Gout's Silver Lining

Probenecid has an unexpected benefit

The first and only gout attack occurred in my 40's when I began drinking a glass of red wine every day for health reasons. After a month of this regimen my left foot hurt so much I couldn't walk. The diagnosis was gout, which my father and brothers all suffer from. I thought I had avoided gout, but alas, I had the gene after all.

Gout is caused by high concentrations of uric acid that crystallize in joints, resulting in painful inflammation. Known triggers include organ meats, shellfish, and alcohol. Drinking plenty of water to dilute and flush the uric acid out of one's system is the way to avoid gout, and probenecid is often prescribed to aid in uric-acid reduction. Your humble blogger has been on probenecid for over 20 years.

Researchers have discovered that probenecid may be an effective treatment for COVID-19:

[Georgia professor of infectious diseases Ralph] Tripp found probenecid blocks the virus from replicating and infecting individual cells, a major discovery.

“Because it works on the whole cell, not the virus, you can’t get resistance to the drug,” Tripp said.

Tested on ten individuals in Florida with COVID-19, researchers found after the individuals were given probenecid symptoms eased in three days instead of weeks.

Funding for large clinical trials must follow, but the outlook is that a drug that has helped with gout for four decades may be what’s needed to stop the suffering from COVID-19.

I've been upping a daily supplement of Vitamin D to help ward off the coronavirus, and now it just may be that I have been regularly taking a drug that affords additional protection. Maybe I did luck out genetically with gout, just not in the way that I thought.

Another silver lining: High uric-acid levels of gout sufferers may afford protection against Alzheimer's disease.