Mysterious Sleep Apnea and Gout Connection

Scientists from Keele University, Newcastle University, and Massachusetts General Hospital have just written an article that proposes that sleep apnea may cause gout.

Gout is a type of arthritis that involves inflammation, pain, swelling, and redness of the joints. It develops much faster than other types of arthritis and can hit its peak on the first day.

It can also involve the risk of kidney stones and reduced kidney function.

The authors of the new study, which was published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, already stated the known fact that sleep apnea had the tendency to cause inflammation and gout in the short term, but they wanted to know whether it leads to occurrences over the long term as well.

They identified 15,879 people with sleep apnea and 63,296 people that didn’t suffer from I, from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink database.

Sleep apnea sufferers that were diagnosed with sleep apnea between 1990 and 2010 were followed for an average of 5.8 years after diagnosis to check whether they developed gout as well.

They concluded that 4.9% of sleep apnea sufferers and 2.6% of non-sufferers developed gout.

This means that sleep apnea patients were 42% more likely to develop gout than good sleepers.

From previous studies, the authors speculated that the strongest mechanism behind this phenomenon was in the over- production of uric acid, which was caused by oxygen deficiency.

This is yet another reason to tackle sleep apnea as soon as possible. Fortunately, there are easy throat exercises found here that do just that – with the effects happening on the very first night…

And if you suffer from gout or any other types of arthritis, follow the 3 steps found here to reverse it in 21 days or less…