Uncle Zhang is 55 years old this year, and everyone in the family knows that Uncle Zhang loves to eat animal offal, such as duck liver, chicken intestines, pig hearts and other foods, and his wife cooks several dishes every day. As early as last year, during a physical examination, the doctor suggested that Uncle Zhang should eat less food such as animal offal, which is easy to cause geriatric diseases such as hyperlipidemia.
Uncle Zhang didn't take the doctor's words to heart, and ate more happily than before. However, Uncle Zhang is a little unwell these days, when he sleeps at night, he always feels dry mouth, in addition to toe pain, there is also some pain in the lower back, and sometimes when he gets up in the morning, he also finds that his legs are somewhat edema, these uncomfortable symptoms "torture" him, and he can't sleep well, and the whole person seems to be unenergetic.
Originally, Uncle Zhang didn't plan to go to the hospital, thinking that he might be fine in a few days, but the discomfort became more and more obvious, and the pain intensified, so Uncle Zhang had to drag his tired body to the hospital. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctor briefly inquired about the specific situation and symptoms, and found that Uncle Zhang's knee joints and toe joints were red and swollen, and there was pain when pressed.
Relevant examinations were prescribed, and the blood test showed that the uric acid level was 628umol/L, and the X-ray examination found that the joint bone was changing, and according to the results of the blood uric acid level, it could be judged that Uncle Zhang was suffering from hyperuricemia, and it was found that it was gouty arthritis
"It's not serious, just take some medicine and you'll be fine." Uncle Zhang showed that he did not realize the seriousness of the disease, and the doctor said: "This disease is not difficult to treat, but it is very easy to recur. ”
The doctor has learned about Uncle Zhang's previous daily eating habits, "The excessive uric acid in your body is mainly caused by eating too many high-purine foods; When sleeping at night, symptoms such as night thirst, toe, low back pain and other symptoms should be paid attention to, do not drag, this is likely to be excessive uric acid in the body. ”
Why does uric acid exceed the standard in the body and what factors are involved? When uric acid in the body exceeds the standard, what should we judge based on the body's performance? Today, with the example of Uncle Zhang, let's learn about the disease of hyperuricemia, and how to pay attention to the prevention of this disease, so as to understand and benefit early.
1. Why does uric acid in the body exceed the standard?
Many people don't know what uric acid is, thinking that it is an acidic substance in the urine, but it is actually related to purines.
There is a nutrient called purine in the human body, which participates in the exchange of various substances in the body, provides energy for this, etc., and purines will produce a product in the metabolic process, which is uric acid. Uric acid is mainly converted into urine by the kidneys, and some is excreted from the intestines.
When the body causes purine metabolism disorders due to various reasons, uric acid cannot be effectively excreted, resulting in an increase in the level of uric acid in the blood, causing a series of related symptoms, which is the occurrence of hyperuricemia. Hyperuricemia is assessed on blood tests, with males above 420umol/L and females above 357umol/L.
Hyperuricemia can be divided into two types, primary and secondary, primary hyperuricemia is caused by congenital causes of purine metabolism, and such patients are often accompanied by hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes and other diseases.
Secondary hyperuricemia is caused by certain systemic diseases or long-term use of drugs, such as leukemia, chronic kidney disease, etc., and long-term use of drugs such as aspiri and furosemide that inhibit uric acid excretion.
The causes of excessive uric acid in the body can also be said from these two aspects, the occurrence of primary hyperuricemia is mainly due to the decrease in uric acid excretion and the increase in uric acid production, the former is related to the kidneys. For example, the secretion and reabsorption of renal tubules and the filtration of glomeruli can impair their function and impede uric acid excretion. The latter is related to the inactivation of uricase genes and the loss of genes in the synthesis and metabolism of uric acid.
The occurrence of many hyperuricemia is related to the predisposing factors in daily life, long-term consumption of a large number of foods rich in high purines, such as various animal offal, seafood, beer, etc., Uncle Zhang is because of poor daily diet to cause excessive uric acid in the body.
Even after all the knowledge about hyperuricemia, there are still many people who don't know about this disease, but when it comes to "gout", some people must have a deep experience, especially men.
According to relevant statistics, about 120 million people in the mainland have excessive uric acid in the body, but most of them are neglected, and when they have toe and joint pain, they are so serious that they can't walk on the ground, and when they go to the hospital for examination, they have developed gout.
Hyperuricemia develops into gout, which is mainly related to urate crystals, of which a high-purine diet is the main cause of acute gout, and urate crystals are deposited in various joints, causing symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat, and pain. Temperature is also one of the influencing factors, in a low temperature environment the body is difficult to dissolve urate, which will lead to the formation of urate crystals in various parts of the body, so the body often has uncomfortable symptoms at night. Urate crystals are also susceptible to precipitation in relatively cooler parts of the body, which is why many people's first symptom is toe pain.
