Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 210 posts

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#41

Post by will_pseudonym »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #17

I developed painful gout at 40. Now 10 years later, I hardly ever have any pain at all. Lots of research link gout to different makeups of gut bacteria: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep20602 And I certainly changed my diet over the past 10 years, and my gut bacteria has become more diverse and presumably more healthy as a result. I've verified this through various stool tests and 3rd party microbiome trackers ove…

I didn't know what GOS meant. It's galacto-oligosaccharide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactooligosaccharide

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1462/galact...

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#42

Post by galaxyLogic »

Some years ago I had Goat and had to go to the doctor. The doctor prescribed (onlY)Aleve to me. I find it curious she didn't tell me anything about more effective medicines such as: https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a682673.html?fbclid=Iw...

Is it possible that a doctor does not know about this medicine?

Or is this such a new treatment that it didn't exist about 8 years ago?

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#43

Post by JamesBarney »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #42

Some years ago I had Goat and had to go to the doctor. The doctor prescribed (onlY)Aleve to me. I find it curious she didn't tell me anything about more effective medicines such as: https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a682673.html?fbclid=Iw... Is it possible that a doctor does not know about this medicine? Or is this such a new treatment that it didn't exist about 8 years ago?

That's the first line treatment for gout so I'm sure she knew about it but didn't prescribe for a different reason.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#44

Post by rsync »

cheezerman wrote: post #20

Something that I learned recently that blew my mind was that gout is caused primarily from consuming DNA. How? Gout is caused by a buildup of uric acid, which is created in the body as a byproduct of breaking down purines. Purines are essentially broken down pieces of DNA. This makes sense when you discover that beer can cause or worsen gout, because of the large amount of yeast present, but other fermented beverages…

"Something that I learned recently that blew my mind was that gout is caused primarily from consuming DNA."

I came here to say just that.

I have never experienced gout but years ago I was very interested to learn, and then dramatically oversimplify: gout comes from eating DNA.

Presumably that's how beer is such a catalyst for a gout attack: all that dead yeast ...

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#45

Post by JamesBarney »

tropdrop wrote: post #11

> Some scientists point to the dramatic rise in rates of obesity — from 13.4 percent of adults in 1980 to 42.4 percent in 2017-18, again per the NHANES — since excess weight depresses kidney efficiency, and to the likely not unrelated introduction, in 1967, of high-fructose corn syrup , which can cause the body to produce higher levels of uric acid, and its wholesale embrace in the early 1980s by the American food in…

Sugar does seem to be involved in gout but high fructose corn syrup is basically indistinguishable from sugar metabolically.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#46

Post by p1necone »

thomasfromcdnjs wrote: post #25
centimeter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe the current scientific consensus has meat consumption as a risk factor for gout. I read a paper recently that specifically mentioned that simple sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose) and purine. Purine is present in quantity in certain organ meats, but not meats that most people eat frequently, and you're more likely to get it from legumes.

Why the down votes for an alternative opinion? There are a lot of people who saying the same thing. There are a lot of papers on the fact that beans and nuts increase changes of gout. Edit: I will just add, it seems to be the last half century of nutrition "science" has largely been wrong. I hope more people keep exploring things for themselves instead of getting our top down advice from the experts.

> There are a lot of papers on the fact that beans and nuts increase chances of gout.

I can't find any, link?

Sounds like there are vegetables which are high in purines, which are suspected to be related to gout. But studies consistently show that those vegetables do not have an effect, whereas meat, fish etc do.

(Also I suspect the downvotes are because the comment claimed that this was the "prevailing opinion", which it is not)

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#47

Post by kuschku »

LeCow wrote: post #30

Dispelling bullshit time. Gout isn't caused by what you eat, it's an underlying problem with your kidneys/liver/body and an inability to extract uric acid. It can be exasterbated by drinking beer, dehydration, red meat etc. Saying it's caused by what you eat is a bit like saying peanuts cause peanut allergies, or eating gluten causes coeliacs. You already have the condition, the things you eat makes it worse. I've be…

Diabetes can also cause damage to the kidneys in turn causing the inability to extract uric acid, and nowadays this is the leading cause, not a genetic issue anymore. That might not apply to you personally, but to most people it does.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#49

Post by t-0 »

LeCow wrote: post #30

Dispelling bullshit time. Gout isn't caused by what you eat, it's an underlying problem with your kidneys/liver/body and an inability to extract uric acid. It can be exasterbated by drinking beer, dehydration, red meat etc. Saying it's caused by what you eat is a bit like saying peanuts cause peanut allergies, or eating gluten causes coeliacs. You already have the condition, the things you eat makes it worse. I've be…

This is not entirely true.

Gout is caused by excessive levels of uric acid, which is an end-product of purine metabolism. You can get uric acid via two pathophysiologic mechanisms: under-excretion of uric acid, or over-production.

Under-excretion is by far and away the most common cause of gout (think ~90% of cases). Causes for this include things like chronic kidney disease or an inborne/hereditary problem (like you mentioned), but can also be caused by extrinsic factors such as some medications (common ones include cyclosporine, most diuretics, a few of the TB drugs) as well as more general problems (alcohol decreases UA excretion by itself, dehydration can contribute)

Over-production is a whole other kettle of fish. This is most commonly secondary to some problem of increased cell turnover (think leukaemia, lymphoma, haemolytic anaemia etc.), Again alcohol and obesity can contribute.

You'll note alcohol was in both groups. Alcohol excess (especailly beer) can lead to gout without any other contributing factor. Excess alcohol + excess red meat is an especially bad combo which can lead to gout without any other contributing health issues.

So, gout can certainly be caused by what you eat. It's not the ONLY cause of gout, though.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#50

Post by danieltillett »

cheezerman wrote: post #20

Something that I learned recently that blew my mind was that gout is caused primarily from consuming DNA. How? Gout is caused by a buildup of uric acid, which is created in the body as a byproduct of breaking down purines. Purines are essentially broken down pieces of DNA. This makes sense when you discover that beer can cause or worsen gout, because of the large amount of yeast present, but other fermented beverages…

You missed RNA.
Post reply on HN