Uric acid Serum Uric Acid (UA)
A waste product left over when your body breaks down parts of food and old cells.
Also printed asUA · Urate
What it measures
A waste product from protein-rich food, alcohol, fructose and normal cell turnover.
Can crystallise in joints as gout and in the kidney as stones, and it climbs alongside insulin resistance and blood pressure.
Why it matters for how long you stay well
It travels with insulin resistance, high blood pressure and a fatty liver, so a raised reading is usually a message about your metabolism rather than a problem standing alone.
How it shows up in daily life
When it climbs it can settle in a joint, most often the base of the big toe, and wake you at night with sudden pain.
High and low readings
When it reads high
Can crystallise in joints and often travels with sugar and weight issues.
When it reads low
Low is rarely a concern.
What moves it
Daily life
- beer and spirits
- sugary drinks and fruit sugar
- red meat and organ meat
- crash dieting or long fasts
- not drinking enough water
Medicines known to shift it
- diuretics (raise it)
- allopurinol (lowers it)
- NSAIDs (can raise it)
Listed so a result can be read in context. It is not advice to start, stop or change any medicine; that decision belongs with your physician.
Read it with
Markers that move this one, or that this one moves. One number read alone can mislead.
- Fasting insulinKnown mechanism
Fasting insulin pushes it up
High insulin tells your kidneys to hold on to uric acid instead of passing it out. So uric acid rises for a reason that has nothing to do with your joints.
- eGFR, your kidney filtering rateKnown mechanism
eGFR pulls it down
Your kidneys are what clears uric acid out of the blood. As filtering slows, uric acid backs up for reasons that have nothing to do with your plate.
Common questions
What does Serum Uric Acid measure?
A waste product from protein-rich food, alcohol, fructose and normal cell turnover. Can crystallise in joints as gout and in the kidney as stones, and it climbs alongside insulin resistance and blood pressure.
What does a high Uric acid result usually mean?
Can crystallise in joints and often travels with sugar and weight issues.
What does a low Uric acid result usually mean?
Low is rarely a concern.
What is the usual reference range for Uric acid?
A broad adult reference band is 3.5–7 mg/dL. For women the band is 2.5–6 mg/dL. Labs differ, so read your result against the band printed on your own report.
Educational only, not a diagnosis. A single number means little without your history and the rest of your panel, so discuss your own results with your physician.
Typical adult reference band
- Men
- 3.5–7 mg/dL
- Women
- 2.5–6 mg/dL
Labs differ. The band printed on your own report is the one that applies to your result.
Reported in mg/dL
Ageing relevance
4/5
A strong independent predictor of illness and mortality in large cohorts.
Worth knowing
Most mammals break uric acid down further; our ancestors lost that enzyme, which is why we carry more of it than almost any other animal.
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