Eat high-fiber diet to cut inflammation caused by gout

Consuming a high-fiber diet may significantly induce the action of gut bacteria to help reduce inflammation associated with gout and possibly help the treatment of arthritis, researchers have found.

Gout is a metabolic disease in which monosodium urate crystals of uric acid a waste product in the blood form in the body's tissues or joints, causing inflammation and pain.

The study found that the action of gut bacteria, influenced by different types of food, can affect inflammation in the body. Diets that are high in fiber trigger bacteria in the gut to produce short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which induces neutrophil apoptosis and the resolution of inflammation.

The findings may have important implications for the treatment of gout, and possibly for the treatment of arthritis, the researchers said. "By understanding the way foods interact with living organisms, we may be able to create diets that help people with the disease, as well as their health overall," said Mauro M. Teixeira from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

For the study, the team used a high-fiber diet and treatment with SCFAs to prevent inflammation associated with the injection of monosodium urate crystals in the knees of mice. The results showed that injecting monosodium urate crystals affected a particular type of blood cells, easing inflammation, while improving anti-inflammatory cells in the knee joint, preventing knee damage and dysfunction.

The high levels of uric acid in the body in people with gout, the kidneys are unable to flush them easily out of the body. As a result, the MSU crystals form in the body's tissues or in the joints, where they collect in the fluids that keep bones moving smoothly and causing tissue to become inflamed and painful.

What we eat plays a determinant role in our capacity to fine tune the inflammatory response. This tuning inflammatory circuits by linking diet to microbial products can have a profound effect on an inflammatory disease in the joints, the researchers stated. The study was published in the Journal of Leukoctye Biology.