GoutPal Interactive

I don't for a minute doubt this connection.

Here's my history: (all irony intended.)

I have SEVER white coat hypertension and probably slight ACTUAL hypertension.

So, sometime in the mid 70's I went to a doctor after about 10 years. Aha, hypertension…thiazide diuretics. Okay, well and good (except they cause gout.) So, I am getting good BP results at home but always high in the doctor's office. Routine blood test: uric acid around 6.We go from one drug to another (there weren't many back then.) The only thing that works consistently is 50 mg. hydrochlorothiazide…it turns out that I am a SOLIDLY volume sensitive hypertensive (also called low-Renin.)

Okay, a year goes by and I am getting these weirdly crippling attacks of pain in one foot or the other, usually upper instep or outer ankle. I use a crutch for a couple days and the pain goes away. Somewhere along the way I have another routing blood test…uric acid is 9.0 (I say sounds like GOUT…doctor says, no that's normal for a male. <yep…that's what he said.>)

Somewhere in the early eighties I started getting a chest burn on running for a train…exertion mixed with anxiety. After about 5 years I got a burn mid chest walking briskly into a cold wind. Doctor prescribed a stress test. Cardilogist proclaimed my heart FINE, must be HYPERTENSION. This was cocurrent with my first real attack of killing podagra,,,pain of Hell, then I got on allopurinol.

 I went 10 more years and finally, after chest pain diring sex, went to see the best cardiologist in New York…he's in the book. I told him my symptoms and he said I had classic textbook angina and should have dealt with it 10 years ago. Threw me down and did angiogram and an immediate angioplasty and stent becasue my right coronalry artery was 99% blocked…I was surviving on collateral circulation.

So the story goes:

1. Treat hypertension to preserve heart

2. As a result of treatment, suffer raised uric acid, and near fatal damage to coronary arteries.

My logical conclusion is that the TREATMENT of hypertension causes heart disease.

If you have gout or wish to avoid it and you are male, DO NOT TAKE THIAZIDES…EVER!