Medical expert of the article
New publications
Aspirin for gout
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The derivative of acetic and salicylic acid - 2- (acetyloxy) benzoic acid, acetylsalicylic acid or Aspirin - is used in the treatment of mild to moderate pain. Previously, doctors assigned this complex phenolic ether literally to everyone and everything and explained to patients how to take aspirin for gout and other joint diseases. Now they do not. And that's why.
[Can I take aspirin for gout?
To date, most physicians believe that people with kidney disease, high uric acid in the urine (hyperuricosuria) or in the blood (hyperuricemia), as well as those who suffer from gout, should not take Aspirin. It turned out that with all its therapeutic properties, it suppresses the ability of the kidneys to remove uric acid from the body. Thus, Aspirin for gout can exacerbate the symptoms of pathology.
We briefly dwell on the basic pharmacological characteristics of this popular drug - its pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, so that those suffering from the deposition of urate crystals in the joints and other tissues are convinced of the correctness of the modern point of view on the inadmissibility of treating gout with Aspirin.
Aspirin acts as an anti-inflammatory agent by blocking cyclooxygenase, which leads to inhibition of biosynthesis and the release of inflammatory mediators (prostaglandins). That's why Aspirin can relieve minor pain. And the effect of acetylsalicylic acid on the thermoregulatory center of the hypothalamus determines its antipyretic properties: a decrease in fever, an increase in peripheral vessels and an increase in sweating.
Acetylsalicylic acid also inhibits the synthesis of the enzyme prostacyclin, which inhibits platelet aggregation (clumping). Due to this property, Aspirin is used to prevent the formation of blood clots in blood vessels, coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction.
However, Aspirin is known for its side effects in the form of ulceration of the gastric mucosa and gastric bleeding (with prolonged admission). Also, all salicylates can cause bronchospasm, Quincke's edema and anaphylactic shock.
But with gout, the main thing is not even the side effects of Aspirin, but the fact that this drug, acting on the hypothalamus, reduces the functional activity of the antidiuretic hormone (vasopressin). And this is fraught with a decrease in the reabsorption of water by the kidneys, a decrease in the volume of urine and an increase in concentration.
Also, aspirin for gout was stopped due to the characteristics of its metabolites - free salicylic acid (10%), salicylic acid (75%), phenol-salicylate, etc. - and the specificity of their excretion from the body. Adequate renal excretion of these metabolites occurs only with a slightly alkaline urine reaction, and when urine acid (at low pH) the products of acetylsalicylic acid decay remain in the kidneys.
When gout is most often urine acid, and whether it is possible to take aspirin for gout, if
The remnants of unselected salicylates reduce renal function, exacerbate the initial deficiency of the kidneys, and, according to experts from the Japanese Society for Gout and Nucleic Acid Metabolism, slow the rate of excretion of uric acid by at least 15%. As a result, the level of uric acid in the blood rises, and gout is aggravated.
So to use Aspirin for gout is contraindicated.