One of the issues with gout is how it affects the kidneys. People can have kidney disease without being
afflicted with gout and those with gout may not have kidney disease.
However, those with both are more at risk for death than those suffering from only one of the diseases.
The Statistics
The facts are that there is 80% more probability that gout patients will die from kidney disease. Kidney disease ranks as the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, even without including gout as a secondary
issue. Other numbers state 10% of kidney patients will develop gout but the numbers could work in reverse as well with those with gout developing kidney disease. These numbers mean those with gout should pay more attention to their kidney health.
Kidney Disease Link to Gout
One disease doesn’t cause the other. The common link between the two ailments are uric acid levels. High uric acid levels in the blood cause both gout and kidney disease. Whether you get one of those diseases or both depends on how your body handles the uric acid.
Gout is when the uric acid creates crystals around the joints, causing sudden arthritis pain. It’s the kidneys job to filter out waste and elements like uric acid from the body and send it out through urine. Kidney disease
prevents filtering uric acid the way a normally functioning kidney does. That makes the gout symptoms worse.
Treatment Debates
Physicians in the American College of Rheumatology are critical of current standards of treating gout set by the American College of Physicians. Arthritis doctors state current standards are too conservative.
The problem, according to arthritis doctors, is that most people with gout are treated by their primary
physician rather than a rheumatologist. Primary doctors focus on symptom relief rather than long-term
management of the disease, they claim.
Kidney Treatment
Those with both kidney disease and gout may need to see specialists in both fields. The thought is those with kidney issues should work to manage that disease so the kidneys function better, which will help relieve gout symptoms.
Conclusion
People with both diseases should approach their treatment and doctors with a team-concept of
management and ask specialists in both fields to communicate to develop a long-range management plan.
