Drinking coffee actually has this effect? ​​Good news for gout patients!

Drinking coffee actually has this effect? ​​Good news for gout patients!

Summer is here, and the most fascinating thing is to enjoy seafood and beer in the evening breeze. But be careful, if you take a bite of seafood and a sip of beer, uric acid crystals will appear all over your body, and gout will come with the evening breeze as expected!

Different drinks will cause different risks of gout. For people who like to drink alcohol or high-sugar beverages, their risk of gout will be greater.

How painful is gout?

“Neither the piercing of nails, nor the binding of ropes, nor the wounds of a dagger, nor the burning of fire, are as painful as this.” As early as the first century AD, the Greek physician Cappadocia described gout in this way. [1]

It is not difficult to see that after suffering from gout, the patient's quality of life will drop sharply, and some may even be unable to take care of themselves.

Gout (Source www.thelancet.com)

How does gout develop?

Gout is a metabolic disease that is directly related to the body's uric acid content. If the uric acid content in the body is too high, urate crystals will form and accumulate in the joints, and when the body moves, the friction of the joints will cause severe pain. Therefore, during a physical examination, a high serum uric acid level means a greater risk of gout. At this time, it is often necessary to control diet and lifestyle habits, but it is worth noting that high serum uric acid levels do not necessarily mean gout. Preventing uric acid crystals is the key to staying away from gout.

Uric acid crystals (photographed by the author)

Uric acid is a metabolite of purine, slightly soluble in water and easy to crystallize. There are about 1.1 grams of uric acid in an adult's body, which is one of the important components of non-protein nitrogen sources in plasma. If you eat a lot of high-purine foods such as seafood and soy products for a long time, it is easy to cause high uric acid levels in the body. In addition, after drinking, the metabolite of alcohol, lactic acid, will inhibit the normal metabolism of uric acid, which is easy to cause uric acid retention in the body. When the content increases beyond the critical value, it will form crystals and cause gout.

Garlic oysters (photographed by the author)

Can coffee reduce the risk of gout?

Surprisingly, a recent Japanese survey showed that drinking coffee seems to be associated with a lower risk of gout. [2] The researchers compared the coffee drinking habits, serum uric acid levels, and gout incidence of more than 150,000 people. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between the serum uric acid levels of the surveyed population and the amount of coffee consumed, but the incidence of gout was significantly negatively correlated with the amount of coffee consumed. The proportion of people with gout was lower among coffee drinkers.

A recent study on a mouse gout model also supports this statistical result. Brazilian scientists treated mice with gout with coffee extract. The results showed that the mice treated with coffee extract had reduced gout symptoms, so coffee may become a potential candidate for the treatment of acute gout. [3]

Coffee beans (Source www.pixabay.com)

However, it is still unclear whether coffee can really relieve the symptoms of gout, and the underlying mechanism is still unclear. One possible reason is that some metabolites produced by the metabolism of methylxanthine compounds (such as caffeine) in coffee, such as theobromine[4], may have a highly effective inhibitory effect on the crystallization of uric acid and may promote the dissolution of existing uric acid crystals to reduce the risk of gout. [5] However, the pathogenesis of gout is very complex and is affected by many factors. These cutting-edge research results are still in the theoretical research stage, and scientific drug treatment is still the main way to treat gout at this stage.

Chemical structures of caffeine, theobromine, and uric acid (drawn by the author)

How to prevent gout scientifically?

There are many ways to prevent and relieve gout, among which drinking more water, exercising more, and keeping a regular schedule are the most cost-effective. When you find that your serum uric acid level is too high, on the one hand, you should reduce the intake of purine foods, such as eating less seafood, soy products, and animal offal. On the other hand, you should pay attention to avoid inhibiting your own uric acid metabolism, such as alcohol, high-sugar fruits, and fructose in beverages, which will inhibit the excretion of uric acid from the body, thus causing an increase in serum uric acid levels and increasing the risk of gout.

Question: Xiao Ming has 425 spicy crayfish, 167 garlic scallops, 396 grilled oysters, and 10 boxes of beer. Today Xiao Ming drank 1 box of beer, ate 81 crayfish, 26 scallops, and 14 oysters. What does Xiao Ming have now?

Answer: Gout (bushi)

References:

[1] Barnett R. Gout[J]. The Lancet, 2018, 391(10140): 2595.

[2] Shirai Y, Nakayama A, Kawamura Y, et al. Coffee Consumption Reduces Gout Risk Independently of Serum Uric Acid Levels: Mendelian Randomization Analyses Across Ancestry Populations[J]. ACR Open Rheumatology, 2022, 4(6): 534.

[3] Matosinhos RC, Bezerra JP, Barros CH, et al. Coffea arabica extracts and their chemical constituents in a murine model of gouty arthritis: How they modulate pain and inflammation[J]. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2022, 284: 114778.

[4] Tang-Liu DD, Williams RL, Riegelman S. Disposition of caffeine and its metabolites in man[J]. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 1983, 224(1): 180-185.

[5] Grases F, Rodriguez A, Costa-Bauza A. Theobromine inhibits uric acid crystallization. A potential application in the treatment of uric acid nephrolithiasis[J]. PLoS One, 2014, 9(10): e111184.

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