2009 News
- News Archive
Cherry Juice Research Findings Presented at Conference
Recent research carried out at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, has shown that tart Cherry Juice can aid recovery by reducing inflammation and oxidative stress following strenuous physical activity.
The research examined the effects of a tart cherry juice following the 2008 London Marathon and showed that inflammation and oxidative stress were reduced and helped to accelerate the recovery of muscle function. Dr Glyn Howatson, who led the research, said: "tart cherries have been previously shown to be high in a number of plant chemicals known as anthocyanins that are common in a number of other 'super fruits' and are capable of reducing oxidative stress and inflammation."
"Exercise, particularly marathon running, causes high levels of both inflammation and oxidative stress, which provide a very nice model to examine the potential effects of this intervention."
The research was presented at last month's American College of Sports Medicine Annual Conference in Seattle and supports other investigations that have examined the efficacy of tart cherry juice (not a concentrate) improving recovery from muscle damage and increasing sleep quality in insomniacs.
Dr Howatson added, "as well as being a very useful tool in exercise training, this growing body of evidence has some potentially very important implications for the management of clinical diseases, such as arthritis, that have inherently large degrees of oxidative stress and inflammation."
"Although it is early days, we believe that more extensive work is warranted to examine the effects on clinical populations given that 1) this is a fruit juice and it has no known side effects, unlike many pharmacological agents, and 2) there are already clear benefits to humans following strenuous exercise."
The pressed cherry juice (produced by CherryPharm) is not yet available in the UK. However, there are some concentrates and pills on the market which claim to have similar effects, but to date, these products lack scientific support regarding their efficacy.
