Gout Pal Interactive

Whilst looking for information about uric acid, I came across an interesting piece about Alzheimer’s disease and uric acid.

In the article, Mathilda refers to some recent research about uric acid as a potential cure for Alzheimer’s, or at least a way to hold the progression of the disease.

The research in this article follows on from a piece I did last year explaining how uric acid could reduce nerve damage. The researcher, Professor Firestein, pointed out to me that maintaining an adequate level of uric acid in the body is important.

There are a few more important points about uric acid, Alzheimer’s disease and related medical conditions and treatments.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: alzheimers, alzheimers disease, _uric acid

Thanks to The Wellness Site for this image

I’d never heard of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) until a recent question from a gout sufferer suggested a link with gout and PKD.

Coincidentally, I spotted a PKD article on my Gout Related News Page, entitled “Potential New Treatments For Polycystic Kidney Disease”.

As you may know, the Gout News Page contains an automatically updated feed from Medical News Today. As well as gout news, I include other topics of interest to gout sufferers. As PKD has been mentioned recently in the Gout Forum, I was drawn to this article.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: PKD, Polycystic Kidney Disease

This answers the short gout question, “food list high in potassium.”

I have produced a table that lists foods high in potassium. Most gout sufferers should not worry about potassium. If you eat a healthy gout diet (see my gout diet Section), you will get adequate amounts of potassium.

The right amount of potassium is important for good health, but you must not eat too much. You must Read the rest of this entry »

Sudo Gout, Pseudo Gout, or Pseudogout?

I was discussing gout with a friend yesterday, when we got onto the topic of pseudo gout. I have written about this many times before, but never known whether I should call it psuedo gout or pseudogout.

My friend mentioned that he had searched the Internet for information about pseudo gout after his doctor told him he might be suffering from it, but couldn’t find any. I expressed surprise, and mentioned that I had written about it on my gout information site and my gout discussion site, and both these are regularly found by search engines. I sat at his computer, and showed my pseudo gout postings here on Gout Pal Interactive. Then the penny dropped - with the complexities of our language, and the fact that he had never seen the term written down, he was looking for sudo gout.

If you are struggling to find information about this gout like condition, try psuedogout or pseudo gout (not sudo gout or sudogout)

Tags: pseudogout, sudo gout, _pseudo-gout, _sudogout

100% Of GoutPal Can Stay

Why do gout sufferers need to know about chocolate?
Because my news page just told me that chocolate can lower blood pressure, and for nearly half of all gout patients that is good news.

I told you about high blood pressure (hypertension) and gout sufferers in my second newsletter ^(*). I am one of the 49% of gout sufferers who also have high blood pressure.

Journal of the American Medical Association has recently reported about research into Effects of Low Habitual Cocoa Intake on Blood Pressure. They found that eating 6.3g of dark chocolate for 18 weeks:
reduced average blood pressure
did not increase body weight, fatty acids or glucose.
reduced the number of participants with hypertension from 86 to 68 in every hundred

Blood pressure of participants who ate white chocolate did not change.

The authors conclude that:

small amounts of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate as part of a usual diet efficiently reduced BP (blood pressure)

So that 100g bar of 70% choccy that I just ate should have done me some good?

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^(*)If you have not read about hypertension in gout sufferers, you should subscribe to my newsletter. You will get a link to the back issues when you do. Look for the second issue.

Tags: gout-sufferers, _hypertension

Statistics show that many gout sufferers also have heart problems. Medical men argue whether one causes the other or if they are a common consequence of heredity, bad diet or lifestyle choices. Today I’ll tell you about a new study that shows that gout and heart disease are linked. You will see that, if you suffer from either condition, you must take treatments that will help both.

Back in 2005, researchers analysed thousands of gout patients, looking for links between gout and other illnesses. Their study, Gout and the Risk of Acute Myocardial Infarction, proved that gout patients had more heart attacks than people without gout. But how are the two linked?

Critics pointed to the fact that the study was based on statistical analysis of medical records. This type of study, known as epidemiological, is a common way that researchers can establish health trends in populations to identify, amongst other things, risk factors associated with various diseases. Whilst not denying the validity of these statistics, many claim that the value is limited - giving no indication whether diseases are linked by more than mere coincidence caused by common factors.

The latest study is a clinical, case-controlled review of over 700 patients, approximately half of these being heart disease sufferers. Independent association of high serum uric Acid concentration with angiographically defined coronary artery disease, proves that high uric acid is directly linked to heart disease. It also suggests that high uric acid could be used clinically as a marker for increase risk of heart attack.

People have wondered about a link between heart disease and gout for years. It now seems that, after years of study, there is a clear indication that the two conditions are linked. It may be many more years before anyone learns how the two are linked. For now, you must be careful that the choices you make for gout, including what you eat, do not aggravate other conditions such as heart disease. I’ll be looking at this in more detail in my gout diet plan, and other lifestyle and treatment articles. What is important for now, if you suffer from gout or heart disease, you must take treatments that help both conditions.

