Le Chatelier and eliminating red meat!

joejo

Using Le Chatelier's principle to explain why eliminating red meat from your diet can reduce build-up of sodium urate in joints....

Can anyone help me understand this more....

this is what im thinking....

The lese consumption of red meat results in decreased concentration of urate ions in the blood. From Le Chatelier’s principle we know that “ if a change occurs in one of the factors such as temp pressure etc the system will tend to adjust itself in such a manner so as to undo the effect that produces it..” Since we know that equilibrium constant remains constant so when urate ions conc. decreases the sodium salt conc. also decreases. Hence the explanation.

Am I on the right track...Can someone help me understand this more clearly!

GCT

Sounds alright, although I'm not sure if the diet will help to remove the urate, or is it rather not contributing to the further formation of urate; from the wording of the question I think your on the right track.

You might wish to explain it more technically, as some TA/professors despise perfunctory answers to these type of questions...

Decreasing the urate concentration will change the relative rates of reactions: At equilibrium the rates of forward and reverse reactions are the same. By decreasing the concentration of urate, the rate of formation of sodium urate will decrease relative to the rate of formation of urate and thus reaction will shift towards formation of urate through consumption of sodium urate.