It would be so easy and convenient if just drinking a fruit juice would get you rid of the pain, fatigue, "fibro fog", morning stiffness and other symptoms of fibromyalgia, wouldn't it; no medications with potentially nasty side effects, just all natural fruit juices.
The people promoting these "superfruit juices" would certainly want you to believe that the products they're selling can cure fibromyalgia, but sadly there isn't much evidence to support that claim.
Superfruit Juices
The terms "superfood" or "superfruit" have no real medical definition, but they are commonly used to refer food (or fruit) so rich in phytonutrients (such as flavonoids and antioxidants) that they can confer health benefits. The health food industry is heavily promoting these foods, because they know many people would rather buy "all natural food products" than synthetic supplements.
The trendy superfruits include e.g. acai, goji berry (wolfberry), maqui berry, mangosteen, pomegranate and noni fruit. The fact that they sound exotic probably helps to sell them, compared to blueberry and cranberry products. The less exotic tart cherry juice is also sometimes promoted for the treatment of chronic pain.
What Superfruits Contain
There is no doubt that all of these fruits are high in flavonoids and other beneficial phytochemicals. Freeze-dried acai berry is claimed to have an ORAC value of over 160,000, indicating extremely high antioxidant activity - for example blueberries only rank at about 6,000. Maqui juice is estimated to be at 40,000-80,000 and goji berry at 25,000. On the other hand, cloves and cinnamon rank near 300,000.
The ORAC values are not the full deal, of course. Flavonoids and other phytochemicals can have other benefits than just reducing free radical activity. E.g. The anthocyanins in tart cherries reduce inflammatory pain in lab animals. Acai has vasodilatory (blood vessel dilating) properties, which may be useful in chronic pain. Mangosteen is anti-inflammatory and may help prevent cancer and diabetes.
Superfruits for Fibromyalgia
Studies have shown that people with fibromyalgia may have excessive free radical activity and low antioxidant capacity in their bodies. Thus supplementation with antioxidants might be rational. Thus the "superfoods", at least those particularly high in antioxidants like acai could alleviate symptoms of fibromyalgia, even though there is no evidence that it would be a cure.
Whether noni, goji, maqui, mangosteen and acai actually help symptoms of fibromyalgia is not known, as none of them have been studied in this purpose. In general there are many studies that show they contain potentially beneficial substances, but very few actually showing benefits from use in any medical condition.
It can be difficult to find out what a particular juice really contains - some of them are quite diluted, or may be processed in a fashion that negatively affects the content of phytochemicals. They have not been thoroughly assessed for safety or lack of contamination. Some, like mangosteen, may affect the metabolism of prescription drugs.
Cheaper Treatment Options
While possibly beneficial, all the berry juices tend to be expensive. Dried goji berries are cheap at Asian markets, but many people find the taste rather disagreeable. Mangosteens and pomegranates are sold in supermarkets, though the former are often expensive.
It would likely be possible to get the benefits of "superfoods" by eating flavonoid-rich normal foods such as normal berries, spices and cocoa, which are high in antioxidants but also in other beneficial phytochemicals. Cherries might be a promising choice, though the pain in fibromyalgia is not thought to be inflammatory (unlike e.g. the pain from rheumatoid arthritis), so it is unclear whether they would help.
Melatonin is, besides a sleep aid, a powerful antioxidant which has been shown to have pain-relieving properties. It is very inexpensive and available over-the-counter in the U.S. and many other countries. Other inexpensive antioxidants include e.g. vitamin C, vitamin E and N-acetylcysteine.
And of course, there are many medical treatments with proven efficacy in fibromyalgia, such as anticonvulsants and NMDA antagonists. One should consider whether it makes sense to spend a lot of money on something that has not been studied in fibromyalgia or whether to try something with more evidence of efficacy.
References
Tall JM, Seeram NP, Zhao C, et al. Tart cherry anthocyanins suppress inflammation-induced pain behavior in rat. Behav Brain Res. 2004 Aug 12;153(1):181-8.
Rocha AP, Carvalho LC, Sousa MA, et al. Endothelium-dependent vasodilator effect of Euterpe oleracea Mart. (Açaí) extracts in mesenteric vascular bed of the rat. Vascul Pharmacol. 2007 Feb;46(2):97-104.
Altindag O, Celik H. Total antioxidant capacity and the severity of the pain in patients with fibromyalgia. Redox Rep. 2006;11(3):131-5.
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