Gout mostly occurs in men, and hormone levels in the body play a role. Women secrete estrogen, and estrogen has a more promoting effect on the excretion of uric acid by the kidneys, which can effectively reduce blood uric acid levels. Men mainly secrete androgens, which will relatively inhibit the excretion of uric acid, increase the formation of uric acid crystals, and increase the risk of gout.
Gout pain kills, many patients say this, before the pain is unbearable, we should pay more attention to our own situation in daily life, especially at night, when these 3 abnormal symptoms appear, we should go to the hospital in time, it is very likely that the uric acid in the body has exceeded the standard.
2. The occurrence of these 3 abnormalities when sleeping at night indicates that the uric acid in the body has exceeded the standard
1. Thirst at night
When sleeping at night, I often feel dry mouth, even after drinking water a few times, I still feel that my mouth is dry, it may be that uric acid is excessive, on the one hand, uric acid cannot be effectively excreted due to kidney dysfunction, and on the other hand, it may be thirst caused by high blood sugar complicated by increased uric acid, which is more common in primary hyperuricemia.
2. Pain in the toes
As mentioned above, due to the influence of the low temperature environment and the temperature of the body parts, symptoms often occur at night, and the most common parts of the toes are the toes, and urate crystals are precipitated in the joints, especially the first metatarsophalangeal joints of the feet.
At first, it only occurs in a single joint, and the symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat and pain gradually disappear within two weeks, and if you do not take corresponding treatment measures or change your dietary habits, it will lead to frequent attacks of uncomfortable symptoms, and affect many other joints, such as hand joints, knee joints, etc.
Tophi is the most characteristic symptom of gout, growing in various joints with raised, bulging, stone-like growths that break down and leave a white paste.
This is the more severe stage of gout patients, and many patients wait until this stage to go to the hospital for systematic treatment.
3. Edema
Excessive uric acid in the body will cause different degrees of edema, often occurring in the legs, face, etc., because uric acid is affected by glomerular filtration disorders, and the excretion slows down, resulting in increased retention of uric acid in the body, and excess fluid in the body, thus causing edema in the body.
On the other hand, because uric acid can inhibit glycogen synthesis, when the level of uric acid in the body increases, it will affect the concentration of glycogen in the serum, thereby reducing the serum content, slowing down the blood flow rate, and causing edema in the body.
If these three abnormal symptoms occur when sleeping at night, you should go to the hospital in time to check the uric acid level, which is likely to indicate that the uric acid in the body exceeds the standard. When asymptomatic hyperuricemia develops into gout, in addition to spending a lot of money and time, the body will also be more devastated. Don't underestimate gout, not only pain in various parts of the body, but also kidney failure if not treated accordingly.
We know very little about uric acid, and we should take corresponding precautions in our daily life to control the uric acid level in the body within the normal range.
3. How to prevent the increase in uric acid levels in the body?
Through various drug treatments, hyperuricemia and gout are curable diseases, but they are very easy to recur, according to relevant statistics, patients with gout for the first time, the probability of recurrence within one year is more than 50%, and only 7% of the population does not have recurrence symptoms.
Therefore, in addition to drug prevention, it is important to prevent daily diet and lifestyle habits. If we want to control the increase in uric acid levels in the body, we should first control the intake of purines, adults should control the daily intake of purines at 600-1000mg, and patients with hyperuricemia should consume less.
Many foods such as pork liver, chicken intestines, beer, hairtail fish, soybean sprouts and other foods are high in purines, and it is not recommended to eat too much for both healthy people and people with high uric acid levels, and should be avoided as much as possible in their daily diet. In addition, when cooking food, you can change the cooking method, such as cutting the meat into shreds and blanching it before cooking, which can reduce purine intake. Eating meat with vegetables can also accelerate the dissolution of urate crystals.
Drink more water every day, control it at about 2000ml, and replenish enough water can increase the excretion of uric acid through the production of enough urine by the kidneys, but it should be noted that people with kidney disease or cardiopulmonary insufficiency should pay attention to controlling water intake.
The amount of exercise needs to be controlled, which is said to many athletes or fitness experts, too much exercise, too much intensity can affect the increase of purines in the body, once the purine increases, uric acid will increase, and if it is not prevented, it will cause disease.
Summary: Through Uncle Zhang's example, we learned about the substance of uric acid, and also learned the relevant knowledge of hyperuricemia and gout disease, when sleeping at night, if there are related symptoms such as toe pain, thirst, edema, etc., we should pay close attention to it, it may be that the uric acid level in the body exceeds the standard, go to the hospital in time to check the disease, and benefit from early detection.
Bibliography:
[1] Qiao Fang. Safety and Health,2023,(01):80.)
[2] Lang Chunyan. High uric acid, fear of gout, need to pay attention to diet[J].Friends of Science,2024,(01):51.)
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