Your foot is hot and swollen again and now you can’t play basketball today. Your gout is causing this irritating attack. Who is to blame? Yourself for a poor diet and lack of daily exercise, or your grandfather who had gout too?
Gout is caused by the uric acid buildup in your blood. The high levels of uric acid will form sharp crystals causing you the flare-up in your foot.
Grandparents and Parents: Can You Blame Them?
Factors contributing to gout are not only medications you take, your gender, and age, but it has been linked to other health problems and genetics. So if your grandfather had numerous flare-ups with gout himself, there could be that genetic link.
Sixteen thousand Americans had their genetic and eating habits analyzed in a 2018 study.
The study revealed: “The impact of genetics on the risk of developing gout was much greater than that of diet. Foods most closely associated with gout—beer, red meat, and certain types of seafood, to name a few—accounted for less than 1 percent of the difference in the study patients’ uric acid levels. Genetics, on the other hand, accounted for nearly 24 percent.”
The American College of Rheumatology’s new 2020 guidelines suggests that medical providers “be mindful when soliciting information regarding the dietary habits of patients and ensure that discussions regarding dietary recommendations are not misinterpreted as “patient‐blaming”.
Future Genetic Testing
While the price of genetic testing has decreased over the years, a genome test for gout would be expensive. Scientists are hopeful that as personalized medicine grows in popularity, that prices will continue to fall. Genetic testing for gout could be sped up as discoveries in technology flourish. Genetic testing could determine which medication will prevent your future gout flare-ups. Lifestyle management would most definitely still need to be incorporated into your gout prevention program.
