Taking your medicine, naturally

Our firm, in attending the American College of Rheumatology meeting last week, learned once again to eat our fruit.

Not that we needed to be reminded.  But on the topic of gout, that painful arthritic condition that is said to be on an upswing, it was reported at ACR that a cup of cherries daily may reduce the associated painful flares, often of a big toe, that lead patients to seek treatment.  It seems that cherries contain anthocyanins, an antioxidant, that is credited with reducing flares before they begin.  According to the study, those who ate about one cup of cherries in the previous 24 hours cut in half their risk of a recurrent gout attack.  Impressive results.  But alas, there was controversy in the room.  In the question and answer period following the presentation by researcher Yuqing Zhang,MD, of Boston University School of Medicine, a Chicago physician and owner of a Michigan cherry orchard told Dr. Zhang that he must be referring to tart cherries.  You see, the cherries most of us eat when in season, are sweet.  They contain substantially fewer anthocyanins than the tart variety, according to the physician farmer.  The study didn’t account for sweet or tart, but did allow cherry extract, which also seemed to help. 

Then the entrepreneurial tendency emerged.  Who has access to cherries year-round?  Who wants to eat a cup of tart cherries?  Why not start a company to isolate the active ingredients in tart cherries, the anthocyanins, and put them in a pill?  “We always try that,” said one science writer on hand.  “It rarely works.  Fruit has been around for a long time.  There is probably quite a bit more going on than we realize.  Look what happened when they took resveratrol from red wine and tried making a drug out of it.”  Oh right. 

Luckily for gout sufferers, the ACR meeting featured positive clinical results, conveniently with drug therapies that are available year around.  But it did remind us:  Eat real food.  Drink wine.  Not too much.  And if that doesn’t work, take your medicine.