New Study Confirms That Drinking Coffee May Reduce Gout Risk

A joint team from Japan's Defense Medical University and Osaka University has found in a genome-wide association analysis that maintaining a coffee drinking habit will help reduce the risk of gout, according to a recent report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The research team found that long-term coffee consumption could help moderate the onset of gout by correlating the coffee drinking habits of more than 150,000 people with the risk of developing gout, and believe that future analysis of coffee ingredients may uncover the mechanism of gout onset and prevention methods.

It is well known that when uric acid in the blood is elevated, a large amount of uric acid reaches the joints of the body as a direct result of blood circulation, leading to gout. The caffeine contained in coffee is converted into purine, which causes uric acid to rise.

Therefore, in theory, gout patients should not drink coffee. Surprisingly, however, there have been several studies in China and abroad that have demonstrated the benefits of coffee in preventing gout, but there is a lack of statistical analysis and data to support this.

This time, the research team used genome-wide association analysis to study three values, including the number of times coffee was consumed per week, the urea index and the risk of developing gout, in more than 150,000 study participants, and ranked the number of times coffee was consumed per week from 0 to 7. How many times a day and how much coffee was consumed was not taken into account.

According to Professor Yotaka Matsuo of the University of Defence Medicine, "The behaviour of coffee consumption did not affect the level of uric acid values, but the risk of gout onset showed a downward trend."