Alum Presents Study at ACSM Annual Meeting

Dr Kerry Kuehl '81, assistant director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Oregon Health Science University, recently presented a study at the American College of Sports Medicine's Annual Conference in San Francisco, California.

The Oregonian recently featured his findings concerning the treatment of osteoarthritis pain with tart cherries.

Arthritis pain? Try tart cherry juice, new research suggests

By Katy Muldoon, The Oregonian

The study was small but the results appear appetizing for arthritis sufferers and others with debilitating joint pain: Tart cherries seem to do a great job fighting inflammation.

Dr. Kerry Kuehl of Oregon Health & Science University led a study of 20 women age 40 to 70, each of whom has inflammatory osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. Results showed that those who drank tart cherry juice twice daily for three weeks had significantly lower inflammation markers.

"With millions of Americans looking for ways to naturally manage pain," Kuehl says in a news release, "it's promising that tart cherries can help, without the possible side effects often associated with arthritis medications."

The findings were presented May 30th at the American College of Sports Medicine Conference in San Francisco.

In a previous study, Kuehl found that those who drank tart cherry juice while training for a long-distance run reported less pain afterward than runners who didn't drink the juice.