- In the nineteenth century it allowed cartoonists to poke
fun at portly old gents with throbbing big toes. Now, however, gout is
no laughing matter for a growing band of much younger men and women.
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- Rates of the incurable disease, once synonymous with
outrageous, upper-class over-indulgence have more than doubled since the
1950s and experts are predicting a further surge as more people enjoy excessive
lifestyles at an early age.
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- While carrying too much weight greatly increases the
risk of gout, shedding weight quickly can also spark the condition. Rapid
action weight loss plans such as the Atkins diet, which cut out entire
food groups, are already precipitating attacks.
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- Gout strikes when uric acid builds up in the body to
such an extent that the kidneys are unable to flush it out. The acid crystallises,
then collects around joints. In 70 per cent of cases the first area hit
is the big toe, to which crystals are drawn by gravity.
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- Gout can cause excruciating pain and lack of mobility.
Eventually, crystal build-up can wear down joints to such an extent that
they are rendered useless.
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- Famous victims of the arthritic condition include numerous
Dickens characters along with real-life sufferers Henry VIII, Alfred Lord
Tennyson, Immanuel Kant, Samuel Johnson and Thomas Jefferson. Another,
Benjamin Franklin, described it as an enemy which 'would not only torment
my body to death, but ruin my good name', such was gout's association with
alcohol.
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- Ian Phillips doesn't drink any more. He's only 30, but
the security guard at Heathrow Airport has been plagued by gout for seven
years. 'I was 23 when it began,' he said. 'I thought I had a broken ankle,
or perhaps a sprain. But the pain was too extreme for that. It went undiagnosed
for four years. When the tests came in I couldn't believe it. I thought,
"How have I got gout? That's a disease rich old folk get."'
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- Phillips had a fairly stable diet and hadn't touched
alcohol since the age of 20, but for four years beforehand he'd been in
the Royal Navy and admits to having drunk heavily. Often, though, there
is a hereditary factor and Phillips's grandfather was also a sufferer.
When he was diagnosed, Phillips was teased by friends, but since then his
condition has worsened and they have seen just how debilitating a condition
it can be. 'The pain is hard to describe. I'm a 6ft 3inch doorman and security
guard, but it has had me in tears.'
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- Ankles, knees, elbows, and shins are all affected. He
has spent lengthy periods in hospital and, on occasions, has been confined
to a wheelchair. 'I started a new job last year and I had a bad attack
soon afterwards, resulting in two weeks off work. It's embarrassing, but
what can I do? I'm afraid that I will soon become unemployable.'
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- Many more women are now having to deal with the disease.
Once, there were vir tually no female gout sufferers, but now one in five
people with the disease is a woman.
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- Shelly Rees-Langley had her first attack in the middle
of the night. She was 38 years old. It came shuddering up from her big
toe. 'It was excruciating,' she said. Her husband rushed her to hospital
and the hospital diagnosed it as gout. It was Boxing Day and hospital staff
asked Rees-Langley if she'd been indulging over the festive season. She
had not. But she had been dieting.
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- Dr Michael Snaith of the UK Gout Society, a charity which
was formed a year ago to raise awareness of the growing affliction, believes
the type of gout sufferer is changing and that many more women will develop
symptoms in coming years.
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- 'It is almost inevitable that younger women will start
to develop gout because they are getting fatter and binge-drinking,' he
said. 'I expect to see a lot more women with gout, as they are behaving
more like men in their eating and drinking habits.'
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- About 0.5 per cent of the UK population in the Fifties
suffered from gout. The latest figures suggest that figure is now around
1 per cent - 500,000 people.
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- Dr Snaith added that the Atkins diet could precipitate
gout, because, as a high-protein diet, it burns off fat and produces lactic
acid. It then joins a queue of acids waiting to be expelled by the kidneys
and uric acid levels remain high. Crystallisation follows.That is what
happened to 40-year-old Richard Jaques.
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- 'I'm an ex-rugby player and carry a bit of weight,' he
said. 'I went on the Atkins last year.' The side-effects of the diet triggered
an attack. Jaques is hit by three or four bouts of gout a year, but the
Atkins-led episode was different. 'Normally it comes on quickly, but when
I was following the Atkins it built up slowly over three weeks. By the
end I was in a lot of pain.'
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1125659,00.html
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