Vitamin C has been recognized as having uric acid lowering properties, and is being suggested more and more as a gout treatment.
Though research has covered various aspects of vitamin C and gout, there are no clear guidelines as to how much is the best dose. Neither have there been any studies into long-term aspects of vitamin C as a gout treatment.
Over the years, there have been a number of forum discussions about vitamin C, and I summarize those below. I am also including all the relevant research into vitamin C, uric acid, and gout into the Treatment Of Gout Research pages. The first of these is complete at Vitamin C & Uric Acid.
Vitamin C and Gout Forum Summary
The old forums included the following:
Paids said:
I’ve been taking approximately 10 grams of Vitamin C a day and drinking a lot of water. I have noticed a great improvement in range of motion of my knee. And, my joints don’t feel as stiff. I haven’t bought the “kit” to test my uric acid levels to see any verifiable changes. I realize I need to get my uric acid levels down to below the 6 mg/l level to dissolve all the uric acid crystals in my knee joint.Also, I never had a gout flare-up in my big toes. No flare up at all. My first and only indication of high levels of uric acid was swelling of my left knee (previous injury). Unable to properly bend it.
I know Vitamin C has a uricosuric affect meaning it helps the kidneys process more uric acid out of the blood stream. I guess my question is: has anyone else tried Mega-doses of Vitamin C?
This was followed by a few comments suggesting that very large doses of vitamin C might cause other problems, but no specific evidence was put forward.
Another forum member, davidk, started a discussion following advice from his rheumatologist that vitamin C and skim milk were both good for gout. The skim milk aspect is separate, but if you are interested in this, please see the pages at . In this discussion, there is an interesting point about possible mechanisms of vitamin C with respect to uric acid:
zip2play said:
Here’s another shred of evidence from an ancient study from the Journal of Biological Chemistry (1952)
SUMMARY
A study has been made on the relationship between l-ascorbic acid and purine catabolism in vivo. High levels of ascorbic acid administered to guinea pigs inhibit their liver xanthine oxidase activities to a minor degree.
As zip2play points out, this is a very old study, and does not appear to be mentioned in recent research. Maybe because it is a non-human investigation, it is deemed not relevant.
Other discussions discussed various doses of 1000mg, 1500mg, and 2000mg per day of vitamin C for gout, but no conclusions were reached.
Vitamin C and Gout: Next Steps
If you have experience of vitamin C and gout, please share your views here.
Leave the Vitamin C And Gout discussion to browse the Vitamin C And Gout guidelines.
I’ve just seen a reference to more vitamin C research. So I don’t forget to investigate it, I’ll add it here:
I don’t know if I can post this here or not, but please check out this book, Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C. Go to Amazon and check out all of the reviews. I was reading about Vitamin C at a website that has some excellent info about it, and I found this link to that book. It’s by Drs. Steve Hickey and Hilary Roberts. I just ordered it, and it looks like a wonderful book about the research into Vitamin C.