Are you in your 20s or 30s and suffer from gout?
Couple of articles caught my attention last week and this is important information for gout sufferers everywhere!
Surprise, surprise, surprise! Gout is on the rise and doctors in hospitals across the UK are now saying that they are seeing a sharp rise of gout in young people that are in their 20s and 30s! For those that follow my blog you all know that I was diagnosed with gout in my 20s as well.
The doctors believe that the rise in obesity and people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is the main reasons for the rise of gout in young people. The UK Department of Health clearly states that the number of people diagnosed with gout has doubled in the past 10 years! In 2014 there was a record of 5,810 gout related appointments in UK hospitals up from 2,658 ten years ago.
A 2019 British study found that gout patients of any have a 25% greater risk of developing a blood clot in the veins in their first 10 years after being diagnosed. But the risk was a whopping 79% higher for those in the under 50 age group!
Since 2012 gout related hospital appointments has rocketed 30% for young people in their 20s and 30s exceeding all other age groups! In the last 5 years there’s been a 26% rise in Allopurinol prescriptions to normalize uric acid levels in gout sufferers.
During that same period there was a 80% increase in Colchicine prescriptions to treat initial gout attacks. All this to say that the NHS is having to increasingly shoulder this growing cost to treat all these new gout sufferers at 1 million pounds per month. The UK Gout Society believes that if obesity can decline this would help halt this abrupt rise in the number of new gout cases.
Gout and Josh Ozersky
This story also caught my attention, the death of food writer and blogger for many publications Josh Ozersky passed away at the young age of 47. The poor guy had attended a foundation gala in Chicago and later that evening was last seen in the karaoke lounge around 4 am. He was found dead a few hours later in his hotel room.
What’s interesting about Josh is that he was diagnosed with gout in 2009 but promised his audience and readers that he wouldn’t be altering his lifestyle at all. Translation, he will continue eating crap regardless of his health.
He is also famous for saying the following quote: “Such is the perversity of vegetarians — you can’t tell whether it’s a gift or an insult. My favorite meat is lamb fat. My philosophy is that the fat is the meat and the meat is the vegetable.” So obviously he liked to eat lots of fat which my ebook strictly teaches you to not even touch it.
When Josh Ozersky wrote for the Esquire magazine which was his last piece he was quoted as saying this about bacon: “Bacon is a weirdly personal taste, possibly more so than any other food… I’ve eaten bacon from commodity pigs that made me happier than bacon from purebred Duroc or Berkshire hogs. I’ve eaten jowl bacon that was better than belly bacon. Bacon cares not for your ideals, aspirations, or social standing. It is a straight-up fetish object, and as such not subject to higher brain function.”
Again I teach you not to eat pork which is one of the worst meats to eat healthwise and you know that too much meat is not good for us gout sufferers anyway. It’s obvious from Josh’s quotes that he was a huge animal fat and protein lover. If I was a betting man, I’d bet that all that meat intake over the years and the way he ate it caused his health to deteriorate to such an awful extent, to have died at such a young age.
I catch these headlines from time to time like Paleo-diet author Seth Roberts who collapsed and died while hiking one day last year at the age of 60 years old. The autopsy later revealed he had coronary heart disease that caused his death. All that meat intake doesn’t do you any good, that’s for sure.
It’s sad to report that gout is on the rise in young people and even sadder to see young ones pass away suddenly. But the health lessons are there for you to learn that if you consume too much meat in general, bad things will happen to your health.
If you are obese, you face an increased risk of developing gout even in your 20s and 30s. If you are young and in your 20s or 30s, and you are eating poorly, not exercising and drinking plenty of alcohol every weekend with your buddies, you are at an increased risk.
This is a wake-up call for you, coming from myself who was overweight in his early 20s since I loved my burgers and fries. I loved to party and drink plenty of whisky and beer. Gave up on sports and exercise to focus more on my social activities which deteriorated my health at the end. Trust me it ain’t worth it, you have to pay the price eventually.
Don’t let gout come in your life. Although if you are reading this, chances are you found this article or website wanting to learn more about gout cause you were recently diagnosed with the disease. Whatever the case may be, make a health and lifestyle change today. The decision is yours to make.
17 replies to "Gout and Young People"
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!
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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.