GoutPal Interactive

I hate to say it, but I added some gout confusion when I learned new facts about coffee, but failed to remember to change old views about diuretics. Thanks to one reader, I’ve looked into this coffee confusion and made a few changes that hopefully make things clearer.

For information about coffee and gout I’ve added some in depth coffee and gout research to reinforce the overview of how coffee affects gout.

I’ve also updated my advice about fluid intake and gout.

Many people are still skeptical about caffeine – fearing a diuretic effect that may raise uric acid levels through dehydration. There have been several studies recently that rebut the notion that caffeine from coffee causes dehydration. One in particular, “Fluid, electrolyte, and renal indices of hydration during 11 days of controlled caffeine consumption“, concludes that:

Therefore, C0 [placebo], C3 [3mg caffeine], and C6 [6mg caffeine] exhibited no evidence of hypohydration [dehydration]. These findings question the widely accepted notion that caffeine consumption acts chronically as a diuretic.

Simply put, the water from making the coffee drink outweighs any mild diuretic effect from the caffeine, so enjoy it as part of your daily fluid intake.

Another short gout question, just asked, is gout coffee.

There are a couple of important things to know about gout and coffee.

1. Recent research indicates that coffee drinkers have less chance of getting gout. Now that is not quite the same as saying that coffee protects you from gout, as it is a statistical, rather than clinical report.

   Having said that, the figures look quite convincing. It is also relevant that coffee is a source of antioxidants, so maybe that is the reason that coffee is good for gout.
   Read the rest of this entry »