Hook Logo
Search

DR. HOOK- Stoned: Uric acid can wreak havoc


Published February 14, 2008 in issue 0707 of the Hook
Bookmark and Share

Does Rush Limbaugh have a neurological movement disorder and Oxycontin withdrawal? When he mocked Hillary Clinton's emotional talk during the New Hampshire primaries, his body movements were jerking around as he did when he mocked Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease. Why is he so polarizing?

Most Americans I know respect the opinions of others. But it takes only a few bad apples to make the pie sour. One of my nurses has a bumper sticker in support of someone for US President. She takes care of patients, cares about people, and brightens everyone's day. But some Rush Limbaugh-like man pulled up to her, pointed to her bumper sticker, and flipped her the bird. (Why does Rodney King's stutter stick in my head? "Can't we... can't we... can't we all just get along?") Do people have to be so polarized about things that we can't be civil to one another?

Uric acid crystals under a polarized microscope look yellow, like much of today's (yellow) journalism. This is how doctors can tell if a kidney stone or the fluid in a gouty joint has uric acid crystals. 

Uric acid isn't ingested in our diet. Purines (not Purina, as in Dog Chow) are in our diets, like red meat and seafood. Uric acid is the "digested" product of purine compounds, and if it gets too high in the blood it can precipitate out (i.e. form crystal deposits) to form kidney stones and cause gout. I've heard women say passing a kidney stone (though really it's a ureter stone at this point) is more painful than childbirth. (Joel McHale on The Soup said Jennifer Holiday looked like she was passing a kidney stone when she tried to out-sing Jennifer Hudson at the BET Awards. Oooh, child! You have nothing to prove. Show some self-restraint, girlfriend!)

Other conditions can lead to high uric acid levels, in particular obesity (which is more common in the USA than bloggers vomiting out their emotions), alcohol, fructose, certain cancers, certain medicines, in particular HCTZ (a diuretic to treat high blood pressure), psoriasis, and B12 deficiency. 

Other folks have high uric acid levels because they don't pee enough, such as in chronic kidney disease, hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, lead poisoning, and those taking certain medications. For ladies who hate menopause, here's another reason: the lack of estrogen can decrease the amount of uric acid excreted.

So gout occurs in men usually around 30-45 years of age, and in women 55-70 years of age (probably because of the estrogen issue). In my practice, some men who drink too much not only wake up with a hang-over but also a painful gouty toe. (Remember when Fred Flintstone stubbed his big toe, grabbed it in pain, and yelled, "Yabba dabba die, Yi yi yi?" That's how tender the toe is if gout hits this region.)

Most people with high uric acid levels don't ever have symptoms. One study in men showed the annual incidence of gout with high uric acid is less than 5 percent. So treating high uric acid is not really recommended in most people, unless there are certain risk factors. The problem is there's an association between high uric acid levels and bad-boy problems like heart disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, and chronic kidney disease. But like the chicken and the egg, which comes first? High uric acid can just be a marker of an underlying problem and not the cause of these diseases.

For polarizing people like the guy who flipped off my nurse-- if he put his middle finger under a polarized microscope, I wonder if it would turn yellow. I'm pretty sure his belly already is.

Dr. Hook cracks a joke or two, but he's a renowned physician with a local practice. Email him with your questions.

#

Comments

                     
GordO blat smack2/14/2008 4:47:41 PM

Dr. Hook,

As this is the first time I've read your

page, I pray to not become an object of

derision.

I find your comments lacking in context of

their original intended purpose and pandering

to your parochialism.

Rush does a FUNNY shtick and you take it out

of context and fall back on his previous

drug addictions, the result of actual pain iirc, to demonize him? It's obvious you don't listen

to rush as you wouldn't make such idiotic comparisons.

And say rush was doing that to mike fox?

Michael Fox is a trained actor and rush was

doing a mimic perhaps of his over playing the

role. Rush explained that mike had very little

flailing of limbs till he was on camera. A tell

tale sign of of feigning for the cams and

directly appealing for donations and contributions

under false pretense. Perhaps Michael has

also developed Tourette's syndrome and no one

knows. But what Mike did in response was simply

foolish on his part.

Who will drag Mike Fox in to court as rush

speculated? All mike has to do is stop his meds

and the flailing limbs become real. You should

know this being a doctor.

A polarizing one at that. LOL

Why don't you spend more time on someone who

didn't beat his addictions?

Certainly you could exploit a more current

drive by mugging of a victim.

Health Ledger died from a cocktail of six prescription drugs:

1. Oxycodone, a painkiller, sold as OxyContin.

2. Hydrocodone, a painkiller, sold as Vicodin.

3. Diazepam, a benzodiazepine sedative, sold as Valium.

4. Temazepam, a schedule IV benzodiazepine sedative, sold as Restoril.

5. Alprazolam, a benzodiazepine anti-anxiety medication, sold as Xanax.

6. Doxylamine, a sedative over-the-counter antihistamine, commonly found in NyQuil.

Instead of attacking rush with false innuendo's look in the mirror and ask why your a stooge for

stupidity.

Or at the very least why Heath and Rush had so

much in common at one point in their lives?

Stop the polar express. We're all two sides of

the same coin, unless you wish to capitalize

on dividing folks for some political purpose?

My Rx is to back off what you neither understand

and or are able to fully comment on without

cheap shots.

GordO blat smack

Sick Of The Local Rambos2/14/2008 9:19:36 PM

quote "Instead of attacking rush with false innuendo's look in the mirror and ask why your a stooge for stupidity."

