Gout, a painful disorder caused by kidney disease or the accumulation of uric acid crystals in joint tissues, is often associated with historical diseases but is still prevalent today. The condition affects around 9.2 million people in the United States, accounting for roughly 3.9 percent of the adult population, having more than doubled between the 1960s and 1990s.

A new study published in Nature Communications revealed that individuals with gout have a significantly higher risk of neurodegenerative disorders such as vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

The findings shed light on the long-term health implications of gout and emphasize the importance of early detection and targeted interventions to mitigate these risks.

For the study, the University of Oxford analyzed data from 11,735 gout patients and found that they had smaller brain volumes and higher brain iron, which has long been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. However, the observed risks were higher for vascular dementia, caused by poor blood and oxygen supply to the brain, compared to all-cause dementia, but not for Alzheimer’s disease. Higher uric acid levels without gout were also linked to brain volume loss.

“Gout usually accompanies other risk factors which can affect blood circulation,” Dr. Abdullah Ahmed, clinical assistant professor and rheumatologist at Stony Brook Medicine, told The Epoch Times, “such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.”

The study revealed a 43 percent higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease and a nearly seven-fold increased rate of probable essential tremor in gout patients compared to the control group, especially within three years of diagnosis.

Gout patients also had a higher mortality rate (11 percent versus 5 percent in controls). Male, older gout sufferers with alcohol use and lower socioeconomic status were prevalent.

The study suggests that reduced neuroanatomic resources and genetic factors may contribute to individuals’ vulnerability.

“I think this is a very surprising study,” Ahmed said. “As a rheumatologist, we’re not really paying too much attention to the neurodegenerative part of gout, but I think this opens up a really new frontier of awareness for us, as well as the public.”

He emphasized the need to explore the underlying mechanism connecting gout and degenerative disorders.

Additionally, he raised questions about the effects of gout treatment on these disorders and whether they are reversible, wondering, “Is it something that’s set in stone after that?”

Ahmed said that these findings would influence his medical practice, prompting him to monitor gout patients for early signs of neurodegenerative diseases. He also noted that the study had opened up new avenues for future research, such as investigating drugs associated with reduced degenerative brain disease risk.

A recent study published in May in the Public Library of Science suggests that xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidase blockers, a class of drugs used for gout treatment, may lower the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

The researchers conducted a case-control study involving nearly 43,000 patients with neurodegenerative diseases and over 334,000 controls.

The findings revealed that the gout medication allopurinol consistently showed a reduced risk of 13 to 34 percent across different neurodegenerative disease groups—Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease—with an overall mean reduction of 23 percent compared to non-users.

Ahmed emphasized that gout, more prevalent in men due to lower uric acid levels in women, is a treatable condition, with widely available therapies for lowering uric acid. “We can improve the outcomes for patients much better than we used to,” he said.

Regarding reducing the risk of developing gout, Ahmed mentioned several actionable steps:

“All of these factors, people can do in their day-to-day lives with the help of their health care practitioners, which can really reduce the risk of developing gout,” Ahmed said.