“Every time you respond to someone here, more people see the helpfulness, and they are encouraged to contribute. First with questions, but then with advice and support. It is a wonderful thing to see, and be part of. The diversity of views is very special, and I feel that this is only achievable through continuing natural growth”
This is the kind of spirit unique only to GoutPal Interactive!
At the time of writing, there are almost 200 studies listed in PubMed that include gout and alcohol in the summary. About twice that if yoe extend the search to the full study text. Though many of these simply mention alcohol in passing, there are enough relevant studies to conlclude that, whilst beer is usually singled out as the worst culprit, results are often varied and inconclusive.
What really matters is how alcohol is taken. If it is moderate alcohol consumption against a background of regular non-alcoholic fluid intake, then the effect is probably minimal. Obviously neat spirits, being more concentrated than other forms of alcohol, are more likely to cause dehydration than cider or beer.
Many people have commented that cider seems to give less problems than beer, but this is all anecdotal.
Your real focus needs to be on managing uric acid levels. Keep it below 6mg, and it really doesn't matter what you drink (except that alcohol can reduce the effectiveness of urate lowering therapies like allopurinol.)
Unless replying to specific points in this topic, please start a new topic. See new topic link above, or gout forum guidelines. Current gout status in my profile.
I plan on testing this one out soon. I have to agree with GP about moderation, hydration, and lowering UA. Since I've been on prebenecid i've been mostly drinking red wine with no side effects, usually 2 glasses a night. on the weekends i'll drink a few beers. i just have this feeling that beer consumption is going to get me. i'll stop after 3 or 4 and start drinking water heavily in addition to dose or two of baking soda. However, i have a baseball weekend planned with some friends and it will be hard to avoid drinking numerous beers in the course of two days. i'll find out just how far i've come. knowing me, i'll sneak baking soda and down bottles of water whenever people aren't looking.
on a daily basis i don't drink much but i really want to have the freedom to have more than a couple on occasion. i' don't know if this is wise but i'm going to keep testing it. my theory is that if i lower my UA and dissolving crystals, one night where my probenecid doesn't work so well or i consume a lot of purrines isn't going to lead to an attack if i follow it up with taking the drug, water, and less alcohol. maybe its wishful thinking.
2:09 am May 17, 2009
harrytucker
Guest
4
how do you take the baking powder? how often ie every day?
The maximum dose, unless advised otherwise by your doctor, is 4 teaspoons per day. This can be either one teaspoon dissolved in water taken 4 times a day, or 1/2 teaspoon more frequently.
Note that it is baking SODA (i.e. sodium bicarbonate). Baking powder is completely different.
Unless replying to specific points in this topic, please start a new topic. See new topic link above, or gout forum guidelines. Current gout status in my profile.
1. If the ingredients used to create the alcohol are known to be purine containing then you can expect the end product to retain that potential (e.g. Yeast in beer), so I'd factor that into any choices you make.
2. Body-wise, uric acid and alcohol use the same basic exits. The more alcohol you have in your body the more likely it is that the uric acid will build up (based on the theory that the body will prioritise the removal of the alcohol).
3. One day of excess purine input and/or excess alcohol input isn't the cause of gout attacks, unless you're at the “straw that breaks the camel's back” stage. It's intake over days, weeks etc. that we really need to worry about for the reason given above.
4. Dehydration does come into the equation, but if you binge drink then no amount of water intake will help (for the reason given in 2 above – it's the reason why pee stops being yellow after a while when your out for a night's drinking).
5. Anyone looking for a “safe” alcoholic drink that can be drunk every day/night probably needs to consider stopping drinking altogether.
11:06 am May 24, 2009
zip2play
Member
posts 1278
7
I have found anecdotally and personally that beer is a bigger gout trigger than spirits. Wine, not sure.
Personally, I think they put something in the third bottle that triggers gout.
Unless replying to specific points in this topic, please start a new topic. See new topic link above, or gout forum guidelines. Current gout status in my profile.
Just curious about your opinions, GP and Zip, regarding this scenario: If you have effectively lowered your uric acid level below 6 long enough to dissolve existing msu crystals in your joints, would drinking the third bottle of wine or six pack cause a gout attack?
Just curious about your opinions, GP and Zip, regarding this scenario: If you have effectively lowered your uric acid level below 6 long enough to dissolve existing msu crystals in your joints, would drinking the third bottle of wine or six pack cause a gout attack?
Unlikely as a one-off, but excess alcohol does reduce the effectiveness of allopurinol. I reckon that 2 or 3 days of excessive drinking could be enough to stop allopurinol working, so a gout attack is not beyond the realms of probability.
