Recent findings have just proven that the increased consumption of fructose in post-menopausal women heightens the chances of gout. Now what is gout, you ask? According to its Mayo Clinic page, "Gout is a complex form of arthritis characterized by sudden, severe attacks of pain, redness and tenderness in joints, often the joint at the base of the big toe." Gout occurs when uric acid, a waste product, crystallizes in the joints instead of passing through the kidney and exiting via urine. This is similar to how kidney stones occur, which is when uric acid crystallizes in the kidneys. An early indicator of gout is high levels or uric acid in the blood, known as hyperuricemia. Hyon Choi of Boston University School of Medicine and his research team, having researched and made findings of gout for the past decade, set about looking to see if fructose levels heighten the risk of gout in women. A previous study done by Choi and his team proved that fructose does indeed increase the risk of gout in men, so now they ran trials to see if that transferred over to women. The correlation between gout risk increasing factors in women and men may seem like pointless work, but gout itself is much more prevalent in men, and women are already at much less of a risk. The study was based on data taken from 79,000 pot menopausal women. Women who are not post menopausal are at an extremely low risk of contracting gout because they still produce a hormone that regulates uric acid levels. The study found, out of these 79,000 women, that consuming one sugar sweetened soft drink a day as opposed to one a month drastically increases one's chances of getting gout, a disease which is extremely painful.There are some pretty nasty looking pictures of gout, so considered yourself warned and think twice before watching my Animoto video below.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
In addition to proving that fructose consumption affects the possibility of getting gout, the article discusses the soft drink industry and the corn syrup industry. High fructose corn syrup is the chief sweetener in almost all non-diet soft drinks. Every time one woman drinks a Coke, she is increasing her chances of getting gout. For a long time, health advocates have been protesting the use of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. Unlike table sugar, which has the same amount of glucose as fructose, high fructose corn syrup usually contains about 58% fructose. In addition to raising the possibility of gout, fructose, which is broken down in the liver, can cause extra fat synthesis to occur. Consumption of soft drinks has also been linked to an increased chance of pancreatic cancer.
Overall, even though non-diet soft drinks (especially Mtn Dew) are extremely tasty, they stealthily carry many health risks.
Even though I now know that these health risks are valid, I will just forget that I ever wrote this article and continue consuming Mtn Dew in excess. Sources:
Yowza gout sounds pretty bad. I really liked your article, Matt, and I liked your Animoto. It really gave me a clear picture of what gout is.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was funny how you ignored the threat of gout so that you could continue drinking Mtn Dew.
I have one question though. Exactly how much fructose has to be ingested to cause gout? Does it vary for each person?
Sweet post, bro.