Uric acid is an end product of purine which is produced during metabolic activity in humans while in animals’ uric acid is converted into allantoin with the help of the uricase enzyme. A normal amount of uric acid in blood does not have any complication in our health system and easily pass out through urine. Our body maintains the equilibrium state through the balance between the production and disposal of uric acid. But sometimes it gets into a journey of imbalance, which is lead to a warning signal for the human body. The imbalance of uric acid in the body is caused by several internal factors or external factors. However, the amount of uric acid doesn’t only depend on endogenous metabolite purine availability even if it spikes by purine-based excess diets or external, that is how much purine base food consuming per day. Moreover, it also depends on renal balance where the kidney regulates the circulation of uric acid, and it is responsible for 60-70% of total body uric acid excretion.
Hyperuricemia is also known as an excess amount of uric acid deposition or urate monohydrate microcrystals in our body parts.
This is the main root cause of various complications in the human body as gout, rheumatic, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, chronic renal disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and even an increased mortality rate in humans. Where, gout is the most common disease as inflammatory arthritis that causes pain to a joint part of the body especially in the big toe joint, ankle, or knee.
Symptoms of hyperuricemia
The upper limit of the uric acid level in blood is 6.8mg/dL and more than 7mg /dL is considered hyperuricemia1 and developing symptoms or disease. It might be the first sign of joint stiffness in the body, several joints pain which may cause difficulty in movement of affected joint parts, redness and swelling joint parts of the body and it cause kidney stone by deposition of uric acid crystals thus it is the silent epidemic disease found among people. The hyperuricemia risk factor is found at the age of 30 to 50 years old age.
The reason behind hyperuricemia:
There are two possible reasons for developing hyperuricemia internal factors which might be difficult to control or manage. The internal factors such as cancer, kidney disease, hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, and sarcoidosis. Some cases found to be a deficiency in the enzyme which is responsible for abnormal purine metabolism causes overflow of uric acid in our blood and other enzymes are hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT) deficiency, phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetase over activity cause hyperuricemia1. Thus, genetic reasons may also increase the uric acid leveling in blood, such as Lesch-Nyhan syndrome which is an inborn error in enzyme uric acid metabolism to cause hyperuricemia.
On the other hand, external factors might be consumed externally purine-rich foods such as red meat, organ-meat products, small oily fish sardines, anchovies, and yeast extracts. Other vegetables also enhance the production of uric acid precursors such as asparagus, oatmeal, beans, peas, lentils, spinach, cauliflower, and mushrooms. We can manage externally purine base food in diets. However, some other way food item also gets direct contamination with uric acid by direct animal excreta from rodent, birds, and other animals. Therefore, several testing methods were developed as per national and international guidelines. FSSAI method no 03.007:2022 which is the following of the AOAC method no. 970.24, and it is applicable levels of more than or equal to 4 mg/100g in food items2. FSSAI regulates the limitation of uric acid contamination in food as per the commodity of food items. Hence as per the requirement of different national and international regulatory bodies, cultivator Phyto Lab provides world-class testing facilities for customers’ desired products.
Author : Bhoopendra Singh and Dr. Sanjoy Gupta
References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459218/#:~:text=Hyperuricemia%20is%20an%20elevated%20uric,a%20combination%20of%20both%20processes.
2. https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/CEREALS_AND_PRODUCTS.pdf