Tea For Gout Research

Lots of gout sufferers worry about tea drinking. But there is very little useful research. However, this may change as researchers begin to understand more about different types of tea. And how they have different effects depending on starting uric acid levels.

Tea For Gout Research Topics

Since 2015, many studies have investigated links between tea and uric acid. Yet there have never been human gout sufferer trials. So, it's difficult to know if tea is good or bad for gout sufferers. In fact, most studies are inconclusive. Therefore, I'll just give a shorts summary of early findings. With a slightly longer review for the latest research.

Tea has little effect on uric acid.

1. A summary of research to date reports conflicting findings with black tea effects on uric acid. Also, many studies failing to classify the type of tea.

Towiwat, P. and Li, Z.G., 2015. The association of vitamin C, alcohol, coffee, tea, milk and yogurt with uric acid and gout. International journal of rheumatic diseases, 18(5), pp.495-501.

2. Combining results from 5 interventions with tea in humans. This meta-analysis found no significant link between tea and uric acid levels.

Peluso, I., Teichner, A., Manafikhi, H. and Palmery, M., 2017. Camellia sinensis in asymptomatic hyperuricemia: A meta-analysis of tea or tea extract effects on uric acid levels. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 57(2), pp.391-398.

3. Another study review and meta-analysis fails to find a connection with tea and uric acid levels. Also, no link with the risk of gout. Though there might be a link with green tea. But insufficient data is available for green tea consumption to conclude any effect on uric acid.

Zhang, Y., Cui, Y., Li, X.A., Li, L.J., Xie, X., Huang, Y.Z., Deng, Y.H., Zeng, C. and Lei, G.H., 2017. Is tea consumption associated with the serum uric acid level, hyperuricemia or the risk of gout? A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 18(1), pp.1-10.

4. This large scale statistical analysis found that tea consumers are more likely to have higher uric acid than non-tea drinkers. But the link failed to hold over time. Concluding that any potential link between tea drinking and uric acid is weak.

Chen, D.D., Dong, X.X., Yang, X.J., Sun, H.P., Liang, G., Chen, X. and Pan, C.W., 2021. Tea consumption and serum uric acid levels among older adults in three large-scale population-based studies in China. BMC geriatrics, 21(1), pp.1-8.

5. This intervention found that catechin-rich green tea increases excretion of uric acid and purines. But had no effect on uric acid levels in the blood.

Kawakami, Y., Yasuda, A., Hayashi, M., Akiyama, M., Asai, T., Hosaka, T. and Arai, H., 2021. Acute effect of green tea catechins on uric acid metabolism after alcohol ingestion in Japanese men. Clinical Rheumatology, 40(7), pp.2881-2888.

6. This laboratory study shows that lightly fermented tea can inhibit uric acid production better than highly fermented tea. However, as a cell study, it is not possible to assess links with uric acid levels in the blood.

Wu, D., Chen, R., Zhang, W., Lai, X., Sun, L., Li, Q., Zhang, Z., Cao, J., Wen, S., Lai, Z. and Li, Z., 2022. Tea and its components reduce the production of uric acid by inhibiting xanthine oxidase. Food & Nutrition Research, 66.

Unfermented Tea Reduces Uric Acid

My final study aims to verify the previous studies findings about fermentation affecting the ability of tea to reduce uric acid. So, it compares induced high uric acid levels in mice with allopurinol, and with different types of tea. Finding that all teas reduced uric acid. Especially unfermented green tea (GT) and lightly fermented yellow tea (YT) Which reduced it below the control level.

Wu, D., Chen, R., Li, Q., Lai, X., Sun, L., Zhang, Z., Wen, S., Sun, S. and Cao, F., 2022. Tea (Camellia sinensis) Ameliorates Hyperuricemia via Uric Acid Metabolic Pathways and Gut Microbiota. Nutrients, 14(13), p.2666.

the mice in the allopurinol and TWEs [Tea Water Extracts] groups had significantly lower serum levels of UA, UN, and Cr caused by HUA. In addition, we further detected the activity of XOD in the liver, with the results showing that the XOD activity was significantly increased in the model group, significantly decreased in allopurinol, green tea, white tea, yellow tea, and oolong tea groups, and showed no significant change in groups of black tea and dark tea (Figure 1E). It indicated that tea treatment could significantly alleviate uric acid production and excretion in HUA mice. Interestingly, lightly fermented tea may have a better effect than heavily fermented tea.

Tea for Your Gout

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