What Increases Your Risk

Certain things can either cause gout or make you more likely to get it.

Things you can't change

• Being male
• Having a family history of gout
• Having been born with a rare condition that causes high blood uric acid levels, such as Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome or Lesch-Nyhan syndrome

Medicines that may increase uric acid

• Regular use of aspirin (more than 1 or 2 aspirin a day) or niacin
• Diuretic medicines
• Chemotherapy medicines (usually used to treat cancer)
• Medicines that suppress the immune system, such as cyclosporine, that are used to prevent your body from rejecting an organ transplant

Conditions related to diet and body weight

These include:

• Obesity.
• Moderate, regular, or heavy use of alcohol, especially beer.
• A diet rich in meat and seafood, which can be high in purines.
• Frequent episodes of dehydration.
• Very low-calorie diets.

Having other conditions

Certain other conditions and diseases appear more often in people who have gout than in people who don't, though studies have not shown a clear relationship. Gout may share risk factors (such as obesity, hypertension, and high levels of triglycerides) with certain diseases, including:

• Diabetes.
• Kidney (renal) disease.
• High blood pressure.
• Lead poisoning.
• Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).
• Conditions that cause an abnormal rapid turnover of cells, such as psoriasis, multiple myeloma, hemolytic anemia, or tumors.
• Heart disease.
• Acute illness or infection.
• Injury to a joint.
• Rapid weight loss, as might happen in hospitalized patients who have changes in diet or medicines.
• Surgery.