Gout and Alcohol

Gout and Alcohol research documents the following.

Alcohol is broken down into lactate by being metabolized, which contributes to the retention of the salty version of uric acid called Urate.

With some beverages such as Port, fortified wines, red wines and stouts containing purines and oxypurines ( a purine containing oxygen ) which lead to increased purine loading in the body.

Alcohol also contributes to being overweight or obesity, some of this is due to the body not being able to process and get rid of excessive uric acid.

This Gout and Alcohol study was conducted over 12 years with over 47,000 men aged over 40.

Research has shown that the average man who did not suffer from Gout at the beginning of the study can increase their chances of Gout by the following measurements.

Relative Risk ( RR ) the risk of an event or developing a disease relative to exposure , and the ratio of probability.

1 standard drink a day had a RR of 1.32 of risk of developing Gout or 1 in 32 chances.

1 to 2 standard drinks the R.R increased to 1.49

2 to 3 standard drinks the R.R increased to 1.96

4 standard drinks per day the R.R. increased to 2.53

In these tests cited by Choi, H. K. , Atkinson, K., Karlson, E.W., Willett, W. & Curhan, G. (April 17, 2004). Alcohol intake and risk of incident gout in men: a prospective study. Lancet, 363 (9417).

there were strong findings that indicated that beer had the highest risk of gout with a R.R factor of 1.49 per every 12oz serving per day ( beer is recognised as having the largest purine content )

Spirits showed a lower R.R per shot / drink of 1.15 and wine per glass had a R.R of 1.04.

But not completely covered in these tests were the facts that Port, and Stouts and some red wines contain high levels of purines and oxypurines.

Simple Fact Gout and Alcohol are linked strongly. Make sure you drink plenty of water if drinking, make sure you have a glass of water between each alcoholic beverage.

This will help you at least flush the kidneys more and hopefully expel excess uric acid before the uric acid can damage you even more.

Always seek the advice of a health practitioner / doctor if consuming too much alcohol. A simple blood test can show you kidney and liver damage plus uric acid levels. Gout and Alcohol