Cherries may no longer be just for topping off ice-cream sundaes - a
U.S. study of people with gout linked eating the fruit with a 35% to 75% lower
risk of having an attack.
Doctors have reported that some patients recommend cherries to prevent
gout attacks, but the connection has only been studied a few times before, said
lead researcher Yuqing Zhang, a professor at the Boston University School of
Medicine. “These findings suggest that cherry intake is associated with a lower
risk of gout attacks,” Zhang and colleagues wrote in the journal Arthritis
& Rheumatism.
But Zhang warned that the study does not prove that cherries alone
prevent gout attacks, and that patients should stick with their present gout
medications. “They can go out and eat the cherries, but they shouldn’t abandon
their medical treatment at all,” Zhang added.
Gout arises with uric acid crystals build up in the joints. The body
produces uric acid when it breaks down purines - substances found naturally in
the body but also in certain foods, like organ meats, anchovies, mushrooms and
some seafoods.
For the study, Zhang and his colleagues recruited patients over the
Internet to take online surveys about their attacks. All the 633 participants
had had a gout attack in the last 12 months, had been diagnosed with gout by a
doctor, lived in the United States and were at least 18 years old. They also
had to release their medical records to the researchers. For the next year, the
patients filled out surveys every time they had an attack. The survey asked
about symptoms, the drugs used in treatment and about certain risk factors,
including what they had eaten.
The patients also took similar surveys at the beginning of the study,
and every three months when it was underway. Of the 633 patients, 224 said they
had eaten fresh cherries during the year, 15 said they had consumed cherry
extract and 33 had both. During the year, the researchers collected information
on 1,247 gout attacks, which works out to about two per patient.
Overall, the researchers found that eating cherries over a given two-day
period was linked to a 35% decrease in the risk of having a gout attack during
that period, compared to not eating cherries. Consuming cherry extract was tied
to a 45% risk reduction, and eating both fresh cherries and extract was tied to
a 37% lower risk. The biggest reduction, though, came with eating fresh
cherries while taking the anti-gout medication allpurinol (Lopurin, Zyloprim.)
That combination was linked to a 75% reduction in risk.
Researchers say there are a few possible reasons. One is that vitamin C,
which is found in cherries, can influence the amount of uric acid in a person’s
blood, according to Allan Gelber, who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the
study. Zhang said there are still a lot of questions and more studies must be
done.
Japan Today
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