More Americans Developing Gout--Obesity to Blame

From Yahoo Health. I think "sugar denial" is to blame--denial of intake on the part of the patient, and denial of research findings acceptance on the part of the doctors. After all, there's a new gout drug on the market, and they've got to sell it to SOMEBODY, right? So why not create a few patients for it?

The same sort of thing happened with cholesterol, COPD, prostate cancer, arthritis, overactive bladder, and every other disease with a drug you've seen advertised on TV--these were all drugs in search of a patient base, so thresholds got lowered and more people suddenly "qualified" for treatment (as long as they had insurance).

"A growing number of Americans are being diagnosed with the painful form of arthritis known as gout -- thanks in large part, researchers say, to the national obesity epidemic.

Using data from a government health survey, researchers found that an estimated 4 percent of adults -- or 8.3 million people -- had gout in 2008. That compares with just over 1 percent between 1988 and 1994.

Rising rates of both obesity and high blood pressure appeared to account for most of the increase, said Dr. Hyon K. Choi, a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the senior researcher on the study.

The high prevalence of gout in recent years is not surprising, Choi told Reuters Health.

"It had been on the rise before," he said, "and there was no reason to believe that it would be slowing down, since risk factors are on the rise."

Choi has served as an advisor to Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which also funded the study.

Takeda makes the gout medication Uloric and had obtained the North American marketing rights for the diet pill Contrave, which was rejected by regulators earlier this year.

Gout is a very painful form of arthritis that causes the joints to periodically become swollen, red and hot -- most often affecting the big toe, though it also strikes the feet, ankles, knees, hands and wrists.

The condition arises when uric acid crystals build up in the joints. The body produces uric acid when it breaks down purines -- substances found naturally in the body, and in high concentrations in foods like organ meats, anchovies, mushrooms and some seafood, such as herring and mackerel.

Factors that boost the body's production of uric acid, or slow the removal of it, also raise the risk of gout. Besides obesity and high blood pressure, those factors include diabetes, taking certain medications -- like blood pressure drugs called thiazide diuretics -- and heavy drinking.

The current findings, reported in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, are based on data from a periodic federal health survey of U.S. adults.

Choi's team compared the 2007-2008 survey, which included 5,700 adults, with surveys done between 1988 and 1994, which involved nearly 19,000 men and women.

In the latest survey, about 4 percent of respondents said a doctor had diagnosed them with gout. That was true of only 1.2 percent of respondents in the earlier surveys.

Those numbers were backed up by objective tests as well. In the most recent study, more than 21 percent of men and women had high uric acid levels, versus only 3 percent in the 1988-94 surveys.

When Choi's team factored in obesity and high blood pressure rates, they appeared to account for the rising gout prevalence.

"The prevalence of gout is substantial," Choi said, "and it's likely related to the worsening obesity epidemic."

For the average American, he said, the findings underscore the importance of the lifestyle measures we should be taking anyway. That includes limiting red meat, drinking only in moderation, getting regular exercise and eating a well-balanced diet -- rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and unsaturated fats.

"That will help with not only gout," Choi noted, "but other conditions like diabetes and heart disease."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/nCVZqd Arthritis & Rheumatism, online July 28, 2011."

Skip the grains--get your fiber from plant material or coconut flour. Grains break down into sugar, which remains acidic in your system, and explains why gout patients shouldn't drink alcohol, soda, or even caffeinated coffee (black or otherwise). The Paleo diet should be perfect for gout patients as long as you keep the meat portions to no more than 3 oz. per meal, cover half your plate with non-starchy plant foods of some sort, and increase your calcium intake through food or supplements. Another trick I use is to make oil/vinegar salad dressings with lemon juice instead of actual vinegar--lemon juice is acidic going in, but the stomach acid turns it into an alkaline. Hubby's half-plate plant material is actually a salad with lemon juice vinaigrette, so he gets gout medicine every time he eats, and follows it up with calcium citrate supplements--I figure that should be more than enough to offset whatever acid the meat consumption may produce.

Cut the acid going IN, and you'll cut the acid WITHIN.

Unfortunately, you have to be a member or a paying customer to access the study directly. I have written about natural ways to cure gout with food (as opposed to abstaining from it, like the purine diet says to do--and is hopelessly out of date). My own nutritionist (CW medicine) said just to increase calcium intake to neutralize the acid, and the internet told me what foods are alkalinizing, and when they are most alkalinizing.

I can see how it would be easy to blame obesity--what is the usual and customary diet for obese people? The SAD diet--full of sugar, acid, and poison. These people are who the pills were invented for!

Just so you know, food isn't ALWAYS the cause of gout attacks--the weather, especially swift changes in barometric pressure, can also trigger attacks. No food or medicine can stop those, but a hyperbaric chamber can if you get beyond meds and foods.

Eating right for your gout, and consuming adequate levels of calcium CAN be a great attack preventative. My husband went for 4 1/2 years without an attack, and his purine levels remained in normal levels. He ate what he wanted (within Paleo limits), took calcium, and all was fine until a wicked nor'easter blew up from Florida and crawled along the east coast in slow motion, giving him an attack in his non-gout foot (at first, we weren't even sure it was gout, so he got checked out). A shot of cortizone, a little less meat, some extra calcium, and he was back on track in three days.

The cause of the attack, it turns out, was a sudden DROP in purine levels--it happens. So not only is osteoarthritis affected by low or high pressure fronts, but so is gout. My advice: watch the weather, and when a pressure front of any sort is coming, increase your intake of calcium and alkalinizing foods temporarily until it passes. Skip the Uloric or whatever you take now, and monitor your kidney function through urinalysis to see if you may be consuming too much calcium.