Milk helps gout meat and seafood do not
Article Date: 10 Mar 2004 - 0:00am (PST)
If you want to prevent painful gout you should drink milk and dairy
products. You should not, however, eat lots of red meat and seafood.
This is according to a report in the New England Journal of
Medicine.
Dr. Hyon Choi, study leader, said that this is the first evidence
that dairy products can be strongly protective against gout. Dr.
Choi works at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Beans, peas, mushrooms, spinach and cauliflower do not seem provoke
gout, the researchers said. People used to think they did.
The team monitored 47,250 male health professionals.
According to the team, if you eat an extra portion of beef, pork or
lamb each day your risk of developing gout goes up by 21%.
If you have an extra seafood meal a week you risk goes up by 7%.
Strangely, this risk is most prevalent among men who are not
overweight.
If you drink one to five glasses of low-fat milk per day, your risk
goes down by 43%, said Dr. Choi.
WHAT IS GOUT?
What is gout? Gout is a very painful condition. Here we will define
gout, and discuss the cause, symptoms and treatment. Gout, also
called gouty arthritis, is caused by an accumulation of uric acid in
the blood. The disease usually appears in midlife and primarily in
males. It can be hereditary or the secondary to some other disease
process. The main symptom of gout is severe pain and swelling in
joints, but gout usually effects one joint at a time, then may move
from one joint to effect another joint.
The kidneys filter uric acid out of the body. In gout the body makes
excess uric acid or the kidneys fail to function properly, failing
to rid the body of the uric acid and it begins to build up in the
joints in the form of uric acid crystals. This condition is very
painful. The accumulation of these crystals causes severe pain and
swelling in the joint. A common site for gout is the big toe joint.
But gout can occur in an ankle, knee, elbow, wrist or finger.
Typically the onset occurs at night with excruciating pain, swelling
and inflammation.
Certain foods and alcohol may contribute to the rise in uric acid
and the increase in the severity of the symptoms. Also drinking
plenty of water, helps keep the kidneys filtrating properly.
Checking uric acid levels is how gout is diagnosed. Sometimes fluid
has to be extracted from the joint with a needle and syringe.
There is antigout medication that is given to help alleviate
symptoms and prevent attacks, by keeping uric acid levels down. Most
of the medicines do have side effects.