Dietary approach to prevent gout should be considered first-line therapy, researcher says
TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet may offer a non-drug treatment for gout, according to a study published online Aug. 15 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
The study included 103 participants who ate a DASH diet (high amounts of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy, and low amounts of fats and saturated fats), or a typical American diet. The researchers found that the DASH diet’s effect for some patients with gout was so strong that it nearly matched the effectiveness of drugs normally used to treat the condition.
The findings suggest that dietary changes could offer an effective and safe way to lower uric acid levels. That would possibly prevent gout flare-ups for patients with mild to moderate gout who can’t or don’t want to take gout drugs, the researchers said.
“Results of this trial are good news to patients with high blood levels of uric acid or those at risk for gout. A dietary approach to prevent gout should be considered first-line therapy,” senior author Edgar Miller III, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a university news release. “This study suggests that standard dietary advice for uric acid reduction — which is to reduce alcohol and protein intake — should now include advice to adopt the DASH diet.”
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