Coffee and Gout - YES, It Does Cause Attacks!

Who doesn’t like a cup of coffee in the morning? As you wake up to the morning rush, one of the first things you look for is some caffeine to wake your cloudy mind up. Well, rushing through the morning traffic jam half-sleepy is not a wise idea anyway. Unfortunately, it is not just you that coffee wakes up. It wakes GOUT ATT­­­ACKS up as well.

This article aims to explain why coffee triggers gout attacks.

Study suggests that. . .

Study suggests that coffee is good for gout sufferers. That is one of the many vantage point coffee-supplement vendors emphasize. While it is true that there are several studies about coffee such as a study suggesting that moderate coffee drinkers suffer less from gout, none of them proved so. This is because those are simply statistical studies. They are experiments that goes like this:

Statistician asks you “How old are you? Are you a gout sufferer? Do you drink coffee? How often?” then returns after a few couple of years asking the same set of questions excluding the first one. As if coffee is the only factor! Makes me wonder, what is the proper conclusion? Coffee helps gout? Or maybe a big chunk of the population are heavy coffee drinkers? #flawed.

Contrary to what statistics suggests, drinking coffee can cause gout attacks. This proposition is not based on numbers only but objective fact.

The BITTER Truth: Coffee causes gout attacks

There are two factors that makes coffee a perfect enemy of the gout sufferers; coffee is rich in purine; coffee is acidic.

Coffee is rich in purine

Not just rich. Coffee is a cupful of purine. The primary stimulants of coffee, namely the caffeine, xantheose and theophylline, are all xanthine. They are all materials for purine! Hence, when you drink coffee you will have excessive purine which is VERY BAD for your gout. Imagine, almost a cupful of uric acid for you to cringe!

On the plus side, the presence of xanthine means coffee can act like allopurinol. However, that is still something UNDESIRABLE. This is because it will pause the production of uric acid. That means zero uric acid for now and twice the uric acid later! This rush of uric acid will trigger an unbearable gout flare-up.

It may seem to be attractive to bear the pain and take coffee for your gout because of it can behave like allopurinol. But, that is not a good idea. Purine suppression results to undesirable effects such as uric acid kidney stone.

Coffee is Acidic

Studies suggest that increasing the pH of urine through dietary means increases the excretion rate of uric acid. Coffee decreases the pH, hence it decreases the level of uric acid excretion. This is because uric acid is not the sole junk in our body – other acids are trash as well. These acids have to be excreted alongside uric acid. This way, there are fewer “space” left for uric acid excretion. The less uric acid excreted, the more of them accumulates. The more uric acid accumulates, the more likely it is for them to crystallize. The chance of crystallization is directly proportional to the volume of acids in the body.

If coffee will not help. . what will?

It may be heartbreaking that coffee will not help you ease your gout. BUT, there are plenty of other methods out there. . .

I mentioned that the rate of uric acid excretion goes haywire due to the presence of other acids. How about, removing those ACIDS?

Acidosis, the state of having too much acids in the body, is something worth an article of its own. However, here is a basic overview for you:

Acidosis causes a plethora of diseases such as gout, diabetes, hypertension and endothelial dysfunction. Each one of these diseases will then cause complications! Acidosis is a multi-risk disease that should be eliminated to not just to cure gout but also to avoid future complications.

The method to combat acidosis is simple though some healing crisis may occur, though none of them are life threatening. Eliminate acidosis. CURE your gout once and for all. It is not coffee that you need. . .