Gout patients are often poorly cared for
All content is checked by medical journalists.Gout is very painful and can cause permanent joint damage. The disease can actually be treated well. However, those affected often receive the diagnosis very late - and are then not adequately treated
This is the result of researchers when they examined gout patients from 14 European countries. Of the 1,100 participants in the study, one in four received the diagnosis only after the fourth gout attack. More than 70 percent had suffered a gout attack in the year before the survey, one in three of them even more than three.
The uric acid level was regularly examined in less than half. If this is too high, the acid crystallizes into urinary stones that settle in the joints, where they cause the typical painful inflammation.
Gap in supply
So there is a huge gap in patient care. Even so, eight out of ten patients are satisfied with the way their disease is being treated. You do not expect a better result, although in many cases it would be possible.
"Gout is a debilitating disease, the number of which is increasing across Europe," says Prof. John Isaacs of the European Rheumatism League, EULA, at the annual rheumatology congress in Madrid. "It is disappointing that so many patients are not adequately treated and suffer, even though there are effective therapies."
Another result of the examination: gout is usually not treated by specialists, but by general practitioners. Not only do they discover 73 percent of the cases, they also take on advising the patient (69 percent). 59 percent of the gout attacks reported by the participants had also been treated by the family doctor and not by the rheumatologist. The study does not provide any information about whether this has an effect on the quality of the therapy.
A low-purine diet is the basis of the therapy
Gout patients can do a lot themselves to prevent gout attacks from occurring in the first place. The most important pillar of gout therapy is a diet that is as low in purine as possible, because purines are broken down into uric acid. For this reason, gout patients should eat little meat, offal and fish as well as little alcohol, especially beer.
But some plant-based foods are also to be consumed with caution for gout patients, for example soy products, legumes, spinach or dried fruits.
Only when this is not enough are drugs added to lower the uric acid level in the blood. They either increase the excretion of uric acid or inhibit its production.
One million gout patients in Germany
Gout is usually the result of a congenital metabolic disorder in which the body excretes too little uric acid or produces too much of it. For this reason, around 20 percent of the German population have excessive uric acid levels. According to the German Rheumatism League, 2.8 percent of men and 0.4 percent of women between the ages of 30 and 59 are affected in Germany. That's more than a million people.
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