{"id":602,"date":"2019-01-24T15:44:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T15:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/news\/how-to-improve-treatment-of-gout\/"},"modified":"2020-02-19T10:16:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T10:16:01","slug":"improve-treatment-gout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/bones-and-joints\/improve-treatment-gout\/","title":{"rendered":"Treatment of gout and how to improve it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-854\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211755\/Geraldine-McCarthy-Headshot.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211755\/Geraldine-McCarthy-Headshot.jpg 200w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211755\/Geraldine-McCarthy-Headshot-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\"><strong>Dr Geraldine M McCarthy\u00a0<\/strong><br \/><\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">MD, FRCPI, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Consultant Rheumatologist<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Gout is much more prevalent than many believe. One in 40 people in the UK live with the condition. Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis worldwide. Treatment of gout must be quick and correct.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>60% of the adult population in Ireland is classified as either overweight or obese. The prevalence of gout is so high in Ireland. Being overweight is a risk factor for gout, so it is of little surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIndeed, gout diagnoses are steadily increasing as is treatment of gout\u2026 particularly as the obesity epidemic progresses,\u201d says Professor Geraldine McCarthy, Consultant Rheumatologist at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mater.ie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen the kidney is malfunctioning, it cannot remove uric acid from the body efficiently. This excess uric acid then accumulates in your joints as hard, needle-shaped crystals. These crystals inflame the lining of the joint (the synovium). The result is severe, painful swelling and redness of the joint\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Breaking down the stigma and shame<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor McCarthy believes more needs to be done to address the stigma around this painful and increasingly-common condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Gout unfortunately has a stigma associated with it. The stereotypical individual with gout is one who is greedy. Consuming too much alcohol, eating too much rich food and is overweight,\u201d says Professor McCarthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome people become embarrassed to go to the doctor as they feel it will reflect badly on them. Left untreated, gout can lead to joint and kidney damage, permanent disability. Similarly, it can cause an increased risk of death by heart attack or stroke.\u201d Treatment of gout is essential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Effective treatment of gout<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Medication and lifestyle changes such as exercise, weight loss and cutting down on alcohol can reduce, or ultimately stop, recurrent gout attacks. However, Professor McCarthy highlights the need to avoid common misconceptions about treatment for gout.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is incorrect that if you are receiving urate-lowering therapy (such as allopurinol or febuxostat) that you should stop the drug if you get an acute gout attack\u2026 even doctors get this one wrong sometimes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Potential for misdiagnosis within treatment of gout<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Often, people who report persistent pain in the big toe, without swelling and redness and have high uric acid in the blood are diagnosed with gout, when these symptoms <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/bones-and-joints\/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-matter-in-rheumatoid-arthritis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">could actually be osteoarthritis and not gout.<\/a>Treatment of gout and osteoarthritis differs greatly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gold standard for diagnosis is to take a small sample of fluid from the affected joint and analyse it using a polarised-light microscope. Although the process is \u2018very easy\u2019, according to Professor McCarthy, misdiagnoses can still occur.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Acute calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis or \u2018pseudo-gout\u2019 can cause similar attacks, but it&#8217;s calcium crystals that are deposited in the joint rather than urate crystals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor McCarthy encourages patients to consult their doctor if they exhibit symptoms of gout. \u201cIf you don\u2019t confirm what type of crystal it is, you can make the wrong diagnosis. This can lead to giving the patient the wrong treatment of gout.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gout is much more prevalent than many believe. One in 40 people in the UK live with the condition which is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bones-and-joints"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/02\/07211717\/digestive-health-gut-ibs-stomach-eating-healthy-obese-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/02\/07211717\/digestive-health-gut-ibs-stomach-eating-healthy-obese-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Health Awareness","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/jennyhyndman\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4220,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions\/4220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}