Gout is a painful disease in which one is literally stuck by thousands of needles. These needles, which settle in the soft tissues around joints and cause inflammation, are crystals of uric acid combined with sodium. When substances forming the nuclei, or business centers, of cells break down, uric acid is liberated.

Provided pantothenic acid is present, uric acid is converted into urea and ammonia; both of which are quickly excreted in the urine. Individuals with gout may be too deficient in pantothenic acid to change uric acid readily into these harmless substances or they produce uric acid in such excessive amounts that it cannot be eliminated quickly. Some patients with gout excrete 18 times more uric acid than do normal persons. Gout has been accidentally produced by drugs that have injured the kidneys, thus preventing uric acid from being excreted at the normal rate.

Another Stress Disease

Long before the body's reaction to stress was understood, medical dictionaries listed "poor man's gout" as being caused by "hard work, exposure, ill feeding, and excessive use of alcohol." It is now recognized that attacks of gout occur immediately after some form of stress. The millions of body cells destroyed during the alarm reaction free quantities of uric acid, which may be neutralized by sodium and shunted into the tissues. Young men submitting to the stress of being immersed in cold water for only eight minutes showed a marked rise in blood uric acid, which was "significantly decreased" when the same experiment was repeated after large amounts of pantothenic acid had been given daily for six weeks. Furthermore, the amount of uric acid remained low for four months after the vitamin was discontinued.

In contrast, during the severe stress of several weeks of fasting, the amount of uric acid in the blood of obese patients became increasingly higher until some developed gout. These patients were given vitamins A, B1, B2, D, and niacin amide but only 75 milligrams of vitamin C daily and no pantothenic acid whatsoever.

An inadequate diet alone can impose sufficient stress to cause gout. For instance, persons deficient in vitamin B1 have developed gout which was relieved when 10 to 20 milligrams of the vitamin was given daily. Similarly, gout has been produced in animals by the stress of an inadequate diet alone can impose sufficient stress to cause gout. For instance, persons deficient in vitamin B1 have developed gout which was relieved when 10 to 20 milligrams of the vitamin was given daily. Similarly, gout has been produced in animals by the stress of a vitamin-A deficient diet. Since gout occurs in families, people subject to this disease may have hereditarily high requirements for pantothenic acid or other nutrients necessary to protect the body from stress. Any form of stress quickly exhausts the supply of pantothenic acid, thus preventing uric acid from being changed to urea; therefore uric acid accumulates, resulting in gout. The fact that stresses come and go appears to be the reason gout is characterized by attacks and periods of quiescence.

The role played by vitamin E

A lack of vitamin E particularly damages the cell nucleus from which uric acid is produced; and persons deficient in this vitamin form uric acid in excessive amounts. Without sufficient vitamin E, essential fatty acids forming part of the actual structure of the cell walls, cell contents, and nuclei are so harmed by oxygen that the cell disintegrates; simultaneously, cell-destroying enzymes in the tissues increase 15 to 60 times more than normal. Though most animals change uric acid into a substance known as allantoin, when kept on a vitamin-E-deficient diet for only a month, they may produce eight times more uric acid (allantoin) than do normal animals. Even if the deficiency is only slight, they excrete twice as much uric acid (allantoin) as when adequately fed, though production of uric acid decreases quickly when vitamin E is given.

Centuries ago gout was extremely common among the wealthier class, who, because little other food was available, lived mostly on meats. Without refrigeration, so much of the meat became putrid and the fat rancid that the demand for spices to make such meat edible caused the great urgency to find trade routes to the Orient. Though I do not know why, it amuses me to point out that America was discovered because of spoiled meat. The fact that rancid fat destroys vitamin E with lightning speed undoubtedly induced deficiencies of this vitamin, which in turn caused a tremendous destruction of body cells; and the excessive release of uric acid resulted in a high incidence of gout. After many types of foods became available and refrigeration was introduced, gout became less prevalent, but now that diets are markedly deficient, it is again on the increase.

A lack of vitamin E may still be a causative factor in gout. Oils, mayonnaise, or salad dressings not refrigerated after being opened, fats kept in a dripping can on the back of a range, and nuts not packed in vacuum cans are often sufficiently rancid to destroy this vitamin. Moreover, our diets today contain only a fraction of the vitamin E they did a century ago; and what little there is available is largely destroyed in cooking. Because fresh oils are being used now in greater quantities than formerly, the need for this vitamin has increased tremendously.