¿Tienes 20 o 30 años y sufres de gota?
¡Un par de artículos captaron mi atención la semana pasada y esta es información importante para los afectados por la gota en todas partes!
¡Sorpresa, sorpresa, sorpresa! ¡La gota está en aumento y los médicos de los hospitales en todo el Reino Unido ahora dicen que están viendo un aumento considerable de la gota en personas jóvenes de 20 y 30 años! Para aquellos que siguen mi blog, todos saben que también me diagnosticaron gota en mis 20 años.
Los médicos creen que el aumento en obesidad y las personas diagnosticadas con diabetes tipo 2 son las principales razones del aumento de la gota en personas jóvenes. El Departamento de Salud del Reino Unido afirma claramente que el número de personas diagnosticadas con gota se ha duplicado en los últimos 10 años. En 2014 se registraron 5,810 citas relacionadas con la gota en hospitales del Reino Unido, frente a las 2,658 citas registradas hace diez años.
Un 2019 estudio británico se descubrió que los pacientes con gota tienen un riesgo un 25% mayor de desarrollar un coágulo de sangre en las venas en los primeros 10 años después de ser diagnosticados. ¡Pero el riesgo fue sorprendentemente un 79% más alto para aquellos en el grupo de edad menor de 50 años!
¡Desde 2012, las citas hospitalarias relacionadas con la gota han aumentado un 30% para los jóvenes en sus 20 y 30 años, superando a todos los demás grupos de edad! En los últimos 5 años, ha habido un aumento del 26% en... prescripciones de alopurinol normalizar los niveles de ácido úrico en los pacientes con gota.
Durante ese mismo período, hubo un aumento del 80% en recetas de colchicina para tratar los ataques iniciales de gota. Todo esto para decir que el NHS está teniendo que asumir cada vez más este creciente costo para tratar a todos estos nuevos afectados por la gota a razón de 1 millón de libras al mes. La Sociedad de Gota del Reino Unido cree que si la obesidad pudiera disminuir, esto ayudaría a frenar este aumento repentino en el número de nuevos casos de gota.
Gota y Josh Ozersky
Esta historia también llamó mi atención, la muerte del escritor de comida y bloguero para muchas publicaciones, Josh Ozersky, falleció a la temprana edad de 47 años. El pobre hombre había asistido a una gala benéfica en Chicago y más tarde, esa misma noche, fue visto por última vez en el salón de karaoke alrededor de las 4 am. Fue encontrado muerto unas horas después en su habitación de hotel.
Lo interesante de Josh es que fue diagnosticado con gota en 2009, pero prometió a su audiencia y lectores que no cambiaría su estilo de vida en absoluto. En otras palabras, seguiría comiendo porquerías sin importar su salud.
Él también es famoso por decir la siguiente cita: "Así es la perversidad de los vegetarianos: no puedes decir si es un regalo o un insulto. Mi carne favorita es la grasa de cordero. Mi filosofía es que la grasa es la carne y la carne es la verdura". Obviamente, a él le gustaba comer mucha grasa, lo cual mi libro electrónico enseña estrictamente a no consumir en absoluto.
Cuando Josh Ozersky escribió para la revista Esquire, en su último artículo fue citado diciendo lo siguiente sobre el tocino: "El tocino es un gusto extrañamente personal, posiblemente más que cualquier otro alimento... He comido tocino de cerdos comerciales que me ha hecho más feliz que el tocino de cerdos puros de raza Duroc o Berkshire. He comido tocino de carrillera que era mejor que el tocino de panceta. El tocino no se preocupa por tus ideales, aspiraciones o estatus social. Es un objeto de fetichismo puro y, como tal, no está sujeto a una función cerebral superior".
Una vez más te enseño a no comer cerdo, que es una de las carnes más perjudiciales para la salud, y tú sabes que consumir demasiada carne tampoco es bueno para quienes padecemos de gota. Es evidente, a partir de las citas de Josh, que era un gran amante de las grasas animales y las proteínas. Si tuviera que apostar, apostaría a que todo ese consumo de carne a lo largo de los años y la forma en que la comía provocaron que su salud se deteriorara de manera tan terrible y que muriera a tan temprana edad.
Capturo estos titulares de vez en cuando, como Dieta paleo El autor Seth Roberts, quien colapsó y falleció mientras hacía senderismo un día el año pasado a los 60 años de edad. La autopsia reveló más tarde que tenía enfermedad coronaria que provocó su muerte. Todo ese consumo de carne no te hace ningún bien, eso es seguro.
Es triste informar que la gota está en aumento en personas jóvenes y aún más triste ver cómo los jóvenes fallecen repentinamente. Pero las lecciones de salud están ahí para que aprendas que si consumes demasiada carne en general, cosas malas sucederán a tu salud.
