Aug. 28 (UPI) — People with gout have nearly a 30 percent higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease than people without gout, a new study says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, those with gout who receive dialysis or need a kidney transplant have more than a 200 percent higher chance of kidney failure than those without gout, according to research published<\/a> Wednesday in BMJ Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gout is inflammatory arthritis that causes uric acid to build up in the joints, often leading to extreme pain and even debilitation for some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “While we always believed that high levels of uric acid might be bad for kidneys and that patients with gout may have a higher risk of kidney failure, we were quite surprised by the magnitude of the risk imposed by gout in these patients,” study author Austin Stack, a researcher at University of Limerick in Ireland, said in a news release. “We were particularly interested in the risk of advanced kidney disease, as these patients in general have a higher risk of kidney failure and death.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers looked at data for nearly 69,000 gout patients from another UK-based study to assess their risk of advanced chronic kidney disease. They compared that data to 554,964 patients without gout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diabetes, eating a lot of seafood and meat, drinking alcohol and obesity are all risk factors for gout, according to<\/a> the Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 4 percent of U.S. adults have gout<\/a>. Over 661,000 people in the United States have kidney failure<\/a>, including 468,000 on dialysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The result of this new research suggests that gout may also play an important role in the progression of kidney disease,” Stack said. “The identification of gout as a potential risk factor opens up new opportunities for the prevention of kidney disease and its consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n