Nutritional Intervention and Lifestyle in Gout or Pseudogout - Case Study

Abstract

The present case study reported a patient, 47 years old, with a 3-month history of articulation aches, initially only in the right ankle, later in the first metatarsophalangeal joint of the same lower limb. The symptomatology is identical to that of gout, although the crisis episodes have never been determined by the increase in the level of uric acid in the blood. The patient, having obesity of the first degree, followed an empirical diet based on starvation, losing 5 kg in the last 3 weeks, until he contacted our office. He was prescribed Aflamil, taken temporarily and without obvious results. He self-assessed as a daily alcohol user. The presented biochemical profile was normal, except for increased levels of fibrinogen (617 mg/dl; normal between 200-400 mg/dL, ESR (18 mm/h; normal < 15 mm/h), ferritin (320; normal up to 300 µg/l) and low 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (20 ng/mL; normal between 30-100 ng/mL). The case study aimed at weight loss, understanding the importance of lifestyle change, and finding a behavioral alternative food for controlling the feeling of permanent hunger, eliminating joint symptoms, and normalizing laboratory parameters.