By Jimmy Downs

Saturday Sept 29, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Gaining too much weight or being obese in early and mid-life can drastically increase risk of gout, according to a new study in The American Journal of Medicine.

Janet W. Maynard, MD, MHS at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md and colleagues conducted the study and found the cumulative incidence of gout by age 70 years for women at 3.6 percent among those who were overweight at the baseline and 7.9 percent among those with obesity at the baseline. 

In comparison, the gout incidence among women who had a healthy weight at baseline defined as having a body mass index of lower than 25 kg/m2 was only 1.9 percent.  And the incidence among those who were morbidly as defined as having a BMI of 35 kg/m2 or greater obese was 11.8 percent.

The study was based on data from 6263 women aged 45 to 65 years and without history of  gout at baseline who were accepted between 1987 and 1989 in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.

During the 9-year follow-up, 106 women developed gout. Women at baseline with obesity as defined having a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater were more than twice as likely as those non-obese women to develop gout during the follow-up.  The association was attenuated after adjustment for urate levels.

Early adult obesity (at the age of 25 years) among women was correlated with a 2.8 times increased risk of gout, compared with those who were not obese at the age of 25 years.  The association remained significant even after adjustment for baseline urate levels.

The researchers concluded "In a large cohort of black and white women, obesity in early- and mid-adulthood, and weight gain during this interval, were each independent risk factors for incident gout in women."

Another study led by Ronenn Roubenoff, MD, MHS and colleagues and published in Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) also associated obesity, excessive weight gain in young adulthood, and hypertension with increased risk of gout in men. 

The researchers say in their report that "prevention of obesity and hypertension may decrease the incidence of and morbidity from gout; studies of weight reduction in the primary and secondary prevention of gout are indicated."

One possible reason for men and women with obesity to have a higher risk for developing gout is consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks, which have already been associated with the obesity epidemic in the U.S.  Soft drinks often use fructose containing high fructose corn syrup and fructose can lead to the formation of gout-promoting chemical called uric acid.

An epidemiological study reported in British Medical Journal found the association between drinking sugar sweetened soft drinks and fructose consumption, and increased risk of gout in men. 

Fructose is not just present in high fructose corn syrup, which is commonly used in beverages and processed food, but also in fruits and fruit juices, which were also associated with increased risk of gout.

The study was conducted by Hyon K Choi and Gary Curhan at Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.