MedWire News: Drinking milk enriched with certain dairy fractions could cut down the frequency of gout flares among patients who suffer recurrent bouts of the condition, a proof-of-concept study reveals.
Patients who drank the enriched skim milk preparation, which contained added glycomacropeptide (GMP) and G600 milk fat extract (G600), also had reduced pain and increased uric acid excretion, as well as possible reductions in tender joint measures.
Reporting their findings in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Professor Nicola Dalbeth (University of Auckland, New Zealand) and colleagues explain that intake of skim milk proteins has an acute urate lowering effect, while GMP and G600 have already been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects in experimental gout models.
To investigate further, the team randomly assigned 120 patients with recurrent gout flares to drink one of three different vanilla-flavoured milkshakes daily, containing lactose powder only (control), skim milk powder only, or skim milk with added GMP and G600.
The frequency of gout flares reduced in all three groups over the 3-month study. However, there was a significantly greater reduction in flares in the group that drank skim milk enriched GMP and G600 compared with the control group. The reduction in flare frequency was similar among those who drank skim milk only and those in the control group.
The enriched skim milk group also had greater reductions in mean flare pain scores compared with the control group, as well as increased fractional excretion of uric acid compared with both the other groups.
The researchers add that there was a trend towards greater improvement in tender joint count compared with the other groups, although there was no difference in swollen joint count. Finally, they note that adverse event rates and discontinuation rates were similar among the three groups.
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