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Cherry for Gout - Cherry-fic ALTERNATIVE?


Alternative medicine is probably one of the most attractive crying shoulder of gout sufferers. After all, a glass of cherry juice tastes way much better than a pill of allopurinol! As an added bonus, you have tons of choices.  Sweet cherry? Tart cherry? Black cherry? The choices are quite infinite.
This article aims to explain which is the best type of cherry for gout.

The objective

There is a myriad of possible reasons why you came here reading this article. You maybe doing some homework, researching for some gout sufferer you love or maybe you are simply looking for the answer to the question “What is the best cherry for gout?” If the case is the latter, this articles was written with one goal in mind: there is no such thing as best cherry for gout.

Cherry as an alternative to allopurinol – Cherry-fic!

You must have heard it. Cherry is better than allopurinol. Usually, this comes from one-sided blogsites that states all the inconclusive studies that showed cherry as a POSSIBLE cure for gout without showing those studies that said otherwise. Then, you will scroll at the bottom of the page seeing their wonder-cherry product. Truly amazing.

Objectively speaking, cherry will be ten steps ahead of allopurinol, if only the claims were true.
Here are the supposed characteristics of cherry that can end your gout suffering:

Cherries are RICH in Vitamin C

Undeniably enough, it is safe to say that cherries are very rich in vitamin C.  Supposed to be, Vitamin C will help gout sufferers to flush uric acid out. As an added bonus, it has a plethora of health benefits! Sadly, this interview with professor Lisa Stamp debunks it all. The anti-uric acid property of Vitamin C is none but a MYTH.

Cherries are RICH in FLAVONOIDS

This is the main weapon wielded by miracle-cherry-elixir sellers. They unleash a salvo of scientific jargons like “anthocyanin” and “cyclooxygenase inhibition”. So, what really is this flavonoid?
Flavonoids, such as anthocyanin, are supposed to inhibit cyclooxygenase, the sadistic substance that sparks both pain and inflammation as defense mechanisms. They credit this to the anti-oxidant property of cherry. Sadly, this is not true.

There is insufficient proof that flavonoids are good anti-oxidants. This was only observed in an in vitro study. This means that the antioxidant property of cherry is only good in test tubes. Here is a science news about the anti-oxidant property of cherries for you to enjoy.

 Assuming that the antioxidant property is true, it is still not feasible. The reason? The bioavailability of anthocyanin and other flavonoids are only 5%. This means that you have to eat lots and lots and lots of cherries for you to have a taste of the benefit, though it is more likely that you will have a taste of severe gout attack instead. Cherries have fructose you know.

It was also assumed that cherries acts as xanthine oxidase inhibitors (like allopurinol). If ever this is true, this will not yield results because just like the anti-oxidant thingy, this is something cherries own to their sci-fi-inspiring flavonoids.

Cherries have SIDE-EFFECTS? CHERRYFYING!

While the ineffectiveness of cherries can be a bad news to you, why not look at the bright side? If the flavonoids are only 5% bioavailable, that means its supposed side effects are absent as well. Flavonoids also inhibit aldehyde oxidase. Take a look at this study about the aldehyde oxidase inhibition induced by flavonoids. Aldehyde oxidase is an enzyme responsible for granting drugs a clearance to your body. They are like keys to your locked systems. This means that messing up with them will mean messing up with every medication you take as well. There are to possible effects of such occurrence: drugs are rendered ineffective or you end up overreacting to the drug. This is very ironic to their claim that cherries acts synergistically with allopurinol. If the claims are true, it will also be true that cherries will kill you if you have been taking allopurinol!

Cherries are also rich in fructose which is a primary trigger for gout attacks. Sadly, it seems that cherries are more on the darker side. Let us all hope that one day there are already solutions to the shortcomings of cherry.




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