Gout and Weight Loss, Cold Weather Gout, Uric Acid the Antioxidant

I was curious about the relationship of fat & gout. I figured that uric acid is stored inside fat. That's why an attack can be triggered by rapid weight loss. It seems I wasn't so far off. Fat cells have lots of purines. Weight loss then releases the purines, triggering the production of uric acid.

Then I read how uric acid is more soluble in hot water than cold water. That must be how cold weather triggers an attack. At cold temperatures, the uric acid crystallizes, causing pain in the joints.

Finally, I read how uric acid is one of the major antioxidants of the body. With that statement alone, I figured, well gout sufferers must not get cancer then. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with that thought. As I was reading up on uric acid's antioxidant properties, I noticed that most of the reference pages were scientific research notes. These guys weren't selling anything and were talking a lot of chemistry that I didn't understand. In any case, it seems that uric acid as the antioxidant is still under intensive studies. One research indicated that they found no inverse relationship between uric acid and cancer incidence. Other sites say that under a certain set of conditions, uric acid acts as a prooxidant (opposite of anti) which is bad! So maybe it's not a cause, but an effect. As the body needs more antioxidants, more uric acid is produced.

And those are my two cents for today.