Alcohol Raises Gout Risk

Although alcohol has been associated with gout for centuries, a breakthrough study verified theconnection for the first time. The study, reported in The Lancet (April 17, 2004), found that beerwas the worst choice for gout, followed by spirits. For 12 years, the researchers tracked 47,150men with no history of gout. When the study ended in 1998, 730 men (~2%) had developed gout.

The researchers found that, the greater the daily alcohol consumption was, the more likelygout was to develop. The disease was >2 times as likely to occur in men who drank the mostalcohol, compared with those who drank none. The strongest connection was with beer?eachdaily serving increased the risk by 50%. For participants who drank spirits, the chance ofdeveloping gout increased by 15% with each extra drink daily. The researchers did notobserve an increased risk among wine drinkers. There were, however, only 18 participantswho drank >2 glasses of wine daily.