How Does Heredity Cause Gout?
CAN GOUT BE INHERITED? The way our body metabolizes the foods we eat gives us a clear explanation of the hereditary factor of gout.
When we eat, the molecules of one food are changed from one substance to another by traveling through a path of enzymes.
A sugar molecule, for example, can be changed to a fat molecule by this string of different enzymes.
The original molecule travels down this path of enzymes, each with a specific job to do, and is converted by the time it reaches the end of the path.
Specific genes control the creation of each of the enzymes in this path.
If a defective enzyme gene was produced, which happens in one in 100 live births, the enzymes it creates do notfunction correctly.
This results in two problems.
In the first situation, the original food molecule won't be able to continue down the path because it can't get past the defective enzyme.
Secondly, the molecule that the path of enzymes was going to produce at the end of the path is never created.
This results in ascarcity of that molecule.
 PURINE METABOLIC DISEASE Purine metabolic disease, a main gout cause,results from either of these situations.
It is inherited and, even though it is present at birth, it may not manifest until later in life.
Foods high in protein, such as meat, contain chemicals called purines, and are among the foods that cause gout.
When the purines break down, they produce uric acid.
If you have purine metabolic disease, this uric acid can back up in your system.
If it isn't excreted in your urine, it turns into monosodium urate crystals which lodge in your joints and tissue and cause a gout attack.
 WHAT CAN YOU DO? Fortunately, many people with purine metabolic disease never develop gout, even though the uric acid levels in their blood may be high.
However, if there is a history of gout in your family, you must consider the fact that you may have purine metabolic disease.
It would be wise to make several lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, to ward off the onset of gout and the inevitable pain it causes.
When we eat, the molecules of one food are changed from one substance to another by traveling through a path of enzymes.
A sugar molecule, for example, can be changed to a fat molecule by this string of different enzymes.
The original molecule travels down this path of enzymes, each with a specific job to do, and is converted by the time it reaches the end of the path.
Specific genes control the creation of each of the enzymes in this path.
If a defective enzyme gene was produced, which happens in one in 100 live births, the enzymes it creates do notfunction correctly.
This results in two problems.
In the first situation, the original food molecule won't be able to continue down the path because it can't get past the defective enzyme.
Secondly, the molecule that the path of enzymes was going to produce at the end of the path is never created.
This results in ascarcity of that molecule.
 PURINE METABOLIC DISEASE Purine metabolic disease, a main gout cause,results from either of these situations.
It is inherited and, even though it is present at birth, it may not manifest until later in life.
Foods high in protein, such as meat, contain chemicals called purines, and are among the foods that cause gout.
When the purines break down, they produce uric acid.
If you have purine metabolic disease, this uric acid can back up in your system.
If it isn't excreted in your urine, it turns into monosodium urate crystals which lodge in your joints and tissue and cause a gout attack.
 WHAT CAN YOU DO? Fortunately, many people with purine metabolic disease never develop gout, even though the uric acid levels in their blood may be high.
However, if there is a history of gout in your family, you must consider the fact that you may have purine metabolic disease.
It would be wise to make several lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, to ward off the onset of gout and the inevitable pain it causes.
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