At this time of the year, most of us have been eating our fair share of cherries however I’m sure many don’t realise there are some excellent health benefits from eating cherries. It is understood the therapeutic benefits of cherries first became known when Roman soldiers noticed eating cherries helped their sore muscles and joints. Cherry trees were planted along their marching routes to be eaten whilst traversing these various routes. Now we know there are even more therapeutic benefits from drinking cherry juice.

We often find after Christmas, with our overindulging, complaints such as gout and even arthritic pain can increase. The great news is cherries and in particular, cherry juice may well help treat and prevent gout and arthritis.

Prevention and Treatment of Gout – only a gout sufferer could know the extreme pain of a gout attack. Gout sufferers will be pleased to know studies have shown drinking sour cherry juice can lower the risk of a gout flare up. Gout occurs when our body is unable to effectively control the amount of uric acid in the blood. The stiffness and swelling occurs when excess uric acid forms crystals in our joints. Cherries contain powerful compounds called anthocyanins which fight inflammation and lower uric acid levels. Cherry juice has been shown to protect from recurrent attacks as well as being helpful whilst in the midst of a gout attack.

Natural Arthritis Pain Relief - as with gout, cherry juice is helpful because of the anthocyanins which fight inflammation. There has been found to be a significant reduction in symptoms such as stiffness, pain and physical function when taking cherry juice regularly. The anthocyanins found in cherry juice assist in relieving pain by impeding the enzymes connected with pain. By preventing these pain signals from reaching the brain, any feeling of pain is negated.

Prevention of Post Workout Soreness – drinking cherry juice is believed to help lessen muscle soreness and inflammation after a workout. Working out causes breakdown and inflammation of our muscles which is why it is important to drink a protein shake after exercise. Now just add a little cherry juice to your shake to avoid muscle soreness. What a simple solution to avoid those dreaded sore muscles.

Regulates and Improves Sleep Patterns – now here’s one of the least known benefits of cherry juice. Cherries are a natural source of the brain hormone known as melatonin which regulates our body’s internal clock. Melatonin has been used effectively to help with treatment of insomnia or other sleep disruptions such as recovering from or avoiding jet lag. Drinking 30ml of cherry juice 30 minutes after waking in the morning then 30 minutes before the evening meal has been shown to increase the body’s melatonin level. Some customers have reported drinking a 100ml of cherry juice an hour before bed significantly helped with the quality of their sleep and the length of time they slept.

If you are a parent who is struggling to get a good night’s sleep with a wakeful child you will be interested to know cherry juice has been successfully used to help young children create a good sleep pattern. One customer had great success when trialling cherry juice on their 2 year old son who had been a terrible sleeper from birth. At 2yrs of age he was still waking constantly throughout the night. On the suggestion of one of our staff members he was given cherry juice before bed. This child went from being a chronic wakeful non-sleeper to sleeping throughout the night from the first night he was given the cherry juice. What a simple solution for what seemed such an insurmountable problem. Interestingly we’ve also had feedback from customers who, although they were taking cherry juice for their arthritis, found the quality of their sleep had also improved. This was an added bonus they hadn’t counted on!

There are two different types of cherries – tart cherries and sweet cherries. The tart cherries have a higher concentration of anthocyanins which of course contains the anti-inflammatory benefits. Tart cherries however are quite sour to taste. Quite often a cherry juice will be a combination of tart and sweet cherries to help make the juice more palatable. The cherry juice I prefer contains equal parts tart cherry and sweet cherry together with other native fruits high in anthocyanins such as Wild Rosella, Davidson Plum, Rainforest Lime, Illawarra Plum, Kakadu Plum and Native Pepperberry. There is no added sugar.

For more information on cherry juice call to see Bev and the team at Go Vita, Your Health Shop at 5 North St, Batemans Bay or phone on 44729737. Don’t forget to tune into Bev on 2EC every Wednesday at 12.30 on Go Get Healthy.