Study: Gout Linked To 24% Reduced Alzheimer’s Risk
Patients with gout were 24% less likely to developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) compared to individuals without gout, according to a recent study.
In the past, excess uric acid in the bloodstream has associated with a heightened risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease. However, after some studies showed that uric acid could have a neuroprotective impact and slow or prevent Parkinson’s disease, researchers wondered if it could also protect against AD.
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For the study, researchers obtained data of 59,224 gout patients (with a mean age of 65 years) and 238,805 participants without the condition, from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) in the UK.
After a 5-year follow-up, researchers found 309 new cases of AD among gout patients, and 1942 AD cases among individuals without gout.
After adjusting for sex, age, year of enrollment, socioeconomic status, heart conditions, heart medication use, and body mass index, researchers identified a 24% lower risk of AD manifestation among patients with gout, compared to the controls.
“These findings provide the first general population-based evidence that gout is inversely associated with the risk of developing AD, supporting the purported potential neuroprotective role of uric acid,” they concluded.
The complete study is published in the March issue of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
-Michelle Canales Butcher
Reference:
Lu Na, Dubreuil M, Zhang Y, et al. Gout and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease: a population-based, BMI-matched cohort study. Ann Rheum Dis. 2015 March [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-206917.