Gout During Pregnancy: Is It Really Possible?

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We know that the pregnancy is the stage wherein a woman experiences lots of changes. Especially in her body, thus causing various pregnancy symptoms like nausea, breast tenderness, allergic reactions, water retention, as well as mood swings. Well, these aren’t the only problems that may come with pregnancy. Did you know that women may also develop gout during pregnancy? Read on to this article and you will know if this is true or not.

Gout During Pregnancy: How true is this?

In the actual fact, gout during pregnancy is a very rare situation. However, it really occurs and women are actually at a much higher risk of developing gout when pregnant. You may ask, why does this happen? Well, actually, it is because of the increase in the weight during pregnancy as well as the rehabilitated levels of hormones in the body.

Furthermore, this may spike the uric acid levels, thus causing the onset of gout to pregnant women. Especially those who are not capable of controlling their production of uric acid during this point in time. Women who have a family history of gout are at much higher risk in the development of gout during the period of pregnancy. As well as those women who already experienced gout due to being pregnant.

Gout During Pregnancy: How does this happen?

The uric acid actually crystallizes and gets dumped into the joints, tissue surrounding the joint, or tendons. This may affect the knees, ankle, wrist, elbow, fingers, big toe in pregnant women. Clearly, this is what makes sleeping very difficult as the pain is lingering. Some other symptoms may include fever and fatigue.

Gout During Pregnancy: What to do?

It is very significant to treat gout during pregnancy in order to limit the discomfort that it may cause. It’s suggested that you restrict the medication during pregnancy. It is better that you achieve an optimal level of uric acid level through having a good dietary change and lifestyle.

Firstly, make certain that you drink plenty of water daily. You must drink about 8-12 glasses of water. This is beneficial in diluting the uric acid and excrete it out from our kidneys. If you drink a lot of water, it will also be beneficial in avoidance of having water retention. This is a common symptom for the period of pregnancy. Furthermore, it is also beneficial in the promotion of better metabolism.

Following a particular gout diet through the limitation of red meat, poultry, seafood, etc. is one of the best things that you can do. Furthermore, you should also avoid eating organ meats, and various seafood. Moreover, you would also want to avoid the excessive consumption of protein. This is since it may just worsen the condition. Also, pregnant women have zero tolerance for alcohol, well, this is already a common thing on them. Essentially, you should eat most of the daily calories as complex carbs like rice, pasta, whole grain bread, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. You should plan your diet carefully with your doctor in order to avoid any nutritional shortages.

Gout During Pregnancy: Medications

Concerning medications, there is this one study conducted in Israel. The study suggests that it is safe to take colchicine during pregnancy. This is since the medication just crosses the placenta, and has been associated with birth defects in various animal studies. Furthermore, concerns have also been raised that it may actually be harmful during pregnancy. Most especially that it may affect the cell division.

The researchers o0f the said study followed about 238 pregnant women who take colchicine while pregnant and 964 others who did not. Remember the number, less than 1% took the medicine to treat the condition. It’s mostly used in treating the Mediterranean fever, which mostly affects Jewish people. The colchicine is beneficial in treating this condition, which may also lead to fever and inflammation.

This radically improves the odds of women to carry their baby to term. Latterly, what they actually see is that those who take colchicine has about 4.7% of babies having major birth defects, in comparison to the 3.2% of babies who didn’t have any exposure to the medicine. Therefore, there is no clear statistical difference to the possible harm of colchicine to the baby. However, there are some vital points from this study. Those who took colchicine during the period of pregnancy had their babies born in the 39th weeks, unlike the 40 weeks of those who aren’t exposed to the medicine.

You must always refer to your doctor, but if you can avoid treating the condition with colchicine then try to do so. Even though there is no clear evidence that it may be harmful for the condition, it is still better to be drug-free during the pregnancy.

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