Gout, that exquisitely painful swelling in the joints, is more common than you might imagine, and no, you don’t get it from drinking port.
There are some famous sufferers out there, starting with Henry VIII, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. It is indicated in around five percent of all cases of arthritis and is present in around three to five percent of the population, with males outnumbering women around nine to one.
Gout is in its simplest fashion, a recurrent form of arthritis, and which generally affects just one joint – most commonly the joint in the big toe. This arthritis, or inflammation, usually occurs in association with high uric acid levels in the blood.
The higher the concentration of serum uric acid (SUA), the more likely you are to get an acute attack. The ‘normal’ range for SUA is taken as less than 0.42 mmol/L (called ‘milli moles’ per liter), but if your concentration is 0.54 mmol/L then you are five times more likely to get gout.
Did you ever grow sugar crystals in a saturated sugar solution at school? Basically what happens is just the same, that with high concentrations of uric acid it crystallizes out into the joint, leaving very sharp, needle-like crystals crunching inside the articular surface of the joint. Very painful!
The typical gout sufferer is male in his 50s, overweight, with high blood pressure, carnivorous and consumes large quantities of alcohol. Is that you? Could almost be anyone in the pub near you!
Gout affects almost four million men in the USA. It has long been thought that purine-rich foods and a high protein intake are risk factors, and sufferers are advised to avoid meats, seafood, purine-rich vegetables, and animal protein. But this advice was based more on the theory of how excess blood uric acid can occur, rather than actual clinical studies.
Proper statistical studies of this condition began on over 50,000 men, drawn from health professionals, in 1986. Food-frequency questionnaires were sent out at baseline, and repeated again in 1990 and 1994. In addition, height, medications, and medical conditions were recorded every two years.
The participants were assigned to groups according to the total intake of meat, their consumption of seafood, purine-rich vegetables, dairy products, low-fat dairy products, total protein, and animal protein.
During the study, there were 730 new cases of gout during the 12 years of follow-up. Most of them were aged 55 to 64.
When total meat consumption was analyzed, the risk of acquiring gout was 1.41 times greater in the high meat eaters; in other words, eating more meat was a risk factor for gout. Similarly, high seafood eaters were 1.51 times as likely to develop gout. (Newly mown grass should be fairly safe I believe!)
So what could be consumed? In contrast, gout was less common in those taking more dairy products. Men who drank two glasses a day of skim milk, or ate a serving of low-fat yogurt more than twice a week, halved their risk of developing gout. In this study at least, purine-rich vegetables, and total protein had no influence on the chances of getting gout.
This large study confirmed that a diet high in meat and seafood increased the likelihood that a susceptible person will develop gout. It also showed that milk proteins increase the excretion or uric acid in the urine.
So, to avoid developing gout, try to limit your intake of meat (beef, pork, lamb, and offal) and seafood, while increasing your intake of low-fat dairy products (skim milk, yogurt).
This is all very important, as the long term outlook is not good for the unrepentant gout sufferer. Constant high levels can lead to uric acid ‘stones’ being deposited in the kidneys (producing renal problems) and even discharging lumps (called ‘tophi’) around joints, on the forearms and even on the outer ears. Really a most painful future.
Note too, that it is low-fat milk that is being proposed, as high fat milk introduces the cholesterol problems again! It really is a fine line that we must all tread!
Finally, if you have been diagnosed as being a gouty sufferer seek treatment at the first twinge. Don’t wait.
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