Cherry Juice Protects Immunity With Prolonged Exercise

With the Pan Am Games coming to Canada, this month’s issue of The Natural Path focuses on natural supplements that help you have a healthy, effective workout. Well, here’s one more. . . .

Although exercise is good for every aspect of health, prolonged exercise can suppress immunity. Because of this immune suppression, prolonged exercise is associated with increased respiratory infections. 

This pilot study gave twenty recreational marathon runners either tart Montmorency cherry juice or a placebo, starting five days before they ran their marathon and continuing until two days after they were finished. 

The cherry juice significantly reduced inflammation after the race. Both the number and the severity of upper respiratory tract symptoms (URTS) were significantly worse in the placebo group. Most importantly, while 50% of the runners who took the placebo had URTS at 24 and 48 hours after the race, not one of the runners who drank the cherry juice did.

This study shows that drinking tart cherry juice prevents you from developing URTS after prolonged exercise.

Other natural supplements that have been shown to help prevent upper respiratory tract infections and colds after prolonged exercise include echinacea (J Clin Res 1998) and quercetin (Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007).

Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2015;12:22