Gout Toe Pain – Can You Hear It?

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
The Sound Of Gout Toe Pain Diagnosis of gout has never been easy. In most cases it starts with toe pain and a swollen big toe, but in many cases it doesn't. Where gout goes undetected, problems can build up - unnoticed and untreated. Recent research includes ultrasound and a number of studies have looked at the effectiveness of ultrasound in diagnosing gout.A recent study comparing ultrasound to conventional x-ray has shown some remarkable findings. Not least of which is the ability of ultrasound to measure effects of gout even when the patient has had no gout pain. ARD - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the EULAR journal, has just published a study from Dr Stephen A Wright and others online prior to publication. The objectives of the study, High resolution ultrasonography of the 1st metatarsal phalangeal joint in gout ,were: Compare high resolution ultrasound (HRUS) with conventional radiography in the detection of big toe damage (erosions in the 1st MTPJs)...
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Uric Acid Causes Better Nerve Health

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Uric Acid Causes Reduced Nerve Damage A new study explains how uric acid causes chemical processes in the body that might help damaged nerve cells. The study explains that scientists have known about the beneficial effects on nerve cells, but have not understood how this works. When spinal cord injury occurs, there are 2 types of damage. The first is physical trauma. The second is chemical damage as a substance called glutamate builds up in response to the damage. Glutamate is vital to healthy nerve function, but too much can choke other vital nerve cells to death. Astroglia-mediated effects of uric acid to protect spinal cord neurons from glutamate toxicity looks at the processes involved. Professor Firestein, and others, reveal how uric acid works with other specialized non-neuronal support cells called astroglia (or astrocytes). It is this combination that promote transporters that combat excess glutamate. Of course, this does not really help the gout sufferer. All we know is that excess uric acid causes...
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Do Cherry Juice Gout Cures Work?

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Cherries And Cherry Juice Gout Cures A message from a reader today prompts me to revisit my Cherry Juice Gout page. The message was about how the reader uses cherries to help gout. More about that later, but first correction of an omission. I wrote about "Later reports", without mentioning what they were. The studies include: Jacob, Robert et al. Consumption of Cherries Lowers Plamsa Urate in Healthy Women. Journal of Nutrition. 2003 Jun;133(6):1826-9. Antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities of anthocyanins and their aglycon, cyanidin, from tart cherries. Journal of natural products 1999 May;62(5):802. Consumption of Bing Sweet Cherries Lowers Circulating Concentrations of Inflammation Markers in Healthy Men and Women. Journal of Nutrition 2006 Apr 136: 981-986. Cyclooxygenase inhibitory and antioxidant cyanidin glycosides in cherries and berries. Phytomedicine. 2001 Sep;8(5):362-9. (more…)...
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Reduce Uric Acid To Help Your Brain

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Reduce Uric Acid For Better Brains Most gout sufferers try to reduce uric acid to lower the risk of acute gout attacks. New research suggests that there may be another reason - improving brain performance. Serum Uric Acid and Cognitive Function in Community-Dwelling Older Adults looks at 96 men and women with normal uric acid levels. The study excludes people who are taking medications to reduce uric acid. Normal levels include men with up to 7.6 mg/dL and women up to 7.1 mg/dL. Of this group, the top 25% (men with uric acid levels between 5.8 and 7.6 mg/dL and women between 4.8 and 7.1 mg/dL) are classed as having high uric acid levels. The chart above shows the percentage of people who performed worst in a number of tests. The data is taken from the following table: SkillLow Uric Acid  High Uric Acid General verbal23%32% General visuospatial  21%36% Processing speed16%52% Working memory18%44% Verbal memory20%40% Visual memory25%16% Verbal fluency25%24% The authors point out that nobody knows how uric acid levels and brain function are...
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Rasburicase and Gout

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Rasburicase is a genetically engineered enzyme. It causes uric acid to break down to allantoin which is more soluble, and easily excreted by the kidneys. Though rasburicase is very effective at reducing uric acid levels, it is not approved for long term use. FDA approval is limited to counteracting the effects of chemotherapy in children over a maximum of 5 days. There have been a small number of European studies of rasburicase and gout, but I am not aware of any proper clinical trials. Tausche and Schroder comment in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases that the main dilemma... ... is not the high cost but the missing approval by the FDA in severe tophaceous gout. Of course, mass production might bring the cost down, but rasburicase has another drawback. It is administered intravenously, over a 30 minute period. A similar drug, Puricase, is currently undergoing trials. FDA submission is expected late this year, or early next year. The intention for both these drugs is that they will...
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How Long For Uric Acid Crystals?

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Time To Dissolve Uric Acid Crystals Depends On Gout Duration I've explained about crystals on my uric acid crystal page. A new study looks at the time it takes to dissolve uric acid crystals. The report in the latest issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases concludes that there is a direct relationship between the length of time a patient has suffered gout, and the time taken to dissolve uric acid crystals. Pascual and Sivera's report, The time required for disappearance of urate crystals from synovial fluid after successful hypouricemic treatment relates to the duration of gout, looks at 18 confirmed gout patients. All the gout patients were undergoing treatment to lower uric acid. All had fluid drawn from a joint (11 knee joints, 7 toe joints) every 3 months. Results showed that the number of uric acid crystals found in the joint fell significantly during the first 3 months. Patients with short term gout had all crystals dissolved in the...
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Diet For Gout And Weight Loss

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Looking for a diet for gout? Don't get obsessed with purines. Other factors are important - particularly weight loss. Gout has long been associated with weight gain, and many studies support this. I have often referred to Choi's study of over 40 thousand men. This study looked at men without gout at the start of the period, and assessed their medical condition after 12 years. The raw data has been analyzed in many different ways and spawned several reports. One report looks at Obesity, Weight Change, Hypertension, Diuretic Use, and Risk of Gout in Men. It is a statistical analysis of gout sufferers. Though some of the statistics confirm a risk factor for gout from hypertension and diuretics, the bulk of the report focuses on weight. The authors analyzed the incidence of gout with respect to Body Mass Index. Before we look at the results, you need to understand what Body Mass Index (BMI) means. Body Mass Index BMI is a simple measure of...
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