What are purines and how do they affect gout?

You’ve probably come across “low purine diets” if you’ve been trying to find out what’s causing your gout.

I briefly wrote about purines in my blog post about uric acid but here I’ll explain what purines are in a bit more detail and how they affect gout.

Purines are everywhere

Purines are a natural part of all living things. They are everywhere.

There are two groups of purines in your body:

1. Purines naturally made by your body (known as “endogenous purines”).
2. Purines naturally made in the foods you eat (known as “exogenous purines”).

Your body breaks down purines through your digestive system and creates uric acid.

Most of this uric acid dissolves in your blood, passes through your kidneys, and leaves your body through your urine.

It is believed that regularly eating high purine foods can increase the risk in you creating more uric acid than your body can process, though this hasn’t been completely confirmed by research.

So what does this have to do with gout?

Your body is naturally designed to flush uric acid out when you pee, however, if too much uric acid stays in your body, you will develop a condition called hyperuricemia.

Hyperuricemia can lead to the formation of crystals.

These can form anywhere in your body, however, they tend to form in and around your joints and kidneys.

This then presents itself as either kidney stones or gout.

The inflammation and pain of a gout attack occur when your body’s defensive white cells attack the crystals.

Do low purine diets stop gout?

I personally try not to eat too many high purine foods but I don’t try to cut them out because I believe in having a balanced diet (plus you can’t cut out purines, they’re in everything we eat).

I once stuck to low purine foods only for a period of time, however, it didn’t reduce or prevent gout attacks for me and I’ve had greater success since eating a balanced diet.

Many other gout sufferers, however, have had great success with low purine diets.

The important thing is not to completely cut things out of your life but keep a good balance and pay attention to your behaviour prior to a gout attack so that you can identify your potential gout triggers.

I hope you’ve found this blog post helpful.

I’ll follow up sometime soon with one that defines low, medium and high purine foods but for now there’s plenty of these types of blog posts floating around on the internet for you to use.

I’ll also be sure to keep this blog post up to date as new research reveals new information about purines and gout.