Si tienes obesidad, enfrentas un mayor riesgo de desarrollar gota incluso en tus veinte o treinta años. Si eres joven y tienes veinte o treinta años, y te alimentas mal, no haces ejercicio y bebes mucho alcohol cada fin de semana con tus amigos, estás en mayor riesgo.
Este es un llamado de atención para ti, viniendo de alguien como yo que tenía sobrepeso en sus primeros veinte años porque amaba las hamburguesas y las papas fritas. Me encantaba salir de fiesta y beber mucho whisky y cerveza. Dejé de practicar deportes y hacer ejercicio para enfocarme más en mis actividades sociales, lo cual deterioró mi salud al final. Créeme, no vale la pena, eventualmente tienes que pagar el precio.
No permitas que la gota entre en tu vida. Aunque si estás leyendo esto, es probable que hayas encontrado este artículo o sitio web porque quieres aprender más sobre la causa de la gota, ya que te diagnosticaron recientemente con la enfermedad. Sea cual sea el caso, realiza un cambio en tu salud y estilo de vida hoy mismo. La decisión es tuya para tomar.
17 replies to "Gota y personas jóvenes"
Hi, I’m Kayra and 23 years old. Actually when I was 18 years old, I did a full blood test and noticed that my uric acid was very high. But I did not know it needed to be treated. Last year (I was 22 years old), I started to have acute pain near my toe and I could not even walk.
I had been to hospital, did X-rays and everything was fine. I even went to consult different doctors, but none of them could guessed that I was having gout attack. Only few months later, I met a friend who, after telling him about my story, he suggested me to go for a uric acid test. To my great surprise, my uric acid was very high and I immediately went to a doctor and he prescribed me with Puricos 300mg which I had to take twice a day and ultimately, the high dose of puricos causes damage to the stomach.
My parents and I, we are all surprised by this high uric acid as I am still young, I don’t consume alcoholic drinks, I don’t even consume seafood and red meat. Moreover, my parents, siblings nor my grandparents have gout problem.
Hi Kayra!
Yes in your case it is genetic like mine and not induced by bad diet.
I am a 21 year old female, I don’t drink a lot of alcohol, eat a lot of fatty foods,I’m not excessively over weight, and I was still with gout. It scares me horrendously. I’ve never had any major health problems. I don’t know how to cope with this. It scares me.
The pain is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. I changed my diet became a vegan and still get flare ups where I’m not able to walk. It’s affected my work life as well as home life. I also take medication for it but nothing seems to be working. (32 year old male)
Hey Spiro,
Thanks for your great website, I am considering buying your book but I would like to share my story first and what you have to say about it.
I am 33, my first gout attack happened in summer 2015 and I thought I had somehow injured my thumb… but boy was I wrong. I tried to cool it before going to bed but it didnt help so I drank alcohol to be able to sleep and that made it even worse. Then I was going through hell for 2 weeks before it calmed down… little did I know I was up for more fun.
One and a half years passed and all was good, then last christmas my toe of the left foot began hurting like hell and it quickly spread over my whole foot, making me question if maybe I should just chop the whole thing off and learn to walk on prostheses.
During this attack I learned I have gout through blood tests and my doctor prescribed me allopurinol – at a very high dose (300). I didnt take it because I was extremely scared of side effects and it was all good until… late july this year. That’s when the party really started going.
At first my toe was flaring up again and it was bad. Really bad. But I tried to distract myself playing video games – that worked for a day. The next day my thumb on the right hand flared up too as if gout was having a party with several body parts invited and let me tell you the party they had made me question my sanity.
I am still suffering from the attack from late July – it is better now but the joints are still kinda stiff and while I can walk and use my hand they are still not 100 % functional.
I still do not take allopurinol because I am still scared of the side effects, especially after I read that you start on a small dose instead of the maximum dose allowed here (in Germany) as prescribed by my doc. I started changing my diet completely after the last attack, avoiding meat, animal fats and I cut beer completely. I also drink lemon juice every day and try to live more alkalic but it goes to the point where I am paranoid and it even affects my social life. Thank god I have an understanding wife!
Anyway, my wall of text basically only has one meaning – I read a lot of your website and felt so at home with what you wrote I just wanted to share my story. Plus I have a question: Do you think gout is managable without taking allopurinol? I know gout can lead to serious health issues like heart disease and strokes and since I am only 33 and only married last year I plan on living a little longer but I am really scared of the medication.
Thanks for reading and a possible answer, keep up your great blog!
Hi Matthias!
Thank you for sharing your story!
To answer your question about the medication, it all depends. If your body meaning your kidneys and liver which product uric acid are impaired in any way, then diet alone might not be able to help you, you will require medication. Diet works on some but not others. Best to do a blood test and check your uric acid number and seek advice from more than one doctor and also visit a rheumatologist who is specialist in arthritic related diseases like gout.
