News at HSPHDrinking beverages high in fructose, such as sugar-sweetened sodas and orange juice, was associated with increased risk of gout for women in a new study by HSPH researchers.
The study, authored by HSPH’s Walter Willett and Gary Curhan along with Boston University’s Hyon Choi, appears in early release form on the Journal of the American Medical Association website. The researchers analyzed data from 78,906 women in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’ Health Study over a period of 22 years, 778 of whom developed gout.
A highly painful, arthritic condition, gout develops when uric acid crystallizes in the joints. Fructose, a fruit sugar that triggers production of uric acid, has been linked to increased gout risk in men. The study’s findings reveal that women are susceptible too: Women who drank one sugar-sweetened soft drink per day were at 74% higher risk for gout than those who drank less than one serving a month. Drinking two or more sodas a day showed an even higher risk. No association was found between diet soft drinks and gout.
Read the paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association
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