If you’re like most people, you’ll be surprised to learn that controlling your gout, high uric acid levels, and other symptoms can be as easy as drinking orange juice. In a Spanish study, vitamin C in orange juice reduced uric acid levels. This was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition September 2003. Six women and six men were required by the study to consume two glasses of orange juice each day for two weeks. For a total of 500ml, they were required to have two 250ml glasses in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Let’s understand it
This meant that they were getting 250mg more vitamin C per day. The remainder of the diet provided participants with approximately 136mg vitamin C per day for men and 112mg each for women over the course of the two-week period. After two weeks, the level in the bloodstream of men had increased by 52 percent and that of women by 22 percent. It should be noted that women had higher levels than men of vitamin C in their bloodstreams. Even better was the fact the male participants had decreased their levels of uric acids by approximately 12.5 percent after two weeks.
The women had reduced their levels by approximately 6.5 percent. Every participant had seen a reduction in gout uric acids levels by the end of the vitamin-C study. This is considered very important news by researchers, especially given that the increase was only 250mg per day (compared to 500 to 1000mg for a standard vitamin C supplement) and the study lasted only two weeks.
Juices
Drinking twice as much juice over a longer period of time, such as a month, six months or a lifetime, could help reduce uric acids levels and prevent gout attacks. This study was done on healthy people aged 20-32. The majority of medications that are prescribed to lower uric acid levels will lower them more quickly than using vitamin C therapy alone. Vitamin C therapy is more pleasant than using drugs and it is also much cheaper.
There are no side effects like many gout medications. If you are considering using vitamin C to lower uric acid levels, it is a good idea to consult your doctor first. In 2005, a larger study was done to determine vitamin C’s effectiveness in reducing uric acids. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University published their results in June Arthritis and Rheumatism journal in 2005. They used 500 mg of dietary supplements instead of orange juice. Researchers saw similar drops in uric acids.