Black Cherries for Arthritis

I've been lucky so far, and haven't suffered from this pesky ailment yet. However, it seems that many people either do or eventually will suffer from some type of arthritis during their lifetime (whether they are young or old), but who really expects this to be a completely pain-free ride? Ha! Anyway, several years ago I heard about this possible alternative for arthritis treatment, and many people claimed that it was an incredible natural remedy that either allowed them to take way less of their arthritis medicine or, in some cases, get completely off of the drugs. With that being said, I'm sure a lot of the drug companies would hate for this to get out and spread as the truth, as there would be a lot of money lost from Big Pharma if more people sought out natural remedies, etc.

With common sense being applied, it is fairly obvious that this isn't a cure-all wonder supplement, but it may help a great deal (in some cases) since black cherries are an excellent source of anti-inflammatories. The real question to me is, does the black cherry extract work as effectively as consuming lots of cherries the natural way? Of course the consumption of real whole foods will always be better than taking supplements, extracts, and so on, but not everybody wants to eat a bowl of cherries every day or drink super-sweetened cherry juice.

I have read before that black cherries also help neutralize your body's uric acid level, which would be of great benefit for people that suffer from painful gout. I've known a few people that had that, and it looks painful, to say the least. I've also had people tell me that they cured their gout with black cherries, as well, albeit I'm not sure if they took the pills, ate the berries, or drank the juice. Going by what I've read, one would have to supplement with black cherries for a couple of weeks to balance out the uric acid levels, so taking a few pills would not be enough to truly determine if it works or not. Anyway, I'm just rambling about this subject just in case anybody out there was curious about trying natural alternatives for their arthritis issues and whatnot; cheers!

Additional Reading:
* http://www.naturalnews.com/026091_cherries_gout.html
* http://health-fitness-guru.blogspot.com/2011/03/fight-arthritis-inflammation-black.html

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Source = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_serotina

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