Gout Linked To Increased Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Content

• What Causes Gout?
• Wellness Wisdom Video Extra: Blood Sugar And Your Heart
• Problems With The Fructose And Uric Acid Hypothesis
• Clinical Studies: The Importance Of The Control Group
• Natural Remedy For Gout: Cut Back On Flour, Sugar And High Glycemic Foods

Gout occurs when surplus uric acid coalesces into crystals, which causes inflammation in the joints. Our chances for having gout increase with factors that cause us to develop hyperuricemia. They include being obese, drinking too much alcohol, family history, eating or drinking foods high in fructose, using diuretics or water pills, and having a diet high in purines, which are found in red meat, organ meats and certain types of seafood. Type 2 diabetes has been identified as a possible cause of gout because hyperglycemia and insulin resistance allow uric acid to build up in the blood.

Is gout curable or not?

Gout can be extremely painful and incapacitating but is extremely treatable in almost all patients. It's important to identify and treat it early to avoid pain and complications. Gout is a major problem in the foot, but it can also involve many other joints.

It may be that those who eat spinach are generally health-conscious and those who eat meat, which is most people, are not as health-conscious compared to the those who regularly eat spinach. This makes sense as most Americans do not eat much dark leafy greens. Historically, and sometimes presently, gout has been treated by the removal or limiting of high purine foods from the diet–namely animal protein. This is because of how animal protein increases the body’s uric acid levels. This would leave carbohydrates as the main source of calories in the diet. ICD-9-CM diagnostic codes for each condition used for outcome, cohort eligibility, and covariate definitions.

What Causes Gout?

Gout causes intense pain and swelling in single joints, most often the feet, especially the joint at the base of the big toe. More than 3 million Americans suffer from the condition, men more often than women, according to the American College of Rheumatology. People with gout have excess uric acid in the body, which forms needle-like crystals that lodge in the joints. “Gout seems to be contributing to the risk of diabetes independently of other diabetes risk factors, such as obesity,” said lead researcher Dr. Hyon Choi, from the division of rheumatology, allergy, and immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. According to the Arthritis Foundation, keeping your uric acid levels below 6 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) can help lower your chances of having a gout attack. To do so, you can benefit from limiting foods and drinks, like beer and liquor, that are high in purines, which are converted to uric acid in the body.

Wellness Wisdom Video Extra: Blood Sugar And Your Heart

"Gout is part of the metabolic syndrome," Dr. FitzGerald says, and not one uncomplicated disease. What they found was that 9% of men with gout who had high levels of uric acid developed diabetes compared to 6% of men whose uric acid levels were in the normal range. For those veterans who had high uric acid levels had a 19% increased risk of developing diabetes. Many of the people who suffer from gout also suffer from diabetes or eventually will.

Gout Increases Your Risk For Diabetes

Reference ranges for uric acid can vary from lab to lab, but in general, for men, a normal uric acid level is between 3.4 and 7.0 mg/dl; for women, 2.4 to 6.0 mg/dl. The women tended to be slightly older , with slightly higher body mass index. Men were more likely to be current smokers and alcohol drinkers. People who have gout may contend with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and women seem more vulnerable than men, according to a large population-based study. But the men who most closely followed the DASH diet had a 32 percent lower risk of gout than the men who adhered to it the least.

Who gets gout the most?

Gout is more common in men than in women and more prevalent in African-American men than white men. The chances of having gout rises with age, with a peak age of 75. In women, gout attacks usually occur after menopause.

Certain medications such as diuretic and immunosuppressant drugs prescribed for autoimmune disorders like psoriatic andrheumatoid arthritisand organ transplants can also increase the risk of developing gout. This inflammatory form of arthritis tends to run in families, therefore, having one or more relatives with the condition can increase individual risk. One limitation of the study was that some factors known to be associated with diabetes were not considered in the study. These factors include a sugary diet, lack of physical activity and family history of diabetes.

The Connection Between Gout And Type 2 Diabetes

Although a strong association between diabetes and gout has been observed, the mechanisms that link these diseases haven’t been unequivocally identified. This can happen in some patients during an acute gout attack and, therefore, may require a temporary adjustment of insulin dose or diabetes medications. Researchers looked at several measures that reflect how well insulin works in the body to clear sugar from the blood . There was no difference between the two groups in insulin resistance determined by one measure of insulin use (the frequently sampled, insulin-modified intravenous glucose tolerance test). However, the colchicine group showed improvement on the Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance test, which also estimates how much insulin is needed to keep blood sugar at a normal level while fasting. Those in the colchicine group also scored lower on a blood test of C-reactive protein and other tests that indicate inflammation.

High concentrations of uric acid levels in the blood — the medical term is hyperuricemia — are necessary for the crystals to form. Yet many people with hyperuricemia never develop gout, and even when they do, they often have had high levels of uric acid in their blood for years without any symptoms. People with hyperuricemia with no symptoms might be coached to make lifestyle changes — losing weight would often top the list — but hyperuricemia by itself is usually not treated. The best natural treatment strategy to reduce these uric acid levels is a nutritional wellness protocol that is a vegetarian diet or mostly aplant-based dietwith little to no animal meat that reduces chronic inflammation and insulin resistance. It has also been reported that high doses of fructose raises 24-h ambulatory blood pressure in humans and can be blocked by lowering uric acid with allopurinol . However, the recent meta-analysis by Ha et al. addressed whether short-term isocaloric fructose diets can increase blood pressure after an overnight fast.

Searching for the cause of type 2 diabetes has been a prime area of research since Etienne Lancereaux described fat diabetes in 1880. Though more studies are needed, the evidence that fructose-induced hyperuricemia may have a contributory role is gaining ground. While it still remains a hypothesis , increasing evidence suggests uric acid may have a fundamental role in the manifestations of metabolic syndrome (Fig. 3).

It is known that the greatest risk for persistent hypertension is borderline hypertension in which intermittent blood pressure elevations occur. There is also evidence that fructose causes microvascular disease in the kidney, which is known to predispose to persistent salt-sensitive hypertension. Indeed, persistent hypertension can be induced with fructose and high-salt diet in rats.

On the supplement front, be sure to include nutrients that curb inflammation, which in turn reduces pain. This includes curcumin and fish oil , as well as vitamin C and quercetin, a flavonoid that hinders the production of uric acid (500 mg 2–3 times a day). Soft drinks, fruit juices, and many processed foods containing high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars . Read labels carefully and severely limit your intake or avoid consuming these items altogether. Conclusion The relationship between gout and PPDM is bidirectional in the post-pancreatitis setting. A history of gout is a risk factor of PPDM, particularly in women.

This recipe uses veggies, beans, and creamy sweet potatoes for a version that’s just as hearty, but with a healthy twist. Blended with coconut milk for a creamy finish, this healthy soup is packed with flavor and is an ideal addition to any detox diet. Different vegetables can cause gout flareups in different people, so if any of the ingredients used in this comforting soup don’t work for you, leave them out.