Uric acid is known to play a very important role in the production of disease. Many eminent English and French physicians have shown that uric acid is responsible for the greater number of diseases with which humanity is afflicted. This is undoubtedly true, hence the importance of a thorough understanding of the conditions which bring about the formation of uric acid. The body is always producing uric acid and must of necessity do so. This arises from the fact that we must have nitrogenous food, otherwise we could not exist, The ingestion or taking in of such food into the body results always in the production of urea. Uric acid is a compound of urea, and is often regarded as imperfectly oxidized urea. When nitrogenous food is perfectly oxidised, or burned, within the body, it is carried off through the kidneys, but an excess cannot be burned for the reason that the supply of oxygen is insufficient, hence uric acid is left in the blood, as a result of this deoxidation, or lack of burning out, process. So we perceive that uric acid is an excre-mentitious substance, resulting from the metabolism or ingestion of nitrogenous food. The principal nitrogenous foods, also known under the names of albumens or proteids, are nuts, peas, beans, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, and the various grains to a lesser extent. An increase of uric acid results first of all from an excess of diet, containing more or less nitrogenous food, whether of animal or vegetable origin; secondly from disturbed digestion as well as generally insufficient nutrition. Moreover, it is found to be increased in all febrile conditions, and especially in affections of the respiratory organs and disturbances of the circulation. Uric acid appears constantly in the blood in gout and rheumatism. It has further been found in the spleen, kidneys, lung tissue, heart, pancreas, brain and liver. If uric acid is taken into the body it is decomposed normally into carbonic acid and urea, but yields also oxalic acid, a powerful poison, whenever the process of oxidation has undergone a retardation in any way. The uric acid diathesis or constitution is a common accompaniment of most chronic diseases, an evidence of the mal-assimilation of food. Food especially has a decided and powerful influence on the quantity of uric acid excreted, so has violent bodily exercise, as wheeling or athletic games, fatiguing work, a night of revelry, etc. More uric acid is passed with a purely animal diet than with a mixed diet; and more with a mixed diet than with a vegetable diet; least of all is passed during complete abstinence from food.

Overeating Produces Uric Acid

One of the most prolific causes of uric acid formation in the body, and one which has been overlooked on account of the greater prominence being given to the other sources of this compound, is that resulting from disturbed or perverted digestion, produced from overeating and overdrinking - surfeiting.

This uric acid formation may follow as a result purely from the excess of food in general, or from the excess of one particular kind of food - the nitrogenous, otherwise known as the albumens or proteids. Nature builds up the body with whatever products are furnished her, building up and tearing down within the body quite as well as she does outside of the body. The imperfect oxidation of food, especially of nitrogenous food, is an exceedingly intricate problem for physiologists to work out. Attention has been called in another chapter to what takes place in the imperfect oxidation of sugar, starch and salts of the vegetable acids, in which they are, under certain conditions, transformed into oxalates and oxalic acid; that is, made to act as poison. In other words food, harmless in itself, is made to become poisonous through conditions of excess.

If one wishes to be free of uric acid, the most important matter of all is to eat food in moderation and never to excess; secondly to eat those foods which either do not contain uric acid at all, or from which uric acid cannot be made. The foods which answer to these requirements are the fruits, cereals, and some vegetables. The foods which should be used sparingly at all limes are the nitrogenous or proteid; these are the foods which are more likely to become dangerous under conditions of excess, than foods of any other kind.

The human body may be aptly compared to a furnace. If the draught of air be free, the fuel dry, and its quality and quantity properly adapted, the resulting combustion is almost ashless and the fire is perfection itself. So with the body when fed with the right quantity and kind of food, properly aerated and exercised, the result is a man without disease - the perfect man. Life has been well compared to a flame, a consuming fire. The flame a consummation of the vital and chemical processes occurring within the body, resulting in a genial glow of warmth, which quickens and vitalizes every nerve and fibre of the body.

"Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us."