Gout and aspirin
Learn why gout and aspirin don’t go together: aspirin slows the excretion of uric acid from the kidneys. Curing gout pain with aspirin can trigger a new gout attack.
As we have said in our page about gout treatment: NSAID’s are used for gout pain relief by reducing the arthritis inflammation except for aspirine.
Any salicylate containing drug including aspirin can put you at a risk for developing hyperuricemia and gout and therefore is not useful when treating gout. In case you have gout and are taking aspirine to prevent heart attacks and strokes, do tell your doctor when he is prescribing your gout arthritis drugs like:
- allopurinol to reduce your body’s production of the cause of gout : uric acid or
- probenecid to help your kidneys excreting more uric acid,
because when taking aspirin, these gout treatments need a higher dose compared with "regular gout patients who don’t take aspirin". Do test your blood from time to time to be sure your gout treatment keeps your urate level well under control.
When having a headache or other small pains, don’t use aspirin but use equally effective paracetamol – also known as acetaminophen : aspirin may abruptly change uric acid levels and become a gout cause to trigger a gout attack.
Gout sufferers do avoid aspirin
The following products contain aspirine and should be avoided when you suffer from arthritic gout:
- Alka-Seltzer,
- Anacin,
- Arthritis Pain Formula
- Aspergum
- Bufferin
- Darvon Compound
- Doan’s Pills
- Ecotrin
- Empirin
- Excedrin,
- Fiorinal products and
- Percodan products.
Gout info summarized: gout and aspirin don’t go together because aspirin makes your kidney’s retain more uric acid, which is all what a gout therapy is NOT about. Aspirin taken for headache pain relief will interfere with treatments for gout and can trigger a gout attack. Aspirin taken to relief pain symptoms of gout can actually worsen your gout symptoms.
If you take aspirin to prevent strokes and heart disease, do tell your doctor when he is prescribing you medication for gout treatments.
