Abstract
Hyperuricemia is generally believed to be associated with life-style related diseases such as obesity, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. It is well known that aerobic exercise can help treat these diseases, though serum uric acid (SUA) is increased by exercise. The relationship between hyperuricemia and aerobic capacity, however, is not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the SUA and maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2 max). One-thousand five-hundred healthy Japanese males partici-pated in this study. All subjects performed three stages of a submaximal exercise test for 12 minutes to estimate VO_2 max on a cycle ergometer. Mean age, height, body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), and VO_2 max of the subjects were 49.4 ± 7.0 (± SD) years, 165.9 ± 5.0cm, 65.2 ± 7.7kg, 23.7 ± 2.5 and 31.8 ± 7.3ml/kg/min, respectively. The mean SUA concentration at rest was 5.9 ± 1.2mg/dl. Hyperuricemia ( SUA concentration > 7.0 mg/dl) was found in 275 subjects (18.3%). The SUA concentration was positively correlated with BW (r = .212), BMI (r = .254), serum triglyceride concentration (r = .255), and negatively correlated with serum HDL / total cholesterol concentration (r = -.205) ( all correlations were significant at p< .05). There was also a significant correlation between SUA and VO_2 max (p< .05), though the correlation coefficient was small in magnitude (r = -.107). Hyperuricemic subjects showed significantly lower VO2 max values than normouricemic subjects (30.6 vs 32.0ml/kg/min, p< .05). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that VO_2 max was not a significant predictor of hyperuricemia as demonstrated by an odds ratio of 1.08 (95% confidence interval: 0.79 - 1.47). These results suggest that hyperuricemia may result from hyperlipidemia due to inactive life-styles and excessive body weight rather than fitness levels per se.
