I have read many times on UK sites how prescription of allupurinolis not without risk and it should be balanced against the frequencyof the gout attacks and its associated affect on quality of life.

This must also be balanced against long term hypertension (will killyou over time…) and diclofenac (not good for kidneys I think?)

3 to 5% ?? (I had heard it was 3%, but not 5)and if you are unlucky enought to get a specific side effect (egfever) is it intermittent or is the fever constant so you have tocome off allopurinol…?

questions questions…!

I had this very conversation with my GP last week (’tell me allabout the side effects, Im considering going onallopurinol…especially the remote chance of death!!’)

he said if you look at all the evidence of risk for any medecine,even something as commonly taken as ibuprofen, then there is veryvery slight chance of a very nasty reaction, something akin toaphalectic shock (sorry not sure of spelling) abit like a peanutallergy thing - so all drugs have this very small associated risk.

(I am still trying to come to terms with the fact that I need to goon a drug for the rest of my life with potentially, howeverimprobable, life-threatening side effects, by the way)

can I ask an open question to the group?how many of you have been on allopurinol over 10 years with noproblems.

I bet I get zero replies to that one - this could well be because,you take the pill, the gout goes away, its no longer an issue, andyou leave the group…

does anyone know of anyone who has been on allopurinol over 10 yearswith no problems….

I want to make it perfectly clear that I am NOT a doctor and do notgive medical advice. After a bad experience with my first doctor andmistakes he made which will cause me problems for the rest of mylife, I learned to be proactive in my health care. Your goal shouldbe to have as much knowledge, if not more than you doctor’s, aboutyour conditions and the medicines you take. If you don’t understandsomething you read, print it out and take it to your doc. I amworried a newbie will take Arnold’s advice and ask their doc forallopurinol and get it when it’s not appropriate.You need to talkwith your doc and determine if it is safe for you to take andremember that many docs don’t keep up on everything out there becausethey just don’t have time and many are quite inept in their knowledgeabout drug interactions. My present doc is okay but everytime hegives me a new prescription, I make him go check the Physician’s DeskReference for contraindications with the meds I’m taking and morethan once he has returned sheepishly and asked for the prescriptionback because I can’t take it. If you read my first post, I said I wason a blood thinner and THAT precludes me from taking allopurinolbecause it tends to increase the possibility of internal bleedingwhich would probably be fatal or worse in my case (a stroke could beworse!). Arnold told me NO without knowledge. There are also someissues with the ACE inhibitor I’m on for high blood pressure. If Ihad not been aware of my problems, taking Arnold’s advice could havebeen a serious situation for me. After reading his past posts/rants,I’m surprised he hasn’t faced any legal problems yet.

Moving on, I joined this group to learn from your experiences andwould especially like to hear from anyone who has taken Coumadin andallopurinol at the same time or diet or alternative methods or ???Don’t fear if you have been afraid to post because of recent problems.

Now for those of you who want to do your own research on allopurinolor any other drug or condition, a really good source to begin with isThe National Library Of Medicine @ http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov andthere are many other medical library sites run by universities thatyou can look for. Some don’t allow outsiders access but keep lookingand you will find some. If you live in a big city with a majoruniversity close by or a large hospital, many times they will allowthe public to access at least some of their collection. And forthose of you familiar with academic research online, you know ofspecific search engines that do specialized searches and can findstuff that even google can’t but that’s not necessary for most. Also,don’t jsut enter “allopurinol” into the search engine or you will bereading for days. Enter “allopurinol + dangers (or whatever you wantto find out about)”.

I hate to break it to Arnold and his followers but there arepublished reports (which must go thrugh a medical revue processbefore they get published, unlike postings) that show severalproblems including renal failure 3 weeks after starting allopurinol,liver problems, interactions with some drugs and my biggest fear,increased potential for internal bleeding. Some of these may be veryrare but to a person trying to decide whether to take the chance oftaking this drug or not, it can be valuable info especially if aproblem occured in someone with a situation similar to their’s.

Arnold said I was a waste of his and the group’s time but I feel thesame way about him now. He has good advice for some, if offered inthe proper way. Just chill for awhile Arnold and think about whatI’ve said before getting yourself into trouble, okay?

People, educate yourselve about your most prescious resource;YOURSELF! And have a good evening.