Vitamin C supplementation linked to modestly reduced incidence of gout

A new study conducted by Stephen Juraschek and team found that in middle-aged male physicians, vitamin C slightly decreased the likelihood of new gout diagnosis. The findings of this study were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A 500 mg/d vitamin C supplement may lower blood urate, according to short-term randomized trials, however vitamin E appears to have an opposite relationship with the risk of developing gout, according to observational research. In order to determine the impact of supplementary vitamin C (prespecified main exposure) and vitamin E (prespecified secondary exposure) on gout diagnosis, this study was carried out.

Data from the Physicians' Health Study II, a double-blind, factorial study of randomized vitamin C (500 mg/d) and vitamin E doses, were analyzed post hoc (400 IU every other day). The main result was new gout diagnosis, which were self-reported at baseline and during the whole follow-up of about 10 years.

The key findings of this study were:

1. In our research, 14,641 randomly assigned male physicians had mean ages of 64 ± 9 years, 1% of them were Black, and 6.5% of them had gout at the time of randomization.

2. Those who received vitamin C saw a lower incidence rate of new gout diagnoses during follow-up—8.0 per 1000 person-years versus 9.1 per 1000 person-years among those who received placebo.

3. The vitamin C assignment resulted in a 12% decrease in new gout diagnosis.

4. The BMI of individuals who experienced these effects was below 25 kg/m2. A new diagnosis of gout was not linked to vitamin E.

In conclusion, this study clearly states the efficiency of vitamin C in gout. More study is needed to investigate the effects of increased vitamin C dosages on serum urate and gout flares in individuals with established gout.

Reference:

Juraschek, S. P., Gaziano, J. M., Glynn, R. J., Gomelskaya, N., Bubes, V. Y., Buring, J. E., Shmerling, R. H., & Sesso, H. D. (2022). Effects of vitamin C supplementation on gout risk: results from the Physicians' Health Study II trial. In The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 116, Issue 3, pp. 812–819). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqac140