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Cherry Juice for Gout – SIDE EFFECTS!


Cherry as a cure for gout is not supported by any logical explanation or any solid scientific study. Yet, many placed their fate in this little spherical wonder. One of the reasons is it is risk-free because it is natural. But, serpents are natural, yet they are venomous.

This article aims to explain the side effects of cherry juice for gout (yes, it has side effects!).
Be noted that most of these side effects will only occur if the assumed effects of cherry are real.

If Cherry WORKS. . .

It will be wonderful if cherries work in treating gout. There will be no more need for allopurinol and colchicine – two gout medications that are very good in inducing relief (and side effects).  Cherry is supposed to work wonders that are far beyond the scope of NSAIDS, xanthine oxidase inhibitors and many more. Unfortunately, many of its magnificent effects are far too exaggerated and easily discredited. The effectiveness of cherry in treating gout is an article of its own right so it is not discussed here.

The Dark-side of Cherries

Cherries are rich in vitamins, especially vitamin C and is generally good for the health. But, if ever the claims about the effects of cherry for gout is real, there will be side effects that comes with it.
First, cherries are rich in flavonoids, specifically anthocyanin. Anthocyanin are supposed to act like allopurinol. It will act like a xanthine oxidase inhibitor which will TEMPORARILY reduce your uric acid level. Yes, you read it right. T-E-M-P-O-R-A-R-I-L-Y. Actually, XO inhibitors, such as allopurinol will only pause uric acid production and will not stop it.  When you ingest a XO inhibitor, its chems react with xanthine oxidase, which is responsible for breaking down purine into uric acid.

The medicine will mask itself as purine cheating your system into believing so. Instead of breaking down purine, Xanthine oxidase will react with the medicine. If your XO is too busy cuddling with the inhibitor, who will take care of the purine? No one. If so, where does the purine go? Nowhere. Since purine has to be broken down into uric acid to be flushed out, it will stay in your body! Therefore, you only delay the production of uric acid. Over time, your purine “dam” may break and a sudden XO onrush will be unleashed by the liver. This can be devastating to your liver and to you, as this will cause a severe gout attack. If cherries indeed inherits the XO characteristic of allopurinol, it will inherit this same side effects.

Here is the bad news: cherries will act as XO inhibitors, but only in the test tubes! If you take cherries or other anthocyanin rich fruits, the said flavonoid is flushed by the body away as metabolites and only 5% is left. Here is the good news: since it will not act as XO inhibitor, it will not induce side effects as well. No uric acid delay. No severe gout attack. Just plain old sweet-or-sour ball of fructose.
Speaking of fructose, did you know that fructose will cause gout attacks and increased uric acid production? And cherries are good sources of fructose.

Fructose will be metabolized into lactic acid. This will divide the attention of the kidney into disposing uric acid and disposing lactic acid. Hence, you reduce your uric acid output rate. Furthermore, it increases the level of uric acid production by boosting your ATP breakdown rate resulting from the reaction with fructokinase. In human language, it increases both purine and uric acid as adenosine tripospate is broken down.

Normal consumption of cherries will not increase uric acid at a noticeable rate. But if you decide to eat lots of cherries to experience its supposed XO inhibition effect, you will surely notice an increase in uric acid.

But. Cherries are Anti-inflammatory!

Yes, but cherries owe this to anthocyanin, and as I mentioned above anthocyanin is flushed away as metabolites So, if you are determined enough to produce this effect, you will have to consume tons of cherries, which is quite ironic because the gout attack you will suffer far defeats the purpose of the anti-inflammatory effect. You can check-out more details about this in an article explaining cherry as a treatment for gout.


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