“You have high uric acid,” he said.
“Classically, it occurs in the toes,” says Dr. Kroll.
Dr. Kroll recalls a recent visit from a patient who’d been consuming high amounts of protein in an effort to bulk up.
It turned out his uric acid level was extremely high.
Just like gout, uric acid stones (one of the more common types of kidney stone) are caused by a buildup of, you guessed it, uric acid.
During a recent check-up, my doctor reviewed my latest blood tests. As I watched his eyes work their way down the report, I wasn’t stressed. I work out often, play football a couple of times a week, and eat a relatively healthy diet. But then he paused. “You have high uric acid,” he said. “It’s a precursor to gout.”
Gout? As in, the Disease of Kings? I didn’t understand. Sure, men are four times more likely to develop gout than women, but as far as I knew, it was usually associated with conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes… and most prevalent in men in their sixties. As an active guy in his mid-thirties, with around 15% body fat, I hardly fit the profile.
What my doctor said next surprised me even more. “Do you eat a lot of protein?” He explained that consuming too much can increase uric acid levels and potentially lead to gout in otherwise fit and healthy people—such as myself. And with a daily protein intake of around 200 grams, my doctor explained, I was biting off more than my body could chew.
Fortunately, I was able to swerve gout, but the condition has grown increasingly common. Based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 3.9% of adults in the US (9.2 million people), had gout in 2016, and 5.9 million of those cases were men. Experts believe that our recent obsession with proteinmaxxing is partly to blame for this rise, along with an increase in the prevalence of gut issues. “This is a real thing,” says Dr. Spencer Kroll, an internal medicine specialist. “As we’re seeing this explosion of protein availability and encouragement, we're running into some problems.”
The gout, the bad, and the ugly
Gout is a type of arthritis that occurs when a buildup of uric acid causes sodium urate crystals to form in the joints. It’s generally considered to be the most painful form of arthritis. “Classically, it occurs in the toes,” says Dr. Kroll. “But gout can appear anywhere in your body—and the pain can be severe.” Many protein-rich foods, including red meat and some seafood, contain compounds called purines, which are converted to uric acid in the body—hence, the connection between protein and gout.
According to dietician Kylie King, gout has long been considered a product of genetics. But that was before protein became a buzzword and people started pushing the boundaries of consumption. “I remember distinctly when protein recommendations started to get really high, about five years ago,” she says. “I was suddenly having a lot of clients come in with these protein recommendations that were given to them by their personal trainers or what they were seeing online.”
The trend has only intensified since then, culminating in proteinmaxxing—a well-intentioned but decidedly misguided strategy to maximize protein intake at every possible turn. Dr. Kroll recalls a recent visit from a patient who’d been consuming high amounts of protein in an effort to bulk up. “He came into my office, hobbling, because he couldn't walk. It turned out his uric acid level was extremely high. The fix for him, in addition to giving him some acute medication for the pain, was to reduce the amount of protein—and, specifically, meat—that he was taking in.”
Stone-cold side effects
Speaking of painful conditions you’d probably rather avoid, consuming excessive protein can also put you at risk of developing kidney stones. Just like gout, uric acid stones (one of the more common types of kidney stone) are caused by a buildup of, you guessed it, uric acid. "It's usually going to result from higher protein—especially animal protein—in combination with low hydration,” says King.
