Sleep Apnea Tied To Gout Risk And Flare-Ups

(Reuters Health) - Sleep apnea may increase the risk of developing gout and experiencing flare-ups, according to a new study. The intense pain and swelling of a joint, often a big toe, that marks gout is caused by the deposition of uric acid crystals in joints and tissues. Sleep apnea, the study team notes, causes periods of oxygen deprivation during the night when people stop breathing, which triggers overproduction of uric acid in the bloodstream. But little was known about the relationship between the two conditions, the study team writes in Arthritis and Rheumatology.  In 2007-2008, almost six percent of men and two percent of women in the U.S. experienced gout, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Sleep apnea, which is much more common, can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and heart failure, among other conditions, if untreated.  Obesity plays an important role in both sleep apnea and gout, but sleep apnea still increased the risk for gout even when weight was accounted for, said lead author Yuqing Zhang of Boston University Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Unit. The researchers used data on almost 10,000 people with a new diagnosis of sleep apnea from a U.K. database and compared them to more than 40,000 people of similar sex, age, birth year and body composition but without sleep apnea. Over a one-year period, there were 270 cases of gout, 76 in the sleep apnea group and 194 in the larger ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news