The Hidden Dangers of Living with Gout and How Gout can Kill You

Why living with gout is more deadly than you think

Did you know that about 8 million Americans live with gout or about 2.5% of the general population around the world? If you don’t take any action to change your diet and lifestyle you will probably die before your time!

According to a recent study conducted by the University of Oxford and published in Rheumatology Journal stated that if you suffer from gout, you have a 50% increased risk of getting a heart attack or stroke. The study noted that even if you are not obese, drink alcohol or have diabetes the risk is still there since you suffer from gout. Gout is considered the 3rd largest risk factor of heart attack after smoking and family history.

What gout does, it contributes to unhealthy cholesterol and lipid levels and although they are essential for the normal functioning of cells, when certain amount of lipids are enlarged or deposited in blood vessel walls and this clogging leads to a heart attack or stroke. Gout sufferers have a 42% increased risk of dying earlier than the average population.

Furthermore, it seems that gout sufferers have more heart conditions and many more risk factors than those without the disease. In addition, those gout sufferers with the highest uric acid levels had a 77% higher risk from death from all causes and a whopping 209% increased risk of cardiovascular death than those gout sufferers with the lowest uric acid levels.

New studies indicate that you have a 20% increased chance of developing diabetes and 40% increases risk of developing kidney disease if you have high levels of uric acid in your blood. A study conducted by Dr. Eswar Krishnan who is an assistant professor of rheumatology at Stanford University researched over a span of 3 years about 2000 men who had gout from a Veterans Administration database and note that none of these men had been diagnosed with neither diabetes nor kidney disease at the beginning of this study. 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.

Finally, you definitely don’t ever want to suffer from tophi, overall, 25% of gout suffers actually have tophi to some extent. Tophi should not be ignored when it first appears, although painless at the beginning, if left untreated the condition will worsen as they cluster together and more uric acid crystals form around the lump. What happens is our white blood cells attack the invading uric acid crystals so what tophi really is then is a collection of crystals and dead cells. This is not usually painful until they break out from the skin and appear as white or yellowish chalky lumps. It can cause havoc to one’s health by destroying the joints, cartilage and harming the organs (complications such as kidney stones) leading to noticeable disabilities. Trust me you don’t want to be crippled.