About 4 years ago I entered a masters program for clinical nutrition. As you might expect in a masters program, everything had to be researched and referenced. I learned a lot about research and pubmed.com became my best friend. Pubmed is a website maintained by the National Institute of Health and is a part of the Federal government and contains studies on everything health related.
About 3 years ago I developed bad pain in most of bigger toes on both feet. At first I thought I had pulled or strained something but soon realized I had either gout or arthritis. Arthritis?!!! At my age?? I thought that was for old people. Oh, yea, that’s right! I keep thinking I’m 25 when I’m not!
The pain was so bad that I could barely walk when I had shoes on. I was limping bad. I started wearing shoes that were way too big on me so that my toes wouldn’t touch anything. It hurt to walk, run and even dance. An evening of dancing meant limping off the dance floor within an hour.
I recalled my clinical nutrition days and that I had written a paper on inflammation and tart cherry juice. I was in so much daily pain that I was willing to try anything so off I went to the store to find some tart cherry juice. The results were almost magical. Within seven days I was walking normally. Within three weeks I could wear all of my old shoes and could once again dance all night.
So why does it work? If you do a search on Pubmed.com, you will find a research paper titled:
Effects of Tart Cherry Juice on Biomarkers of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Older Adults. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30678193
Once I got past the notion that I am an “older adult” ahem…. you can see that tart cherry juice lowers the C-reactive protein marker in the blood which is an indicator of inflammation. I swear by tart cherry juice now and have recommended it many times to friends and family who have arthritis and other issues that are affected by inflammation. Many people have come back thankful for the great results.
I’ve shared this information with my Zwift “family” more recently and they too have found that it really works.
As a side note, many people are affected by nightshade vegetables as they cause inflammation in some people. In this case, I am some people. Nightshades include white potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. At the time I had all the toe pain, I was eating potatoes and spaghetti sauce just about every day. I don’t do that anymore.
Do you have arthritis, tendinitis or some other kind of “itis” ? Give tart cherry juice a try. Two ounces twice a day mixed with water might be all you need.