Alcohol can be an important part of the culture. It, in fact, has survived generations upon the generations of history. This particular history was actually filled with religious, social, cultural, and even royal involvement and controversies. Even in today’s day and time, alcohol, together with alcoholism, continue and thrive to give not just joy, but also afflictions to drinkers.
Do you suffer from gout? Then you might probably noticed that beer may cause gout attacks. Or, maybe your own doctor recommend you to avoid beer because beer is rich in purine. And this is the very reason why it causes gout. Purine is what makes up the uric acid, which is the main cause of gout. It is advised to most of the gout sufferers. Therefore, many have decided to go on a journey in order to find brands of beer that has low in purine content.
Unluckily, this article will not be able to provide you a list consisting the brand names of the beers with low purine content. Rather, this article will be explaining the reasons on why even those that has low urine content will be an added pain to gout, just like some other alcohols out there.
Purine: Why avoid it?
May be you are asking, why should you avoid purine? Isn’t it that the uric acid is the ones to be avoided? Isn’t it that in the first place, the uric acid crystal is the main problem? These. These are probably the questions that those who are first time to suffer from gout will ask. Well, the answer here is that you must avoid purine. This is mainly due to the fact that the purine is converted into uric acid.
Purine is actually an important macromolecule in the body. As a matter of fact, it is important to the body because it’s being utilized by the DNA in creating the nucleotides. Therefore, it is treated by the body as a significant material and is not getting flushed out of the kidneys. Firstly, it will not be capable of passing into the filters of the kidneys due to the fact that it is a macromolecule that is quite a size. Hence it must first be broken down into smaller bits. This is of course, with the help of the xanthine oxidase enzyme. This particular enzyme will then break it and turn into a uric acid.
However, we know that too much is too risky all the time. Thus, too much uric acid may cause more harm to the condition. Furthermore, you may find that there are various brands of beer that are low in purine. However, bear in mind that purine isn’t the only problem in here. There are more.
The Others…
As what I have stated above, purine isn’t the only culprit or the only burden with gout. It is true that purine is capable of increasing the uric acid level. But this doesn’t mean that it is the only enemy of the gout sufferers. Remember, for every system, there will always be an input, as well as output. Purine gives problems into the input. Now, let us first give focus into the side of the output.
The problem with the output side will undoubtedly involve the reduction of the excretion rate of the uric acid. Beer actually does that in exact manner. Alcohol or the ethanol in it may inflict some of the excretion problems. For example, it is capable of making you dehydrated all thru the increase in the urination and in sweating. Remember, ethanol is not supposed to be in the body, this is for the body to get rid of it all via sweating and urination.
Once there is just a few water left for the body to weaken the uric acid, the uric acid will be much easier to crystallize. This will then improve the chance of the gout attacks, since more and more uric acids adds into the existing uric acid crystal.
The bottom line in here is that, whatever alcoholic drink it is, either low or high in purine content, you must be wary. The excessive consumption of it may just worsen your condition. If you know some low-purine brand of beer, you must still be careful in consuming it. Stay hydrated and watch your consumption.