Unless replying to specific points in this topic, please start a new topic. See new topic link above, or gout forum guidelines. Current gout status in my profile.
9:28 am May 27, 2009
zip2play
Member
posts 1278
12
would drinking the third bottle of wine or six pack cause a gout attack?
Only very rarely would it cause an attack, we were just kidding around. But you MIGHT feel that certain warning twinge after several days of the same behavior.
Honestly though I can put away QUITE a lot in a 10 day “vacation” without danger and my control is around the 6.0 level. Ilve even cut down to 200 mg. allopurinol daily since I started my regimen of 40 mg.furosemide and then 50 mg. losartan a few hours later. But I DO get the occasional warning tingles after profligacy and a long walk or a session on an elliptical trainer
Yes, allopurinol usually lets you live quite a normal life…pass the anchovies. Control your uric acid to 6.0 and life is nice.
10:06 am July 10, 2009
trev
Tophi Terror
England
posts 809
13
A report from the US a couple of years ago on 2000 sufferers only, I think, gave the result that Beer doubled gout risk, Spirits 1.6X and wine- No Change.
However ,I have noticed that if I'm near a gout episiode then even wine can add to twinges- whether this is because of crystals being exposed by alcohol by- products or blood condition (Ph?)- or simple de-hydration.
This newspaper report was ceraintainly new so I doubt much research (and so little done anywway) has been done to clarify this issue since.
Recent beer resumption for me certainly kicked gout in, double quick, after a period free from it.
If I am to drink alcohol, which is best? Cider, red or white wine, larger or shorts such as vodka,?
jT
Having been raised on alcohol (hard cider, in German: Viez or sometimes: Apfelwein) and been drinking for more than 70 years, including brewing my own beers for nearly 30 years, making wines and meads for 6-7 years, I have finally found the solution: LA Mead of 1/2% alcohol content (Low Alcohol Mead=honey water) Ingredients: 5 1/2 gallons of H2O distilled=704 oz, 5 lbs of honey=80 oz, and 7grams of ale yeast=1/4 oz (brewer's yeast=bad; that's all I got now.)
So you have a drink of 90% distilled H2O, 10% honey (this planet's most healthy food), and 0.03% yeast (of which most is discarded upon racking=siphoning off after fermentation w/o disturbing the the mead.
BTW: I have been toying around with GOUT for over 25 years, 1-3 severe, 4-5 minor attacks a year, plus one expensive, 4 day, hospital vacation (~$30k) for big toe surgery because of infection (my own stupidity=explanation goes beyond the scope of this website.) This for your info (got pictorial proof, if required.)
As to the LA Mead, it satisfies the requirement of little alcohol usage and lots of water consumption since I can drink easily 2-24 oz or 4-12 oz bottles after getting out of my sauna and still have less alcohol consumed than is in one bottle of “yellow-colored water” which Americans call: BEER.
If I am to drink alcohol, which is best? Cider, red or white wine, larger or shorts such as vodka,?
jT
Hi jT,
Hows it going?
Well due to the levels of Yeast in beers they are completely out of the question. Yeast contains high amounts of purine which will aggrevate your gout.
Since red wine has a moderate level of anti oxident in it I would say that that is the best option.
The content of yeast in a beer being completely out of the question has only some truth to it. Yes brewers yeast is very high in purines, but I'd like to say that it truly depends on the beer that your drinking. The style of beer has everything to do with it. Most American style lagers such as your Buds, Millers, and Coors are very much filtered down to nothing in accordance to yeast suspension. Now if you are to consume a German Hefeweizen which is a style that is not filtered and is actually preferred to have yeast suspended then yes this beer will most diffently have a higher purine content than those mentioned previously. One thing to keep in mind is that all beers are not the same and that it is a YEAST thing not a beer thing.
I don't know if red wine having anti oxidents is a best option or because wine has a very low suspension of Yeast is a better reason.
I definitely agree with JohnnyBrew's comments on beers, however I need to add some facts which many beer drinkersand particularly non-drinkers don't know. And all those diet experts, recommending what foods and drinks gout suffers should consume or not touch, don't seem to know either, or do not acknowledge, and that fact is: The percentage of brewer's yeast in beers is so small that it's almost negligible. (I aught to know; I have brewed beers for nearly 30 years.) There are 5 grams of yeast in a 5-6 gallon batch of beer. (5-6 gallons are 18,160 – 21,700 grams.) This means that the yeast content is ~0.028 to 0.023% per batch. (Not to forget JohnnyBrew's remark: Most American style lagers such as your Buds, Millers, and Coors are very much filtered down to nothing in accordance to yeast suspension.)
