that he might give it a try for his own gout.

"A small study  in the Journal of Nutrition 6/17/2003 involving ten healthy women found that the plasma urate levels dropped after this group consumed cherries after overnight fasting.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. They found an increase in plasma ascorbic acid among the women, indicating that dehydroascorbic acid (the sole vitamin C content of the cherries) in fruits is bioavailable as vitamin C. "

"This decrease in plasma urate produced after eating the cherries backs the theory that the fruit has an anti-gout effect, write the researchers. 'Gout' is a recurrent acute arthritis of peripheral joints caused by the accumulation of monosodium urate crystals. The researchers add that the trend toward decreased inflammatory indices (C-reactive protein and nitric oxide) adds to the in vitro evidence that compounds in cherries may inhibit inflammatory pathways     Read more :Cherries for Joint Pain

References: Jacob, Robert A., et al. June, 2003 Consumption of Cherries Lowers Plasma Urate in Healthy Women. Journal of Nutrition 133, pp 1826–1829.

Carper, Jean The Food Pharmacy Published: Simon& Schuster Ltd.1989.