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Gout
Alyssa Burress
Lamar University

Background and Significance Gout is an inflammatory arthritis that currently affects five out of every 1000 people in the United States. It also is four times more prevalent in men than women and affects Caucasians slightly more than African Americans (Schub, 2012). “Gout has increased prevalence worldwide and it is the most common inflammatory arthritis in men” (Khanna, et al., 2012). The aging population with gout is becoming more of a concern due to the number of patients being seen for the disease. Gout generally affects men who are 30 to 50 years old and women over 60. The amount of people affected by gout and its inflammation has almost doubled within the past few decades. Gout is such an important topic and area of concern because, “according to estimates, between 100,000 and 300,000 gout patients in the United States do not achieve adequate control of hyperuricemia or gout-related symptoms” (Zychowicz, Pope, & Graser, 2010). Due to the indescribable pain associated with gout, quality of life is a major issue for patients diagnosed with it. Few diseases match the pain caused by gout. In the 17th century, gout left physician Thomas Sydenham unable to ‘endure the weight of the clothes nor the shaking of the room from a person’s walking briskly therein’. Reverend Sydney Smith described his attacks in the 19th century as like ‘walking on eyeballs’ (Greener, 2011). Evidence of uric acid deposition in joints has been found in mummified Egyptian remains from more than 4000 years ago. However, Hippocrates is thought to be the first person to accurately describe gout in 400 BC. He wrote, ‘Persons affected with the gout who are aged, have tophi in their joints, who have led a hard life, and whose bowels are constipated are beyond the power of medicine to cure” (Bhattacharjee, 2009). Many powerful figures in history

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