Can Coffee Combat Gout or Uric Acid?
Before answering the question on how affective coffee is for gout relief or lowering uric acid levels I wanted to answer another question that is frequently asked when visitors leave a comment here. “Where do you find your information on gout?” To start I will do a Google search in quotes, review articles, blog posts, and medical research papers. How does this relate to todays post? While researching the topic of coffee for gout relief I couldn’t find a definite answer so I wanted to share with you one of the resources that I use. Arthritis Foundation Ask an information specialist your question.
Simply scroll over the diseases tab at the top, from the drop down select questions & answers, then select you language. You are now ready to ask an information specialist your question. So here is the reply to my question “Can Coffee Combat Gout or Uric Acid?”
“Great question. Yes, there’s some truth to the notion that coffee may help protect against gout. A few large studies have shown that people who have the highest amounts of coffee consumption, usually more than 4 cups a day, have a 40-60% lower risk of having gout than those who don’t drink any coffee.
That’s not a huge effect, however, and researchers aren’t sure what it is about coffee that may help lower uric acid levels. They don’t think it’s caffeine (because tea and other caffeinated beverages didn’t have any affect risk), but other substances in coffee may be at work, perhaps an antioxidant in coffee called chlorogenic acid.
So what’s the takeaway of all this? If you’re already having gout attacks and you’re trying to keep your uric acid under control, coffee won’t replace medication, but it won’t hurt your efforts, either. So enjoy your daily Joe.”
Kind regards,
xxxxxx xxxxxx
Senior Medical Editor
Arthritis Today
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Good stuff, thanks for posting. I was actually looking for something else and this site came up lol. Oh well, 2 minutes of my life gone! Totally worth it though!
I have had gout for years, and tried just about everything without success.I reduced meat to, minimum once
a week, stopped alcohol altogether.I was having LOTS of fruit and vegetables and my gout was worsening.
Finally I have read something about Excessive fructose increasing uric acid.I experimented reducing my fruit
intake to 2 a day, and bingo within days I saw a dramatic improvement.Cherries are the only exception.
I eat a lot of them when in season,with no ill effects.
If you would like more information on the link between gout and fructose then please read this post on a study that was done.
Soda and Fruit Drinks with High Sugar Content Linked to Gout
My uric acid level was (as of Dec/2010) 8.7mg/dl. I’ve never had gout and not everyone with high uric acid gets gout. I still want to decrease my levels however.
I love cherries so that is one fruit I include in my diet. My beer intake is drastically lower than 1 year ago plus I drink about 8 glasses of water per day. I’ve started adding lemon juice to a couple of these glasses. This is supposed to neutralize uric acid. I’ve also started supplementing my diet with 1000 mg of vitamin C.
I used to drink 4-5 cups of coffee per day but stopped that practice over a year ago. I wonder if that contributed at least in part to the increase in my uric acid levels. The good news, if you’re a wine drinker, is that wine has a neutral affect on uric acid according to Dr. HK Choi.
I guess I’ll find out this Fall when I get my annual bloodwork done if these measures are helping. I don’t know if exercise has any impact on uric acid but if it does that’s one more thing I’ve increased this summer. Something I should have done regardless of my uric acid levels.