LSU researchers have found a pigment in tart cherry juice that extends sleep by an average of 84 minutes in older adults with insomnia.
The results were presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nutrition and suggest Montmorency tart cherries may be a good alternative to pharmaceutical sleeping pills for the elderly, according to a news release.
Frank Greenway, chief of the Outpatient Clinic at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and one of the study’s researchers, said falling and breaking bones are serious concerns for the elderly, and for those taking sleeping pills to combat their insomnia, the risk of falling is four times greater. The pills often leave the user groggy in the morning, making getting out of bed a potentially deadly act.
“In the trials, the cherry juice didn’t leave anyone groggy,” he said.
Jack Losso, professor in the school of nutritional and food sciences, analyzed the juice and found it contained an enzyme which inhibits the breakdown of tryptophan, a known sleep aid, Greenway said.
The juice also contains melatonin, a hormone which also aids natural sleep. Greenway said although melatonin may help insomnia, it’s more effective as an easy treatment for jet-lag after long flights. He believes the combination of the tryptophan, melatonin and possibly a class of polyphenols called proanthocyanidin is what makes the juice
so effective.
But Greenway said younger insomniacs don’t have anything to gain by switching from traditional pharmaceuticals to the juice. The average age of the study’s participants was 68, according to a release.
Greenway partners with a chemist at the LSU AgCenter who knows a great deal of “folklore” treatments for obesity. They run tests to see if the proposed treatments are effective, eventually pinpointing the ones that work.
Demand for so called “medical foods,” like the juice, is growing partly because people would rather take natural things instead of pharmaceuticals, Greenway said. Medical foods are also much easier for those in academia to research, owing to the nature of pharmaceutical compounds.
“Pharmaceutical companies develop a whole new chemical, which requires many preclinical studies to ensure the safety of the product,” Greenway said.
With medical foods, it’s already known it’s safe to take, making it much easier for academics to help people, he said.
Greenway said he could see other potential uses for cherry juice, a prospect that is relatively hard for pharmaceuticals to manage.