The number of people who have complained about gout has skyrocketed due to binge-eating and lack of exercise caused by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns that forced people to stay inside their homes for longer periods of time.
Hospital admissions for gout have increased by roughly 20% in the last three years, with 234,000 patients admitted to hospitals in 2021 and 2022, based on NHS Digital statistics. Also, there has been a significant rise in obesity cases over the same period.
Increase in Number of Gout Complaints
Experts argued that many more people have spent an increased amount of time sitting down during lockdowns and might have eaten more snacks and junk food while working from home. The condition is a type of inflammatory arthritis that causes sudden and severe joint pain.
Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum, said, "Today's Elizabethans are eating and drinking them all under the table." Gout is one of humanity's oldest known diseases and dates back to the time of the Egyptians, as per Daily Mail.
Symptoms of gout include sudden and severe joint pain, usually in a person's big toe but can also be found in other joints in an individual's feet, hands, wrists, elbow, or knees. Some patients also suffer hot, swollen, red skin over the affected joint.
Gout is caused by having too much uric acid inside the body, which can also lead to deposits of sodium urate crystals forming in and around the joints, which cause pain and discomfort. The condition can lead to excruciating pain but is usually treatable with medication such as ibuprofen, or steroids if the pain and swelling do not improve.
According to the Globe Gazette, the situation comes as a new study found that gout flares seem to be associated with a transient increase in the risk of cardiovascular events. Edoardo Cipolleta, M.D., from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, led the study with his colleagues.
Gout Flare and Cardiovascular Events
The team conducted a retrospective observational study to examine whether there is a transient increase in the risk for cardiovascular events after a recent gout flare. The researchers observed 62,574 patients with gout, and a self-controlled case series was conducted among 1,421 patients with gout flare and a cardiovascular event.
They found that compared to the 52,099 patients from the nested case-control study without cardiovascular events, the 10,475 patients with cardiovascular events had significantly higher odds of gout flare within the last zero to 60 days and 61 to 120 days.
The study's lead author, Abhishek Abhishek, PhD., who is also a professor of rheumatology at the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, said that the study is the first large observation that looks into whether gout flares are linked with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
He and his colleagues evaluated the association between heart attacks or strokes and recent gout flares. They adjusted these results for comorbidities, socioeconomic deprivation, lifestyle factors, and prescribed medications among other things, to assess the relativity of the conditions, Healthline reported.
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