Gout is an intensely painful inflammatory form of arthritis. How coffee drinking relates to health has long been a topic of research. New findings, published in the June 2007 issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism, indicate that drinking 4 or more cups of coffee per day significantly reduces the risk of gout for men. The risk of gout was 40 percent lower for men who drank 4 to 5 cups of coffee per day and 59 percent lower for men who drank 6 or more cups of coffee per day when compared to men who never drank coffee. Men who drank decaffeinated coffee also had less risk of developing gout.

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Dr. Hyon Choi of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston analyzed data from questionnaires. About 50,000 men aged 40 to 75 with no history of gout participated by filling out detailed questionnaires about their diet and what they drank. Over 12 years of study follow-up, 757 men developed gout, but the risk was lower for those who drank more coffee. Approximately 50 percent of Americans drink two cups of coffee a day, on average.

Tea drinking and total caffeine intake were shown to have no effect on the incidence of gout. Researchers suggested that the gout-prevention benefit of coffee must be from an ingredient other than caffeine. For example, chlorogenic acid is a strong antioxidant which is in coffee and possibly responsible for reducing the risk of gout in men. Significantly lower levels of uric acid were found in the blood of study participants who consumed large quantities of coffee. Gout develops from an accumulation of excess uric acid in the body which causes uric acid crystals to deposit in the joints.

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