I wrenched my neck a few days ago and wondered whether there was something else I could take for the pain instead of ibuprofen. Based on what I’d read in magazines, I searched for the answer in my fridge, which happened to contain more than 40 pounds of tart cherries I had just picked.
Actually, a ton of research has found that these cherries are packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that help relieve inflammation, pain and damage to cells, organs and blood vessels. That’s probably why nearly 100 professional and collegiate sports teams in the United states have their athletes drinking the stuff, according to sports medicine experts.
And now is the season for this superfruit.
“What we found is that this food is as good as ibuprofen in terms of pain reduction,” said Kerry Kuehl, a practicing internist and chief of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. “It worked as well as 600 to 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, post vigorous exercise.”
Kuehl and other OHSU researchers found that runners who drank tart cherry juice before and the day of the Oregon Hood to Coast relay race — a 198-mile course that crosses two mountain ranges — had much less pain than runners who drank a fruit punch.
