I use the term Gout Remedy to describe a bunch of food and drink items that improve your gout diet and help your gout treatment.
The most famous gout remedy is cherry juice. Water is a close second. And as I’m writing about a bunch of others, we cannot forget onions.
Over the years, there have been several investigations into the properties of onions. Today, I present three brief investigation introductions, and I will create a more complete review for the Gout Remedy Reference pages soon.
Onion Anthocyanins Gout Remedy
Anthocyanins are commonly believed to be the reason why cherries and black been broth helps gout sufferers. As I was researching these plant compounds, I came across an investigation into the role of anthocyanins in medicine[1].
This investigation includes a small mention of onions in conjunction with other plant sources:
Various products of vegetable origin may be a source of these compounds, particularly fruits of aronia, black currant, raspberry, grapes, apples and also tomatoes, onion, garlic, hawthorn.
Thanks A Scallion
An investigation into antioxidant effects of green leaves from Welsh onion (scallions or spring onions), showed that a water-based extract could inhibit xanthine oxidase activity[2]. This is the same process by which allopurinol and febuxostat reduce uric acid.
The results showed that aqueous extract of Welsh onion green leaves in the range 0.05–1.0 mg/ml showed a potent concentration-dependent reduction of xanthine oxidase activity [...] The xanthine oxidase activity was measured by detecting uric acid formation.
Onion Uric Acid Gout Remedy
A later investigation looked at the specific effects of onion on uric acid in the blood and xanthine oxidase activity[3]. Unfortunately, the tests were done on rats, rather than humans, but I imagine killing the subjects to examine their chopped up livers is a limiting factor. I would settle for a blood test to see if similar uric acid reduction is repeatable. In this study, blood uric acid levels were reduced from 3.27 to 1.71 mg/dL after 7 days of 7g onion per kg body weight.
Onion Gout Remedy: Next Steps
These three investigations give strong suggestions that onions are a useful gout remedy to lower uric acid and possibly reduce inflammation. As usual, we need some real world studies on real gout patients. If anyone from an onion marketing organization is reading – get your hand in your pocket.
If you have your own uric acid test meter, you could conduct your own experiments, and share your results in the gout forum.
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Onion Gout Remedy: References
- Title: Anthocyanins in medicine. Authors: Kowalczyk E, Krzesinski P, Kura M, Szmigiel B, Blaszczyk J. Published: Pol J Pharmacol. 2003 Sep-Oct;55(5):699-702.
- Title: Protective effects of an aqueous extract of Welsh onion green leaves on oxidative damage of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Authors: BS Wang, SS Lin, WC Hsiao, JJ Fan, LF Fuh, PD Duh. Published: Food Chemistry, Volume 98, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 149-157.
- Title: Effects of onion on serum uric acid levels and hepatic xanthine dehydrogenase/xanthine oxidase activities in hyperuricemic rats. Authors: Haidari F, Rashidi MR, Keshavarz SA, Mahboob SA, Eshraghian MR, Shahi MM. Published: Pak J Biol Sci. 2008 Jul 15;11(14):1779-84.