Tags: _gout, _heart disease

“Do not use aspirin with gout” has been the cry for decades.
Scientists have said low dose aspirin can help heart disease and stroke, but not treat gout because it raises uric acid.

Many believed that high dosage aspirin could help reduce pain and swelling in gout, but low dosage made it worse. A new study has shown that low dosage aspirin has no effect on uric acid levels, so it should be OK to treat gout. Low-Dose Aspirin Use and Serum Urate Levels: A Population Based Propensity Analysis studied nearly 2000 subjects. It concludes that “Low-dose aspirin use was not associated with increase of serum urate levels”

2008 Update

I’ve changed the link for this report to my recent review. It appears that the jury is still well and truly out on the subject of low-dosage aspirin and uric acid.

If you take low dose aspirin, and you have gout, or if you are at risk of gout, please see a doctor as soon as you can to discuss your best options.

Do you take aspirin, or have you been told to avoid aspirin because of gout? Please share your views and experiences in the GoutPal Forum.

Tags: treat gout, _aspirin, _gout cures, _heart disease, _uric acid

Your messages.
My research.
News alerts.
Every week I hear about a new gout remedy.
Many are just an excuse to lighten your pockets.
This one is simple - stop snoring.

Well, not quite that simple, but read on…

When we think of gout remedies, we usually think of pain killers and uric acid lowering drugs. Many people look for natural remedies, but these are only alternatives to the standard “treat the symptom” medicines.

What if we could find a gout remedy that treats the cause? Somebody has.

Burton Abrams has shown, conclusively, that sleep apnea is a common cause of raised uric acid levels and gout. As he says at Curing Gout - My Personal Discovery: -

reduction of oxygen in the blood, which results from sleep apnea, has been shown to cause the cells in the body to begin to disintegrate and generate an excess of uric acid in the blood. Also, the percentage of carbon dioxide in the blood increases, which makes the blood more acidic and increases the likelihood of uric acid precipitation in the form of monosodium urate

I won’t repeat everything on the site. It’s a concise summary of sleep apnea with well researched links to gout, including personal experience. I urge you to go and read it now, then come back here and tell me what you think.

You can comment below, or let me know with a private message. Better still, please join the debate on my gout forum. I’d love to here about your experience. I’ll summarize experiences and opinions on GoutPal.com.

Sleep apnea is not always easy to diagnose, but it’s a lot easier to treat than gout. If your gout is caused by sleep apnea, then curing it is a surefire gout remedy.

A question from a reader today prompted me to take another look at my pseudogout page.
Everything was OK - just a bit missing about causes and potential treatments.

Pseudogout Causes

Though we know that pseudogout is caused by a buildup of calcium joints, we do not know all the reasons for this buildup.

Risks increase with age. 3% of people in their 60s get it, rising to 50% in their 90s. Pseudogout affects men and women equally. In general, their may be a hereditary risk factor. Dietary calcium does not appear to affect calcium deposits.

Specific factors that can trigger pseudogout are:

• Excessive calcium in the blood (hypercalcemia)
• Excess iron storage (hemochromatosis)
• low magnesium levels in blood
• overactive parathyroid gland
• severely underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)

Pseudogout Treatments

I have said that there are no known treatments for pseudogout, other than pain relief. The pain relief options are similar to those listed on my gout pain relief page. However, if pseudogout is caused by one of the underlying conditions I listed above, then treating that can slow down the development of pseudogout.

As with gout, it is important to consult a rheumatologist if you have, or suspect pseudogout. You can find a local rheumatologist on the College of Rheumatology website. Their listing of rheumatologists covers the USA and most other countries.

If you have experience of pseudogout, please tell me in the comment box below, or on my Contact Form.

Tags: pseudogout, sudo gout, _pseudo-gout, _sudogout

I got another interesting message recently that set me researching gout and stress.

It’s very early days yet, but I thought I’d better make a start now before I get bogged down in my gout diet plan. I’m hoping that if I set the ball rolling here, some better informed readers might guide me in the right direction.

I’ve come up with a couple of references. The first stress and gout article I came across is a 1972 article by Katz and Weiner. The report looks at hyperuricemia (excess uric acid - the forerunner to gout). Psychosomatic Considerations in Hyperuricemia and Gout concludes that:

“… the possible influence of stressful, psychosocial events on serum uric acid level make gout a potentially fertile area for psychosomatic research.”

The full text of this stress and gout article is available online.

The second reference is from Murray in 1980. Psychosomatic aspects of gout states (in the abstract):

Hyperuricemia is the specific biochemical vulnerability of gout sufferers. However, hyperuricemia is much more frequent than gout. Gout also is more frequent in men; after menopause gout attacks become more frequent in women; psychosocial factors, like stressful life events, tension, and anxiety can trigger attacks of gout, which modern pharmacology can moderate and control.

I need to try and find the full article - if you’ve got a copy I’d love to see it.

Please tell me about your experiences of gout and stress. You can comment below, or via my contact page (button near top of page).