This Fat Causes Gout

You’ve probably been told that gout is caused by elevated levels of uric acid. And that’s true to a point.

A new study in The Chinese Medical Journal reveals another strong factor. It’s a specific type of fat. And most of us are struggling with this one.

Previous research has linked obesity and gout. There are two reasons for this association. Obesity increases uric acid production, and it reduces uric acid excretion by weakening kidney function.

The authors of this new study wondered whether there was also a link between specific types of body fat and gout, and they decided to examine visceral adipose tissue (VAT), commonly known as belly fat.

Their investigation used both observational and Mendelian randomization analyses to explore the possible connections.

In the observational part of the study, the team analyzed data from 11,967 participants, with an average age of around 39.5 years, from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The data include their demographics, health, lifestyle, diet, smoking status, and so on.

They used logistic regression models (a type of statistical analysis) to examine if there was an association between the amount of belly fat their participants’ had and their risk of developing gout.

After excluding other factors that could also increase gout risk, they found that, for each standard deviation increase in VAT mass, there was a 27% increase in the odds of having gout.

The study didn’t stop there. To further explore this potential connection, the researchers used a method called Mendelian randomization. This approach uses genes as tools to examine the causal effects of one thing (in this case, VAT mass) on a disease outcome (gout).

The team used 211 genetic variants related to VAT mass, which were identified in a previous study involving 325,153 participants from the UK Biobank. The idea is that, if people with a genetic predisposition to higher VAT mass tend to develop gout, it strengthens the argument that VAT mass causes gout.

The findings from this analysis were even more striking than the observational results. It indicated that an increase in VAT mass could lead to a 78% increase in the risk of gout.

This is yet another reason for reducing visceral fat.

But there is a simpler way to eliminate gout if you’re already suffering. Thousands of readers have already successfully done so following the simple steps explained here…