Miocene Meteorites and Uric Acid
Human beings lost the ability to detoxify uric acid millions of years ago. What implications does this have for our health today?
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Supplementary Info
Miocene Meteorites and Uric Acid,
Sources Cited
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Acknowledgements
Images thanks to: 36ophiuchi, Jay Matternes, H. Raab, and James Heilman, MD via Wikimedia Commons; and Don Davis, tedmurphy, and Stacey.
Transcript
It all started about 15 million years ago. It was the Miocene epoch. Things seemed to be going pretty good until, it seems, two flaming meteorites smashed into what’s now Germany with an estimated power of a couple million Hiroshimas. The crater looks quaint now, but at the time, there was a mass extinction event, wiping many animals out, but not the common ancestor of the Great Apes, of which we are one, who developed a mutation that may have allowed them to thrive. They lost the ability to detoxify uric acid. Why is that a good thing? Uric acid is naturally produced by the body and may help us hold onto fat, which is good when there’s not a lot of food around with the pesky asteroids and all. Also helps us retain sodium, which is good if you there aren’t a lot of salt shakers out on the savannah, and it acts chemically as an antioxidant, which is good since green tea hadn’t been invented yet. The problem is it’s a tightrope; you don’t want to have too much in your blood, which may be why other mammals retained an enzyme to get rid of the stuff. Fast forward 15 million years. When salt and calories abound, the last thing we need is more sodium and fat retention. But the antioxidant part we like. Unfortunately, not all antioxidant compounds are necessarily good for you. For example, the preservative BHA and work by preventing the oxidation of foods, but is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. Similarly, uric acid is chemically an antioxidant, but when you have too much in your blood it can crystalize in your joints, a disease called gout, and high uric acid levels may also put us at risk for high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and death. So keeping one’s uric acid levels low is an important dietary goal {and we'll explore how, tomorrow}.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Jonathan Hodgson.
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Doctor's Note
This is the first of a three part video series on sugar. What does uric acid have to do with sugar? Stay tuned for Friday’s video of the day Flesh and Fructose. Gout is one of the "diseases of kings" that used to only affect the 1%, the tiny minority eating rich diets. Now we can all dine like royalty three times a day and suffer from the same diseases. The "peasant food" choices, the cheapest plant foods, are often the healthiest. See Eating Healthy on the Cheap and Biggest Nutrition Bang For Your Buck. For more on the dangers of excess sodium consumption see Dietary Guidelines With a Grain of Big Salt and Salt OK if Blood Pressure is OK?. For more on eating based on our evolutionary heritage, see Paleolithic Lessons.
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