Rheumatologist
I spoke to Dr. Raymond Enzenauer, the chief of Rheumatology at theUniversity of Tennesee Medical Center. He has never met me but wasrecommended as someone knowledgable in gout. I came out of theconversation with a few points that I think are important.
First as to a recent post by Newfoot, Dr. Enzenauer also says thatonly 10-15% of your uric acid load comes from diet, as was posted,but, he points out, if your renal system is able to manage 100% ofwhat it makes and cannot handle any more, a 10% overload, every dayof your life, ends up being a lot of extra Uric acid.
The biggest culprit for gout sufferers in his experience is beer.Beer is a double problem for us because it shuts down renal excretionwhile increasing, substantially, the purene load on the system. Hesays that his office knows that Monday after the super bole, therewill be a stream of gout complaints. According to Dr. Enzenaauer,alcohol consumption is a much bigger culprit in triggering goutattacks than diet.
Men and women act very differently when they have gout. Men are morethan 4 times as likely and get gout much younger than wemen. Almostall of the women he has treated are older, 60 and above, and theirgout is related to impaired kidney function. He stresses that hedoesn’t really know but it seems like the attacks in women areentirely different than they are in men.
I need to summarize the conversation more consicely and will do so ina future post.
For now though, I need to go to my exercise. Ond day on the treadmilland I am so much better that I wonder why I waited so long.My attack has almost entirely resolved and I now walk normally.
Quinn Bronstein on September 11th, 2007
Which part(s) of the body produces purines?
Or are they a by-product of cell metabolism?
Vincenzo Fusi on September 11th, 2007
I guess I would be totally out of Dr. Enzenauer’s “norm”
I am a 38 year old woman with chronic gout, among other medical problemsnone of which include impaired Kidney function. I partake of alcohol VERYrarely. I have had less than 10 alcohol drinks in the past 5 years. I am nota big meat eater. My first attack was when I was 30 years old. My nextattack was 2 years after that. My third attack was 5 years after my first.Since my third attack I have had at least 2 or 3 attacks each year. Howeverstarting last October I have had at least one attack each month, sometimesjust 2 or 3 weeks apart. I am well versed in what foods have high purine andavoid them like the plague. The biggest change from October until now isthat I gained 50 pounds.Btw, The only medicine I have taken so far is Colchicine during my attacks,which make me violently ill. I have heard about Allpurinol, but am scaredabout the side effects.