Active Low-Carber Forums
Atkins diet and low carb discussion provided free for information only, not as medical advice.
Home Plans Tips Recipes Tools Stories Studies Products
Active Low-Carber Forums
A sugar-free zone


Welcome to the Active Low-Carber Forums.
Support for Atkins diet, Protein Power, Neanderthin (Paleo Diet), CAD/CALP, Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and any other healthy low-carb diet or plan, all are welcome in our lowcarb community. Forget starvation and fad diets -- join the healthy eating crowd! You may register by clicking here, it's free!

Go Back   Active Low-Carber Forums > Main Low-Carb Diets Forums & Support > Low Carb Health & Technical Forums > General Health
User Name
Password
FAQ Members Calendar Mark Forums Read Search Gallery My P.L.A.N. Survey


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   ^
Old Sun, Apr-02-17, 13:45
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
Posts: 13,368
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
Default Gout and Low Carb

DietDoctor has produced another Ultimate Guide to a medical concern when on Low Carb. There are many links in the original post on his website.
It is a good review of all the issues, with a link at the end to the Gary Taubes "missing chapter" from Good Calories, Bad Calories.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/side-effects/gout

Quote:
Gout....It’s occasionally claimed that low-carb diets high in meat often cause gout. This does not appear to be true (nor does a low-carb diet have to be high in meat).

However, there may possibly be a temporary increase in risk of gout during the first six weeks on a strict low-carb diet. After this initial time period, a low-carb diet is likely neutral, or even protective, when it comes to gout.

Keep reading to find out what gout is and how to avoid it.

What gout is... Gout is a sudden and painful inflammation of a joint, most often at the base of the big toe (see image). It may also affect other joints, like heels, knees, wrists and finger joints. The cause of gout is elevated levels of uric acid in the blood, resulting in crystals depositing in the affected joint.

Gout is more common in people who are overweight and have metabolic syndrome, and have thus become more common in recent decades, affecting about 6% of adult men and 2% of women (it’s even more common in older people).1
Historically, it was known as “the disease of kings” or a “rich man’s disease”, but now everyone can afford… sugar.

Meat and gout
Gout has often been blamed on excessive consumption of meat. This is because the uric acid that causes gout is a breakdown product of purines, a building block of protein, that is highly concentrated in meat.

However, avoiding meat seems to have little effect on the risk of gout, and even vegetarians get gout much more often than would be expected if this was the main cause.

Eating more protein (like meat) seems to increase the excretion of uric acid from the kidneys, through the urine, thus not having much of an effect on the blood uric acid levels… or the risk of gout.

Sugar and gout
As there is a very strong connection between gout, obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, it’s possible that they are all primarily caused by the same thing: sugar and other refined carbohydrates.

In fact, high blood levels of insulin – a consequence of a diet high in refined carbs – has been shown to increase uric acid levels, probably by decreasing the excretion of uric acid by the kidneys.

There is a striking history of gout suddenly becoming common in populations just as sugar consumption started to rise sharply (e.g. in Britain during the eighteenth century, paralleling the birth of the country’s sugar industry).

There’s also experimental proof, showing that consuming fructose (a main component of sugar) sharply increases levels of uric acid in the body.

Alcohol and fructose are metabolized in similar ways in the body, and alcohol increases uric acid levels in the same way as fructose.

Low carb, uric acid and gout
Short term studies show a temporary rise in uric acid during the first few weeks when starting a strict (i.e. keto) low-carb diet. This effect seems to disappear after about six weeks, with uric acid returning to baseline or even lower.

Studies show no significant change in uric acid levels in people doing a low-carb diet over several months or years.2 After dozens of high-quality studies comparing low-carb diets to other diets, there seems to be none noticing any difference in the risk of gout, although no study has focussed on this specific question in detail.

Doctors regularly treating patients with low-carb diets apparently do not notice an increase in gout episodes even during the first time period. So if there exists an increase in risk during the first few weeks it is likely small or moderate. Long-term uric acid levels tend to become low on low carb, along with other markers of metabolic syndrome3 and even patients that used to suffer from gout can potentially become gout free.

How to avoid gout
Here’s how to avoid gout long term, using only lifestyle modifications:

Minimize intake of sugar.4
Reduce intake of alcohol. Particularly avoid beer and other high-carb alcoholic drinks.5
Lose excess weight and reverse metabolic syndrome. Low carb is a good treatment, as is intermittent fasting.6

Continues...



A previous thread about gout on this forum, with the Taubes chapter and a Chris Kresser article. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=451058
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2   ^
Old Thu, Nov-29-18, 05:26
s93uv3h's Avatar
s93uv3h s93uv3h is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,662
 
Plan: Atkins & IF / TRE
Stats: 000/000/000 Male 5' 10"
BF:
Progress: 97%
Default

.......
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:19.


Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.