To swallow this knowledge, let' s look at a specific example:
A 12 oz bottle of beer, regardless of % alcohol, style and composition, contains ~340 grams of beer. At ~0.025% yeast content follows that there would be only (totally ignoring JohnnyBrew's statement) 0.085 grams of yeast in one bottle of beer.
To further enlighten our readers:
Per Purine Table quotes (http://www.acumedico.com/purine.htm), Brewer's Yeast has 1810 mg(milligrams) equal 1.81 grams of uric acid(OUR CULPRIT) in 100 grams of yeast. Since we have only 0.085 grams of yeast in one bottle, the total uric acid content would be: 0.0015 grams or 1.5 milligrams here.
You compare that figure with the, by experts recommended, figure for Kale, (a supposedly very healthy vegetable) of 48 mg of uric acid per 100g of vegie. (One can easily eat 100 grams of that.) This would mean: YOU COULD, OR BETTER YET, YOU SHOULD DRINK 32 BOTTLES OF BEER (IF YOU COULD), BEFORE YOU HAVE INGESTED THE SAME AMOUNT OF URIC ACID WHICH HAS BEEN RECOMMENDED FOR KALE.
One more, worse, example for fat/protein recommendation:
Tuna Fish in H2O (257 mg/100g), not in oil: (290 mg/100g)
One can easily eat during one meal 1 can (now 5 oz = 142 grams) That means, in order to stay healthy, eat Tuna in H2O and or consume 365 mg of uric acid. That's the equivalent of drinking 243 bottles of beer.
I welcome any and all comments and/or criticisms regarding my post.
Hans in New Mexico, the little ole beer, mead and wine maker
I really hate it when people link to other people's purine tables instead of mine.
Unless replying to specific points in this topic, please start a new topic. See new topic link above, or gout forum guidelines. Current gout status in my profile.
I definitely agree with JohnnyBrew's comments on beers, however I need to add some facts which many beer drinkersand particularly non-drinkers don't know. And all those diet experts, recommending what foods and drinks gout suffers should consume or not touch, don't seem to know either, or do not acknowledge, and that fact is: The percentage of brewer's yeast in beers is so small that it's almost negligible. (I aught to know; I have brewed beers for nearly 30 years.) There are 5 grams of yeast in a 5-6 gallon batch of beer. (5-6 gallons are 18,160 – 21,700 grams.) This means that the yeast content is ~0.028 to 0.023% per batch. (Not to forget JohnnyBrew's remark: Most American style lagers such as your Buds, Millers, and Coors are very much filtered down to nothing in accordance to yeast suspension.)
To swallow this knowledge, let' s look at a specific example:
A 12 oz bottle of beer, regardless of % alcohol, style and composition, contains ~340 grams of beer. At ~0.025% yeast content follows that there would be only (totally ignoring JohnnyBrew's statement) 0.085 grams of yeast in one bottle of beer.
To further enlighten our readers:
Per Purine Table quotes (http://www.acumedico.com/purine.htm), Brewer's Yeast has 1810 mg(milligrams) equal 1.81 grams of uric acid(OUR CULPRIT) in 100 grams of yeast. Since we have only 0.085 grams of yeast in one bottle, the total uric acid content would be: 0.0015 grams or 1.5 milligrams here.
You compare that figure with the, by experts recommended, figure for Kale, (a supposedly very healthy vegetable) of 48 mg of uric acid per 100g of vegie. (One can easily eat 100 grams of that.) This would mean: YOU COULD, OR BETTER YET, YOU SHOULD DRINK 32 BOTTLES OF BEER (IF YOU COULD), BEFORE YOU HAVE INGESTED THE SAME AMOUNT OF URIC ACID WHICH HAS BEEN RECOMMENDED FOR KALE.
One more, worse, example for fat/protein recommendation:
Tuna Fish in H2O (257 mg/100g), not in oil: (290 mg/100g)
One can easily eat during one meal 1 can (now 5 oz = 142 grams) That means, in order to stay healthy, eat Tuna in H2O and or consume 365 mg of uric acid. That's the equivalent of drinking 243 bottles of beer.
I welcome any and all comments and/or criticisms regarding my post.
Hans in New Mexico, the little ole beer, mead and wine maker
thanks for backing me up Hans I'm a homebrewer in Colorado Springs CO and we need to stick together
The beer wont kill ya – but repeating links to inferior sites might.
Unless replying to specific points in this topic, please start a new topic. See new topic link above, or gout forum guidelines. Current gout status in my profile.
Login
Register
Forums
Topic RSS 
Entries (RSS)