Optimal uric acid levels are important, as I’ve recently discovered. Roy says, somewhat sourly*, that I love buying gadgets and machines – and I do! But the gadgets I invest in are relatively small and inexpensive, especially considering their health benefits.
My latest acquisition is a UA Sure uric acid monitor.
And here is Roy’s latest project: the house we’re building in Iluka, WA:
I rest my case.
*The sourness could be explained by the fact that I have been going on a bit about the possible dangers of too much fructose (some fruits, honey, but especially the high fructose corn syrup in ultra-processed junk food); alcohol; and purines (found in all sorts of otherwise healthy foods). So it could just be that poor Roy is afraid of being denied everything that has, so far, made life worth living.
Little Lord Fauntle-Roy
In fact, my husband should be more grateful for the uric acid (UA) monitor: High uric acid is most commonly associated with both gout and kidney stones. And he’s the gouty one, after all – not I.
Unfortunately, losing 35kg on my Low Carb, No Crap™ plan has not eliminated Roy’s gout attacks, though they do seem to have become less frequent.
I first heard of gout when I read Little Lord Fauntleroy as a child. My battered copy of this sentimental novel (first published in 1886) depicted the bitter, gouty and terminally grumpy old Lord Dorincourt seated in a wingback chair next to a baronial fireplace.
.Stretched out before him is his tortured foot, wrapped in bandages and gingerly perched on a footstool. That’s the stereotype of the gout-sufferer: the affluent, beef-eating and claret-swilling aristocrat – paying for over-indulgence in life’s finer things.
How Painful is Gout, Really?
Roy clearly remembers his first attack of gout. He woke up one morning about 40 years ago with such an agonising pain in his ankle that he wondered how he’d managed to sprain it during the night. He was in Joburg at the time, staying with friends. (I might mention that the friends in question were party animals of note.)
Passing a kidney stone is said to be the closest a man gets to experiencing the pain of childbirth. Arguably, gout is a close runner-up.
Roy says he can’t identify a trigger, dietary or otherwise. And ever since our Singaporean Integrative GP Dr Ian Lee told him about another patient of his, a vegetarian teetotaller who suffered terribly from gout, it’s been hard to make the case against steak and alcohol.
The first time I saw Roy stricken with gout was terrible – this was even worse even than man-flu! With him whimpering in pain, leaning most of his weight on my anxious shoulders, we hobbled into the 24-hour pharmacy in Durban’s Berea Road to beg the pharmacist for Voltaren. But you need a prescription for this potent anti-inflammatory, so he had to vasbyt (endure) until the next day.
My late mother, too, began to suffer from gout in her old age. By then, Roy had discovered colchicine: a herbal remedy that nevertheless requires a doctor’s prescription. It works, but you have to take it to bowel tolerance, and then – if you’re wise – stay near a toilet until further notice.
Drop Acid
Dr David Perlmutter is one of my favourite health authors and podcasters. Dr Will Cole recently interviewed David about his cleverly titled new book Drop Acid – which delivers brand-new information about why our uric acid levels have doubled over the past century, why it matters so much, and what to do about it. (Listen to that conversation here.)
A rise in uric acid tells your body to gain weight – more specifically fat – in preparation for winter. Think of bears gorging on late summer fruit to fatten themselves for hibernation. Or migratory humming-birds sucking up nectar to pile on the grams before long intercontinental flights.
Well, we humans are fundamentally the same as bears and hummingbirds in this regard.
This was useful for our forebears as it allowed them to survive through periods of food scarcity. For most of human evolution, making and storing more body fat was a vital survival mechanism.
And then, suddenly, it wasn’t. After the Industrial Revolution introduced continual access to food that’s more carbohydrate-based, followed by even more highly processed food that’s immediately absorbed into the body, the uric acid fat-storage mechanism is no longer working in our favour. In fact, the opposite is true.
Much More than just Gout
In case you’re overwhelmed with admiration for by my devotion to Roy’s comfort, I should come clean and explain that all this is, as usual, at least as much about me. Roy’s heart may be that of a lion, for all we know; but I have advanced atherosclerosis, so I have to do what I can to minimise the risk of my heart upping and attacking me.
High levels of uric acid are not just about gout and kidney stones, as explained here by Dr Perlmutter himself.
High uric acid, he says, is associated with obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, neurological disorders and even premature death. And by reining it in, we have a powerful tool to address the various metabolic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.
Test, Don’t Guess
Though it’s not part of the standard panel, it shouldn’t be difficult to get your doctor to order a uric acid test. I did that recently, and was glad to see that it came back normal. (For the record, the mine was smack in the middle of the safe range, at 4.7 mg/dL.)
In future, I’ll be able to test my UA at home, too, with the UA Sure II device I mentioned earlier. (It’s similar in design to my LifeSmart finger-prick-style blood glucose monitor, which handily also measures ketone levels.)
Like most men, though, Roy is a wimp when it comes to finger-pricks. I may have to forcibly pin him down in order to wrest a drop of blood from his person. (Wish me luck.) Meanwhile, I am biding my time.
Coming up next, Part 2 will deal with the three main drivers of high uric acid: fructose, alcohol and purines… and ways to get around this potentially troubling news.
