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Uric Acid

Posted , 4 users are following.

brit01
brit01

My endocrinologist did a number of blood tests to find the reason for my osteoporosis. During the tests, I ended up with an elevated uric acid of 6.6 I am a 59 y/o post menopause female. Other abnormalities were very high trigs, high cholestorol, slightly elevated calcium and phosphorus..What can I interpret from the high uric acid count? Does this mean I may have gout or cancer?

I haven't had a gout attack yet. Symptoms sometimes are sudden cold sweat breakouts and fatigue. I also have a recent history of elevated liver enzymes AST and ALT of 50's. Still waiting on followup with the primary care. Any feedback would be appreciated!

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • rustygecko
    rustygecko brit01

    Posted

    I do not believe you have gout - well - I’m sure you haven’t as the definition is you must have two gout flares in 12 months to “qualify”.  However,  while your blood urate is high,  it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get gout. It may be for example that on the day of taking the test you were dehydrated. It could be that by the simple measures of increasingly water intake, reduce alcohol, reduce your weight to normal if you’re overweight.... do a bit of exercise.... cut out sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup).... and just live a healthier lifestyle you may never acquire gout. 

    I am not a doctor. The only one of your symptoms that is worrying in my opinion is the fatigue and breakout of cold sweats.  I’m a guy, so for all I know this could be a normal symptom of menopause. Howeverver - your liver enzymes are very *slightly* raised. The most likely cause of that is alcoholic or non-alcoholic fatty liver (or you just had an infection in the day). The most likely cause is you are overweight and you have fatty liver (something like 30% of westerners have this). If that is the case the solution is lose 10% of your body weight. If you are slim then it’s not the case. The other possibility is too much alcohol - the solution for which is obvious. Viral hepatitis is another possibility but I’m sure they’d check for this. The other thing though is this slightly raised liver enzymes are relatively common and I’m sure your doctor isn’t very worried about it. 

    To return again to the cold sweats and fatigue - these are symptoms of diseases like lymphoma, which is relatively rare (and eminently treatable in 2017) I mention this from personal experience of someone very close to me. As I said - this could be menopause or a woman’s thing. But if not it certainly warrants investigation. Again if you are overweight it could be type II diabetes (but I’m sure they checked for that).  Sweats and fatigue are involved in many things (but not to my knowledge gout). Are you a smoker / did you smoke? Are you overweight?

    In my opinion (which frankly isn’t worth much), the chances are this is nothing serious but should be investigated. 

    Anyway, I’m sure others can give ideas too. Don’t worry! Good health! 

    • brit01
      brit01 rustygecko

      Posted

      Appreciate the reply. I've been a drinker most of my life. A glass of vodka few days a week. I'm not overweight however. High liver enzymes were diagnosed a month ago which they were around 40s for the AST and ALT. GGT was also elevated. Since then I cut down on drinking and with this recent test it showed it was even more elevated than before so it worries me. I'm planning on quitting to see how that affects the numbers.

      The cold sweats and fatigue are sudden. Like in the middle of cooking I would start breaking out in cold sweats and just feel like I would faint so I'd have to go lay down. It's happens maybe once or twice a month. My PCM generally doesn't like running imaging tests so I haven't been able to get anything checked out recently.

      Endocrine doc started me on hormone therapy, although my thyroids are normal, PTH intact was 15 which is borderline low I believe. I've never had menopause symptoms before in my life so I figured it came with age although I don't know if these symptoms are related or not. I am pre-diabetic. Been a smoker for 30 years but quit a year ago. I've recently been having frequent urination and stinging sensations from time to time, and with the urate levels being high I suppose it's time for a urinalysis to rule out other possible conditions. 

      Hopefully I can get some answers and move forward with my PCM next week.

      -Brit

  • rustygecko
    rustygecko brit01

    Posted

    I’ve just re read what you said, and the question you pose “do you have cancer?” You may have - I may have - your postman may have - but from these tests I’m sure your doctors aren’t thing “send this lady to an oncologist.” I’m sure these tests do not indicate a tumour. (Raised urate is very common and certainly has nothing to do with cancer). 
  • Sochima822
    Sochima822 brit01

    Posted

    Hormone therapy doesn't require for your thyroid to be off. You state your post menopausal which is indicative of cold or hot sweats, normal for women during this phase in life. Fatty liver could be cirrhosis either from drinking or some type of viral infection. Since all your numbers are off the chart, most likely it's coming from your liver enzymes throwing everything off. The liver will elevate just about everything in the body as it tries to repair itself, when it has too much of something it will send the signal to say the kidneys to take over, when that gets overloaded it'll send it to the adrenal glands and so on, basically doing a domino effect on your body's resources. Find out what it is, because it's not gout, just a symptom of the domino effect in which your doctors need to find the culprit of what's causing your liver enzymes to be high.

  • rick03247
    rick03247 brit01

    Posted

    Hi Brit, yes you can get sweats from gout. I get a fever which causes sweating, but only when I have a flare up, which is a symptom. Because you say you've never had a flare up I'm not so sure that your sweating is related. No fatigue also in a flare up and i would say at a guess only that it's woman related like you say it could be. Keep yourself well hydrated and you will be amazed how much better you feel. Try 2 weeks at 2 litres of water a day and see how feel.

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