Health Science | 【World Gout Day】Pay attention to gout and hyperuricemia

April 20th is "World Gout Day", and the publicity theme - "Precise prevention and control, enjoy life!" aims to emphasize that gout patients should accurately classify, use drugs accurately, and prevent and control accurately in order to enjoy a better life. Many people have heard of the disease "gout", but most of them only know that gout is joint pain. As long as you control your diet and take some painkillers, you will get better in a few days. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The reason why gout day is set on April 20th is that 420 is the standard for elevated blood uric acid, and gout is local pain caused by excessive uric acid deposited in the joints. In other words, gout is closely related to hyperuricemia. On the occasion of "World Gout Day" on April 20th, endocrinologist and deputy director Liu Liping popularized science for everyone: health topics about gout and hyperuricemia.

What is gout?

What is the relationship and harm between gout and hyperuricemia? When the fasting blood uric acid level exceeds 420μmol/L (micromoles per liter) on two different days, it is called hyperuricemia. Excessive uric acid in the blood is deposited in the joints, inducing inflammatory reactions and tissue destruction, which is gout. Hyperuricemia should be taken more seriously than gout. It can cause kidney damage and cause high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and other diseases. Therefore, the key to the treatment of gout is to control uric acid well after the pain is relieved. At present, the prevalence of gout in my country is 1%-3%, and the prevalence of hyperuricemia is 13.3%. It has become another common metabolic disease in my country after diabetes.

Symptoms of Hyperuricemia

1. Hyperuricemia: If the blood uric acid level is accidentally found to be higher than 420 micromoles per liter, it is generally considered to be the early stage of gout. During this stage, the patient has no signs of gout except for the increased blood uric acid level.

2. However, if there are triggering factors such as involvement, injury, cold, overeating, etc., the pain will suddenly occur, often at night or early in the morning. The symptoms usually develop to a peak within a few hours. Specific symptoms: the big toe joints and surrounding soft tissues of both feet are dark red, obviously swollen, locally hot, and the pain is severe and unbearable, and the joints cannot move.

3. Most cases of the disease only affect a single joint at the first onset, but after multiple onsets, it will develop into pain in multiple joints throughout the body. Generally, the symptoms will be relieved after a few hours to a few days, and severe symptoms may last for 7 to 14 days or longer.

4. Usually, after the acute attack of gouty arthritis is relieved, all symptoms disappear and joint movement returns to normal. At this time, many patients tend to take it lightly and think that gout is cured. This is a serious misunderstanding. The main treatment time for gout is at ordinary times, not when gout attacks. During an acute attack of gout, we can only give pain relief. At this time, lowering uric acid will aggravate the pain. Half a month after the acute phase, we start uric acid lowering treatment. According to different situations, uric acid is reduced to a satisfactory level to prevent the next gout attack.

The harm of high uric acid: High uric acid increases the excretion burden of the kidneys, causing the accumulation of metabolic waste in the kidneys, eventually leading to kidney disease, kidney stones, and even renal insufficiency, uremia, etc. It can also cause high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction, etc.

How to properly control high uric acid

1. To control high uric acid, you must first strictly control your diet. Limit the consumption of high-purine foods - alcohol, dehydrated foods such as dried fish, dried meat, dried tofu, dried mushrooms, etc. (because the purine ratio increases after dehydration), seafood (shellfish and dried small fish), liver and other animal offal, thick broth and gravy, etc., and avoid drinking fructose-containing beverages or sugary soft drinks and fruit juices. It is recommended that the daily water intake be maintained at more than 2000ml, and you can drink water (boiled water or mineral water), tea or unsweetened coffee.

2. To control uric acid, you need to exercise more. Control your weight, blood pressure, and blood lipids. Obese people should lose weight but avoid losing weight too quickly. A rate of 1 catties per week is appropriate. It is not recommended for people with high uric acid to lose weight by fasting or using a low-carb, high-protein diet, because the high-protein diet is prone to excessive intake of animal protein, which can cause uric acid accumulation.

3. Go to the endocrinology department of a regular hospital for treatment in time. There are three main types of uric acid-lowering drugs commonly used for high uric acid levels - including those that reduce uric acid production and those that increase uric acid excretion. If you have high uric acid, you should go to the endocrinology department of a regular hospital in time to understand the amount of uric acid excretion through urine tests, and determine whether the hyperuricemia is an increased production type or a decreased excretion type. The doctor will choose a more reasonable drug. At the same time, the urine should also be alkalinized to increase uric acid excretion and reduce the formation of kidney stones. In short, we must get out of misunderstandings, pay attention to and understand that hyperuricemia and gout are chronic diseases. Like hypertension and diabetes, it requires long-term oral medication treatment. To stay away from gout, uric acid levels should be monitored regularly in life to keep it within an ideal range.