Hey everyone! Most of what we're focusing on in this class as far as arthritis goes is OA and RA, but I had some questions about gout because I hear about it so often.
I found this lay article published today (http://www.medicinenet.com/gout/article.htm) that had some good info in it. Here are some of the main points from the article:
-Gout results from excess uric acid in the blood that can condense and form uric acid crystals that get caught in the joints, causing pain and inflammation (arthritis).
-The actual correlation between hyperuricemia and gout isn't clear because some people with hyperuricemia do not develop gout.
-Gout is more common in men than women; other risk factors are: obesity, diuretic intake, high alcohol intake, kidney problems, hypertension, and eating a lot of meat because meat contains more purines, which increases uric acid levels.
-Acute gouty arthritis is most common in the big toe (weird!).
-Treatment for gout includes anti-inflammatory use (but not aspirin, as this increases uric acid levels), weight loss, decreased alcohol consumption, decreased organ meat intake, and increased dairy consumption.
Read more for more info. Some of you may already know all this, but I thought it was pretty interesting, and it is clearly very preventable.
Thank you for posting that link Caitlin. I found the information about gout arthritis very interesting and quite different from the forms of arthritis I am used to studying. The picture of the uric acid crystals made me have a lot of empathy for sufferers of gout arthritis. They look sharp, pointy, and just plain painful. I also found in interesting that daily intake of alcohol makes gout arthritis more severe. Most people think of arthritis as affecting the joints, but in gout arthritis, the skin around the affected joint can be affected as well. According to the article, even a blanket covering the skin over the affected joint could cause unbearable pain. Lastly, I found it interesting that the majority of gout arthritis sufferers are men. In arthritis in general, more women are affected than men.
ReplyDeleteThe link that you have posted is very helpful with gout arthritis. I find it interesting that acute gouty arthritis is most common in the big toe. This spot is so random. Is there a reason why it is most common in the big toe?
ReplyDeleteI believe that the treatments that they have suggested are very realistic: anti-inflammatory use, weight loss, decreased alcohol consumption, decreased organ meat intake, and increased dairy consumption. This article was extremely interesting and thank you for providing it.
Thank you for posting this article, it was very helpful and intriguing! I have never really heard of gouty arthritis before, and this article really good background information on the disease. I found it also weird that most commonly affected area was the big toe. So I did some research as found the reason that they think acute gout arthritis is most common in the big toe is because uric acid is sensitive to temperature changes and in cooler temperatures uric acid turns into crystals. Since the big toe is one of the farthest extremities of the body from the heart and thus one of the coolest parts of the body, its one of the most likely target of gout.
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