The Internet cracks me up, every day!

I bet the "stooge for stupidity" knows the difference between YOUR and YOU'RE. But the person calling him names doesn't.

All this money we sink in the public school systems and they can't even sucessfully teach people the difference any longer. It's sad.

John Giuliano2/14/2008 10:04:53 PM

So when will they let Rush Limbaugh out of jail?

Sick Of Sick of the LOCAL weed smoking Rambos2/16/2008 2:57:10 PM

quote: quote "Instead of attacking rush with false innuendo's look in the mirror and ask why your a stooge for stupidity."

quote: The Internet cracks me up, every day!

quote: I bet the "stooge for stupidity" knows the difference between YOUR and YOU'RE. But the person calling him names doesn't."

Not when the rant was heart felt and not bothering to copy edit does a minor mistake slip past.

And when there are anal retentive

types around to nit pick them out. So go ahead and

nit pick the whole story banal one.

quote: All this money we sink in the public school systems and they can't even sucessfully teach people the difference any longer. It's sad.

Whoops you misspelled successfully. Must be

those damn public schools? LOL How sad.

The specter of mind numbed anal retentives on the

internet devoid of logic is even more daunting.

Since your so sick of rambo's, why don't you look

in the mirror and try to figure out what a little

narcissistic rambo you've possibly become?

Or try to deal with the context of the story.

If that's a problem. We could go context-free?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar

Or you may attempt to re-submit your comments:

* We want vibrant debate, so please comment on this story. People say the darndest things, but if they use language stronger than "darn," if they use ethnically or racially disparaging language, or start comparing people to Hitler, they may find that we've deleted the comment without warning. A few more rules: no libel, no slander, and no lying. And please stay on the topic.

Whoops, the one who should have known that

darndest is _darnedest_ may have not been

analized by sick of ramdork.

Doctor HOOK your notes are shall we say below

public school criteria? In the eyes of hates

ramdork?

If I were you and didn't perform seppuku in

the next nanosecond, I'd have to rule out my future return. Have your way rambutt or

rebuttal anal-lie-sir.

Thank you,

Sick Of-- Sick of the LOCAL weed smoking Rambos

Formerly: GordO Blat Smack

Sick Of The Local Rambos2/16/2008 10:26:15 PM

There's quite a big difference between a typo and plain ignorance.

Anonymous2/18/2008 9:53:00 PM

In a future column, could Dr. Hook address why blood clots are so common with someone who just had surgery.

GordO blat smack2/19/2008 2:02:52 PM

Question for Sick of the local Rambos.

Since you can discern ignint folk from anal

typo impaired, I'm wondering where you stand

politically?

Are you voting for Hillary or Obama and are all Angry White men Rambos?

Saw this article today:

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080209/ASPENWEEKLY06/198091324/-1/ASPENWEEKLY

In election 2008, don’t forget Angry White Man

Gary Hubbell

February 9, 2008

There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.

The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him. “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.

He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a “living document” open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.

The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.

Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.

There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush.

He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.

Sick Of The Local Rambos2/19/2008 2:39:46 PM

Let's see how much applies to me. I will import what applies to me, one by one:

Angry White Man...

isn’t looking for anything from anyone...

independent businessman and employs several people...

is not a metrosexual or homosexual...

his background might be Russian, but he considers himself a white American.

Women either love him or hate him...

He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”...

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat...

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race...

He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English...

When he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers...

When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement...

members of the National Rifle Association...

GordO blat smack2/20/2008 7:34:11 PM

In the twinkling of an eye, the angry

white guy doth reveal his soul and wit.

INDRAJEET SINGH4/2/2008 7:03:59 AM

dear sir ,

ihave a pain from last 4 year .i made consult a Do.and he tolt me that i have 6.4 uric acid after blood check up.but till now i did not get relief .still i have pain in nee of right feet

so kindly ,tell me what should i do in this case

your resepctfully

indrajeet singh

Cletus4/2/2008 8:39:31 AM

Forgive me but I really gotta tell you guys how much you amuse me. I accept it axiomatically that all politicians are liars. Certainly there is more than ample evidence of this. Democrats and Republicans are just different sides of the same moronic coin and neither camp gives a rat's a$$ about you or your problems. Do you really think Hillary would be any less likely to steam roller over the Constitution than the stuttering butt chimp that currently occupies the Whitehouse? A republican wants to take what you have and give it to his boys in industry. A democrat wants to take what you have and give it to some lazy, undeserving slob so he can curry votes from the "oh my Gawd.. think of da children" crowd. At the end of the day what's the difference to you? So imho, arguing the relative merits of either party is like debating whether it's better to be screwed on monday or tuesday; it's completely irrelevant.

Rush is a bigot and a liar. Bush is a moron and a liar. Hillary is delusional and a liar. Are you guys really going to argue the relative merits of these totally pathetic excuses for human beings? It's like arguing over whether it's better to have Gonorrhea or Syphilis. Can't we unroll 1 of those funny little rubber things and not have to deal with either? 0.02$


Your Name:
Your Email (optional):
Comment:
Word Count:
0
500 word limit
Image Verification:
Please type the letters above:
*  People say the darndest things, but if they use language stronger than "darn," if they use ethnically or racially disparaging language, or start comparing people to Hitler, they may find that we've deleted the comment. Ditto for most unverified information, potentially libelous statements, and anything off the topic.



© 2002-2008 Better Publications LLC - The Hook - 100 Second Street NW - Charlottesville, VA 22902 - 434-295-8700 (fax: 434-295-8097) :Login: