The effect of six weeks of sour cherry juice consumption with combined exercises on AST, ALT, TAC and MDA in obese and overweight women

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Authors

Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

Aim: Obesity is associated with increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, which can negatively affect liver function; therefore, nutritional and exercise interventions have been considered as effective strategies to improve this condition. Consumption of tart cherry juice, due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, along with combined exercises may have positive effects on liver and oxidative markers in overweight and obese women.

Method: This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design in two groups: combined exercise and combined exercise with cherry juice supplementation, on 24 obese or overweight women aged 20-35 years. The intervention consisted of six weeks of combined exercise (resistance and aerobic) in three 90-minute sessions per week. The supplementation group consumed 240 ml of cherry juice daily. Data were analyzed with a covariance test for between-group comparisons and a paired t-test for within-group changes at a significance level of P≥0.05.

Results: The results of the covariance test showed that after six weeks of intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in AST, ALT, TAC, and MDA values (P<0.05).

Conclusion: According to the results, consuming tart cherry juice supplements along with combined exercises for six weeks did not have a significant effect on inflammatory and oxidative indices, although the trend of changes indicated the potential synergistic effects of this intervention.

Highlights

The present study showed that six weeks of tart cherry juice consumption combined with concurrent training induced changes in inflammatory and oxidative stress indices, although these changes were not statistically significant. The effectiveness of this combined strategy appears to depend on factors such as dose, intervention duration, and baseline participant characteristics. Future studies should examine different doses, longer intervention periods, and specific populations such as women with obesity to provide more definitive evidence regarding the effects of this intervention.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 06 June 2025
  • Revise Date: 20 August 2025
  • Accept Date: 26 August 2025
  • First Publish Date: 26 August 2025

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