Drink more coffee for gout avoidance ? Study shows there is a connection

Coffee for gout avoidance among males over 40? The Journal of Arthritis and Rheumatism (June 2007) published the results of a Canadian/U.S. study into the effects of drinking coffee on the risk for developing gout. It found a lowered risk if you drank coffee (or at least if you are a male over 40, the study universe).

The study is the Health Professionals Follow Up study and it’s a large, ongoing, one of nearly 47,000 men of whom 757 (about 1.6%) developed gout over a 12 year period. It showed that the risk of developing gout fell as more coffee was drunk.

More specific conclusions were that drinking 1-3 cups of regular, not decaffeinated, coffee a day reduced the risk for gout by 8%, which is not much. But at four cups the reduced risk was 40%; at six or more the reduced risk was 60%. It seems that coffee for gout avoidance works to a significant degree if you drink at least four cups a day.

60% is a large number but so is six cups of coffee a day. Not many males over 40, who don’t have gout, are going to drink this much coffee. This information would be helpful for those male readers who fear gout because it runs in the family. i.e. men who know with more certainty that they have a risk of gout.

Those in the study who drank decaffeinated coffee - 1-3 cups lowered risk 33%; four cups lowered risk 27%. i.e 1-3 cups reduced risk more the than same amount of regular coffee but four cups did not.

The results for decaff coffee were inconclusive. Why should there be a lower risk for gout (33%) from 1-3 daily cups than from four or more cups (27%) when the risk was lowered from regular coffee by larger percentages when more coffee was drunk? What can be said with some confidence is that decaff lowers the risk to some extent.

How could coffee for gout avoidance be a good idea? The study’s organisers noted coffee contains a strong antioxidant called phenol chlorogenic acid. This antioxidant may be why six cups of coffee for gout avoidance is a good idea.

And what if you do have gout? The study did not enquire into whether coffee can help cure gout. It wasn’t about curing gout. Women were not surveyed.

A note about niacin in espresso coffee Niacin is thought to compete with uric acid for excretion. In the USDA database instant coffee (regular or decaff) and coffee brewed from grounds, does not contain much niacin. But 6 fl.ozs of a restaurant espresso coffee (the kind listed in the USDA database) contains about 9 mg of niacin (nicotinic acid).

Have six of those daily and that’s about 50 mg of niacin which is said should be the most niacin you should intake daily if you have gout. There is no niacin in brewed tea and very little in cocoa. Multivitamin supplements usually have around 20mg of niacin.

See the gout vitanutrients section to download the USDA database free, or check niacin in foods online at the USDA site through the link in the gout vitanutrients section.

The link between coffee and gout, as a gout cure We shall be reporting on this at a later date on this website.

Watch a video reporting on this study here, from www.insidermedicine.com. Double click on the arrow to begin.

Anti-oxidant rich coffee may help prevent gout

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