Posts Tagged diabetes

Gout in Women

Posted by Victor Konshin in General on April 16th, 2009

A friend of mine once asked, “Gout?  Isn’t that the old, rich, fat man’s disease?”  Besides being uncharitable, this statement is wrong on pretty much all counts.

  1. People are developing gout at a much younger age now days thanks to the high-fructose corn syrup and other unhealthy dietary habits, but it is still rare for anyone under the age of thirty to get gout – hardly ‘old’.
  2. Now days, you don’t need to be rich to live a sedentary lifestyle and eat the unhealthy foods that helped gout develop its reputation as being a rich person’s disease.
  3. Gout is mostly influenced by genetics, so even those that are not “fat” can get gout.
  4. It’s not just a man’s disease….

Gout: Not Just for Men Anymore

Gout has long been considered male disease because estrogen plays a powerful role in keeping uric acid levels down in women.  However, once women hit menopause, estrogen levels decrease and uric acid levels rise.  In fact, after menopause, women are just as likely to develop gout as men of the same age.
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Is Gout Dangerous?

Posted by Victor Konshin in General on April 6th, 2009

The overwhelming belief by most doctors is that gout is a relatively benign disease – that is, it may cause a lot of pain but really doesn’t cause too many problems otherwise.  Unfortunately this belief is wrong.  Gout is dangerous in a couple different ways. First is the damage that gout attacks directly cause.  Second is the underlying cause of gout, a condition called hyperuricemia is associated with many very serious and life-threatening diseases.

The Damage of Gout Attacks

As described in one of my previous post, Gout Basics, gout is cause by an immune response to uric acid crystals that form in the joints.  This immune response causes much inflammation, which is the actual source of the pain of a gout attack.  This inflammation also damages the joint slightly.  If gout is not properly managed, over the course of years and many gout attacks, this damage can accumulate and cause constant pain in the joint, limiting of the mobility of the joint (the joint will become stiff and painful to move), it will cause boney changes in the joints called punch-out lesions (where the bone grows in abnormal ways) and ultimately, it will cause the gout to become completely immobilized.
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