From there you can work with your doctor to start you off on a lower dose of allopurinol and see how your uric acid reacts. Many doctors will follow recommendations from the book and just prescribe you 300 mg where you really need is only 100 mg maybe.
Now diet is something you have to do regardless. You have to eat better and change your eating habits and lifestyle. You need to be your ideal weight and have a healthy blood pressure and heart rate etc…If you eat healthy you will lower uric acid but we don’t know if it will be enough or not depending how your kidneys function. You can also ask your doctor to monitor you more closely if you want to experiment with diet alone first and take no medication and monitor the results via the blood tests (uric acid levels). The choice is yours to make and a personal one.
Good luck!
Spiro
[…] notice how gout is increasing amongst young persons starting in their late teens. I’ve also written a post about it on this site that you can check out as well. In this post, I interview Alexander Banham, a […]
I don’t know if I have gout. I have tremendous burning pain in both the tops of my feet, kind of stemming from the 2nd toe. My dad has gout. I went to a podiatrist and he did steroid shots- helped for about 3 months. Pain is unreal. My Dr is testing my uric acid to see if it is gout. I am a 48 year old female, pain has been going on about 9 months. 7 months ago my uric acid was on the high side of normal range. Thanks for the good article!
Hello, I am only 23 years old and I think I have gout.. I know it runs in my family, Typically on males. 5 months ago i went to the doctors because my toe became swollen and I couldn’t walk. I got an x-ray and everything but there was no problem. Now the same pain is happening on my (big) toe and I’m really worries that I have the gout now..
Hello Justin! Almost the same as you, at the beggining of the year I was diagnosed with gout and since then my life it´s differente. Not only the food but also It damage your joints… I used to be very sportie guy.
I hope than soon I can find a treatment that works for me.
God bless you.
Hello- i am 26 years old, it’s been more than 4 months I am suffering from pain in both of my foot, ankles and left wrist, I took all the test and found Uric acid was too high in my blood, doc prescribed me febuxostat tablet and within 2 weeks it came down to 2.2, it’s been more than 3 weeks since I lowered my Uric acid, but still pain is not going away and both if my foot and left wrist have swollen and stiff, I drink 2 litres of water, have lowered my food intake,especially meat, chicken, alcohol and dairy products,
Just to add, in the first week of Jan2016 I met with an accident, had stitches on my right knee, that took approx 2 months to cure, but that time there were no pain in my foot, pain started in my foot when I got a new shoes in feb 2016, I thought it might go away with time as this was just because of new shoes, also I started taking protein x powder without any exercise, I knew it was a big mistake that I made.
My question is,
1- Based on my above comments is there anything else causing pain as my uric acid is down?
2- is it possible any of my nerves misplaced due to the accident or new shoe and causing pain and swelling?
3- is there any kind of infection causing the pain due to accident?
Thank you
Really hard to say. The accident can have an effect for sure but I am not a doctor and don’t have enough information to give you an opinion unfortunately. Best advice I can give you is to seek a second opinion. Best of luck!
[…] Young Men suffering from Gout […]
[…] Gout in youth […]
Dear Spiro,
Fantastic article that really gets to the point. I had no idea young people were suffering from gout at a rapidly increasing rate. I’ve been thinking of it as an elder disease, possibly from kidney disfunction that sets in with age. But I know it has been increasing dramatically in both England and the USA.
What bugs me the most is that there are no goutologists. The best we get is a rheumatologist, and if EVER there was a disease that deserves and requires a specialist, it’s gout. Treating it like a second cousin to arthritis is an absurdity.
Worse, there’s a resistance to even treating or discussing gout. I’ve discovered it’s a four-letter word to many doctors who want to change the subject, climb out a window and run away. I think it’s because the medications don’t work well. Handing people a little booklet with wrong info in it (!) doesn’t help either.
I am sorry to hear so many young people are experiencing gout attacks. We must stay active and REALLY watch what we eat. It’s wonderful to have meatless meals from time to time. You can really tell the difference. When I cheat from time to time with a little pork, I’m thankful for apple cider vinegar. For the most part, I try to be sensible in my eating. That’s the smart and enjoyable way of life. Again, thanks for the update and keep um coming!
thanks for all the interesting tips and story’s i am 48 and have gout since i were 24. what about the Banting diet n friend of mine who suffers bad gout as well is on the diet for 8 months eats lots of meat and veggies, lost a lot of weight and says the gout attracts is much better ? my problem i drink at least one bottle of whisky every weekend and with that lots of lamb and rump steak on the braai and through the week normal meals. i use a gout cocktail once or twice a week. my knees get very sore and stiff and sometimes in my wrists that is very painful. regards from Zambia.