The Metabolic Marker You’re Not Tracking (But Should)
What your uric acid levels reveal about your metabolism, blood pressure, and disease risk
Your doctor checks your cholesterol. Maybe your blood sugar. If you’re lucky, your A1C.
But there’s one marker that predicts your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, and fatty liver, and almost nobody tracks it.
I’m talking about uric acid.
Uric acid is a substance your body makes when cells break down naturally and when you eat certain foods. Your kidneys normally filter it out. But when it builds up, it can signal your body to store fat, raise blood pressure, and resist insulin
Most doctors only measure uric acid when they suspect gout. The rest of the time, this critical marker flies completely under the radar while it quietly wrecks your metabolism.
Here’s what the research shows:
For every 1 mg/dL your uric acid rises above 7, your risk of dying from any cause increases by 8 to 13%. Your cardiovascular disease risk jumps 38%. Your stroke risk climbs 35%.
A major 2018 study of 90,000 adults found that uric acid levels above 5.5 mg/dL correlate with increased cardiovascular and metabolic risk. That’s well below the point where gout typically develops and well below what your doctor considers “normal.”
But here’s the problem: the standard lab “normal” range for uric acid is 2.5 to 7 mg/dL for men and 1.5 to 6 mg/dL for women.
Those ranges are based on population averages, not metabolic health.
If you’re sitting at 6.8 mg/dL, your doctor will tell you everything looks fine (if he even orders the lab in the first place). Meanwhile, your metabolism is quietly deteriorating.
I keep my uric acid below 5.5 mg/dL. I test it regularly. And there’s a specific protocol to keep it low.
The paid section includes:
Why uric acid signals “winter is coming” to every cell in your body
The fructose problem nobody talks about
The dietary triggers that spike uric acid
The exact supplement protocol for lowering uric acid
How to test and what your target range should be
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