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GOUTY ARTHRITIS AND VITAMIN A
Although gout is known to result from uric acid crystallizing out of the blood into the joints, no one knows why only certain joints are involved, or why the disease varies in intensity from time to time regardless of how carefully one avoids foods that raise the uric acid blood level. Experts have suggested, therefore, that other unknown factors may trigger attacks of gout as well.
A rheumatologist from one of the major university medical centers recently wrote to the editor of Lancet (1:1181) suggesting that vitamin A and alcohol may be additional factors that, working together with uric acid, could bring on gouty arthritis in certain joints. Just a slight excess of vitamin A in the diet makes the blood uric acid rise much higher than it otherwise would, the rheumatologist reports. Furthermore, he states, quite normal doses of vitamin A can act like overdoses if, in addition, one takes several alcoholic drinks regularly every day.
Even by itself, when regularly taken in excess, vitamin A can cause pain in the feet, ankles, wrists, or shoulders. This is due to swelling and thickening of the bones, especially at their surfaces, along with calcium deposition in the ligaments and muscles attached to them. Since these changes can mimic gout, the rheumatologist suggests, many people who have been told that they have gouty arthritis may really be suffering from the effects of moderate but regularly taken doses of vitamin A and alcohol.
Rather than just taking gout medication, therefore, such persons might do better if they also reduced their vitamin A intake to avoid overdosage and took fewer alcoholic drinks as well.
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