If the excruciating pain in the joint of your big toe has been diagnosed by your doctor as gout, then relief might be found in a bowl of cherries. A new study by Boston University researchers found that eating roughly 30 cherries within the first 48 hours of having a gout attack might cut down the risk of the painful arthritic condition from returning, by up to 35%.
Anecdotal evidence that cherries have powers to heal gout has been around since the middle of the 20th century. The study’s lead author, Yuqing Zhang, a public health and medicine professor at the University, said he thinks his study was the first to indicate that consumption of cherries does in fact reduce flare-ups in gout.
The study followed 633 patients, with gout, online for 12 months and monitored their symptoms of gout, their medications and their risk factors as well as their consumption of cherry extracts and cherries up to 48 hours before a flare-up of gout. Eating as much as three servings of cherries or about a cup and a half appeared to be the best amount for preventing an attack of gout. Any further intake of cherries did not provide additional benefits…
Read more: Health Aim
