Shilajit, gout and uric acid: the evidence

If you have gout, or have been told your uric acid is high, you will find confident claims online that shilajit either raises uric acid or helps clear it. Neither claim is backed by research. We searched PubMed for shilajit, mumijo and momiai together with uric acid, urate, gout and hyperuricaemia, and found one relevant human study, done in healthy volunteers, and no studies at all in people with gout.

So this page is mostly about what we don’t know, plus one risk we can describe with some confidence: lead. Lead is a known cause of raised uric acid and gout, and some shilajit products contain it. Where we give advice below, it is a precaution, not a tested finding.

Does shilajit raise uric acid?

The one study that measured it found no significant change. In a 2003 study in India, 30 healthy volunteers aged 16 to 30 were split into a group of 20 who took 2 g of purified shilajit a day for 45 days and a group of 10 who took sugar capsules as a placebo. Uric acid was one of more than a dozen blood tests done before and after. The authors reported “no significant (p>0.05) effect” on uric acid, urea or creatinine, and concluded that shilajit did not adversely affect liver and kidney function (Sharma et al., 2003).

That is reassuring as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far:

• The group was small, so only a large change would have shown up as significant.
• Participants were healthy, with normal uric acid. People with gout handle uric acid differently, and nobody has tested them.
• The participants were young, aged 16 to 30, and none had gout.
• 45 days is short compared with how long people often take shilajit.

Other trials checked kidney function, which matters because the kidneys clear uric acid. Liver and kidney profiles were unchanged after 90 days of 200 mg a day in men with low sperm counts (Biswas et al., 2010), and creatinine and urea stayed stable after 28 days of 500 mg resin a day (Yadav et al., 2026). Neither reported uric acid.

Can shilajit treat gout or lower uric acid?

There is no evidence that it can. No human study has tested shilajit for gout or high uric acid. The only animal result we found is indirect: in rats with bone cancer, uric acid was one of several liver and kidney markers that moved back towards normal when shilajit was given with chemotherapy (Jambi and Abdulaziz Alshubaily, 2022). That says nothing about gout in people. Shilajit should never replace prescribed gout treatment. For what research does and doesn’t support, see shilajit benefits.

Why could contaminated shilajit be a problem for gout?

Because lead raises uric acid. Lead interferes with how the kidneys remove urate, and lead poisoning has long been known to cause a form of gout called saturnine gout, sometimes without other obvious signs of lead toxicity (Poór and Mituszova, 1989).

Even small amounts appear to matter. In a US survey of 6,153 adults aged 40 and over, people in the highest quarter for blood lead, at levels then considered acceptable, had a 3.6-fold higher risk of gout and a 1.9-fold higher risk of high uric acid than those in the lowest quarter, after allowing for kidney function, diuretics, weight and other factors (Krishnan et al., 2012). That was an observational study, so it shows an association rather than proof.

Shilajit can contain lead. A 2022 analysis found lead above permissible limits in Indian and Pakistani shilajit samples (Aldakheel et al., 2022). Taking an untested product every day for months is the scenario where this would matter most. Our page on heavy metals in shilajit explains the GB legal limits and how to check a lab certificate.

Is shilajit high in purines?

We don’t know. Purines in food are broken down into uric acid, so people with gout are often advised to limit high-purine foods. We found no published measurement of purines in shilajit. Chemical reviews describe it as more than 80% humic substances, with most of the rest minerals such as calcium, potassium and magnesium, plus smaller amounts of amino acids, fatty acids and plant compounds (Kamgar et al., 2025). The doses used in trials are also small, between 200 mg and 2 g a day. Neither point tells us its purine content, so treat claims either way with caution. See what shilajit is made of for more on its chemistry.

Does shilajit interact with gout medicines?

Nobody has tested it with allopurinol, febuxostat, colchicine or anti-inflammatory painkillers. There is also a single case report of mumijo causing high blood pressure and low potassium (Stavropoulos et al., 2018), which could be relevant to people with gout who also take blood pressure tablets or diuretics. Our drug interactions page covers the wider picture.

I have gout. Should I take shilajit?

Our precautionary advice, not based on any trial in people with gout:

• Talk to your GP or pharmacist first, especially if you take gout medicines, diuretics or blood pressure tablets, or have kidney disease.
• Only consider a product with a batch lab certificate showing lead below the GB limit of 3.0 mg/kg. Avoid untested raw resin.
• Stick to trial doses and don’t take it for longer than needed. See shilajit dosage.
• Stop and seek advice if you have more flares than usual after starting it. Your GP can check your uric acid level.

For other risks, see our safety overview.