Monday, February 4, 2008

VITAMIN C AS A GOUT PREVENTOR

Vitamin-C 1000If 500 mg daily of Vitamin C can reduce uric acid levels, then Vitamin C ought to act as a preventative gout vitamin too. A Taiwan study of males in the late 1990’s examined the weight, diet and lifestyles of gout and non-gout sufferers in Taiwan. It concluded that Vitamin C, folic acid (folate) and fibre were protective against gout. It also reached the well-known and accepted conclusion that hypertension (high blood pressure) and obesity are risk factors for gout. And one other very different conclusion from the conventional wisdom about purines -- purine intake, with the exception of alcohol, was NOT associated with a risk of gout.

However, restricting purines in your diet is not difficult, so it is still worth doing. The conventional wisdom may be correct. Uric acid level tests should tell if a low purine diet works for you.

1,000 MG PLUS DOSES
If you wish to try Vitamin C for gout in doses over 1,000 mg as part of a natural gout remedy discuss it with your doctor or a qualified naturopathic doctor. The 500 mg level is below the British government's 1,000 mg (1 gram) recommended upper safety level safety limit for Vitamin C. It is half of the maximum amount (1,000 mg) in a Vitamin C tablet sold in the U.S. and many other countries. If you take Vitamin C for gout as a dietary supplement, remember that it is reckoned to work better in a product that contains added citrus bioflavonoids. In addition, because it is excreted quickly, take it twice daily. To avoid excess acidity (lower pH) also take alkalizing minerals, or another alkalizing agent recommended by your doctor.

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