Cherry Juice Takes on Muscle Pain

Move over pomegranates. Cherries, like pomegranates, are filled with antioxidant power.  But cherry juice may have even more going for it. A recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows the promise of tart cherry juice in relieving the symptoms of muscle damage.

This small study was done at the University of Vermont in conjunction with Cornell University and New York’s Institute of Sports Medicine. Scientists, funded by Cherrypharm, looked at tart cherry juice’s effectiveness when taken before and after strenuous exercise. Fourteen participants took either a blend of tart cherry juice and commercial apple juice or a placebo mix made of Kool-Aid. Each bottle of the cherry juice contained about fifty to sixty cherries. The college-aged volunteers drank 12 fl oz. of either the juice blend or placebo twice a day for eight straight days.

After four days all of the participants performed “eccentric elbow contractions” – flexing and contracting one arm forty times.  Strength, pain, and muscle tenderness were all measured in the days before and after the exercises.  After two weeks, the participants were switched from placebo to cherry juice and vice versa.  The set of exercises were performed again on the other arm. 

“Other fruits have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties,” says Declan Connolly, the head researcher for this study. “But the tart cherries are extremely high.”

Since these properties of cherries have already been identified, this new study looked for results that cherries actually prevent muscle damage. The outcome is fairly promising.  Strength loss was 22 percent over the four days after the trial, but only 4 percent for those drinking the cherry juice.  Pain, on a scale of one to ten, was rated at 3.2 for those taking the placebo and 2.4 compared with the cherry juice drinkers.  Similarly, pain peaked after two hours for those drinking cherry juice then began to decline, whereas pain continued to increase through eight hours with those taking the placebo.  However another marker, muscle tenderness, did not show a considerable difference between the two trials. 

While this study did not measure muscle damage directly, it did measure some of the major symptoms of muscle damage.  Drinking the juice blend for a few days before and then after exercise showed a significant decrease in some of those symptoms – namely pain and strength loss.  Cherry juice acted as a protector, rather than a preventative measure, for muscle pain. 

The most practical application is obviously for athletes, or any of us who have ever suffered pain after exercise.  Also, for anyone who cannot take anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen, cherry juice may be sweet relief.  Dr. Connolly hopes to focus on this promising fruit juice to treat arthritis symptoms in upcoming trials. For now hitting the bottle (of cherry juice of course!) before and after hitting the gym will let you push yourself with less pain.