A post-hoc analysis depicted that supplemental vitamin C moderately lowers new gout diagnoses risk among middle-aged male clinicians. Stephen P Juraschek et al. aimed to assess the impact of supplemental vitamin E  (400 IU every other day, pre-specified secondary exposure) and vitamin C (500 mg/day, pre-specified primary exposure) on gout diagnoses. An assessment of data was conducted from Physicians’ Health Study II, a randomized trial of vitamin C and vitamin E.

A total of 14,641 male physicians with a mean age of 64 years were randomized and 6.5% were suffering from gout before randomization. New gout diagnoses, self-indicated at baseline and during the follow-up period of up to ten years were the major endpoint ascertained. During follow-up, the rate of occurrence of new gout diagnosis among those given vitamin C and placebo, is shown in Table 1:

Vitamin C supplementation decreased novel gout diagnoses by 12% (Hazard ratio [HR]: 0.88). These impacts were highest among those with a body mass index of  <25 kg/m2. No correlation was found between vitamin E and new gout diagnosis (HR: 1.05). Hence, vitamin C administration appears to be valuable to minimize the risk of novel gout diagnoses.