Gout risk higher using soft-drinks than alcohol

Soft drinks 'bigger gout risk than alcohol'

By Kate Devlin
Last Updated: 1:30am GMT 01/02/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...01/ngout101.xml


Drinking too many sugary soft drinks and fruit juices can substantially increase the risk of gout, scientists say in a report published today.

Researchers found that the risks associated with these drinks were higher than with certain types of alcohol, overindulgence in which is seen as a traditional cause of the painful joint disease.

In one of the largest studies of its kind, scientists in America and Canada followed more than 46,000 men aged over 40 with no previous history of gout over 12 years and monitored their intake of soft drinks, fruit and fruit juices.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, found that the risk of developing gout was 85 per cent higher among men who drank two or more cans of soft drinks a day than those who consumed less than one a month. This is greater than the risk associated with drinking spirits.

Men who consumed large amounts of fruit juice or fructose-rich fruits, such as apples and oranges, also had a higher risk of the condition. However, those who drank diet soft drinks showed no extra risk.

The researchers believe the findings could explain why cases of gout have doubled in America in recent decades.

Attacks of gout, which are caused by too much uric acid in the body, usually start in the toe but affect the joints most severely as this is where the acid lies and crystallises. Dieticians traditionally advise sufferers, of whom there are about 600,000 in Britain, to restrict their intake of purines - chemicals found in meat and alcohol that turn into uric acid.

But many soft drinks and fruit juices contain large amounts of fructose, a naturally occurring sugar that can increase uric acid levels.

The report stresses, however, the benefit of fruit and vegetables to prevent other chronic disorders such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and certain cancers.

The authors, Hyon K Choi, from British Columbia University in Vancouver, and Gary Curhan, from Harvard Medical School, said: "These findings support the importance of recommending a reduction in fructose intake in patients with hyperuricaemia and gout in order to reduce the risk of gout".

Sian Porter, from the British Diatectic Association, said: "Gout sufferers are often told to increase their intake of fluids, sometimes by up to three or 3.5 litres a day.

"This study suggests there could be problems if patients start to follow that advice by increasing their intake of soft drinks instead of water."

• Babies as young as 18 months are going under general anaesthetic to have teeth removed because they have been fed sugary drinks. Borghild Breistein, the clinical director of dentistry at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, said that one baby had to have six of her eight teeth surgically extracted.