Many people are very worried after being found to have high uric acid, fearing that they will have gout. Uric acid value test is an important indicator to judge hyperuricemia and gout, but sometimes the uric acid value we detect may not be accurate and is affected by many factors. Therefore, don't be in a hurry to judge whether it is gout before finding out if the uric acid is high, and check whether the uric acid value is accurate!
Have you tested for high levels of uric acid in your blood? How much?
(1) Five factors affecting the accuracy of uric acid test
01 / Dietary intake
Diet is not usually the main cause of hyperuricemia and gout, but it has a strong influence on short-term fluctuations in uric acid levels. If you have eaten and drunk a lot before uric acid testing, including animal offal, crustacean seafood, gravy broth, cakes and desserts, etc., including beer, liquor, sweet drinks, milk tea, etc., may cause the blood uric acid level to rise in the short term, and the measured blood uric acid value will also be higher than the real level. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid diets that significantly increase uric acid levels for 24 hours before uric acid testing to ensure the accuracy of the test.
A high-purine diet, drinking alcohol, drinking sweet drinks, etc., can cause a transient increase in uric acid
02 / Drink water
When water intake is insufficient, it can lead to concentrated urine, which in turn affects the excretion of uric acid and increases blood uric acid levels. On the contrary, drinking plenty of water can help dilute the urine and promote uric acid excretion, which can lead to a decrease in uric acid levels in the short term. In order to measure uric acid accurately, it is recommended to drink a moderate amount of water before the measurement, neither without drinking water, nor drinking a lot of water, so as not to affect the accuracy of uric acid detection.
Drinking too little or too much water can affect the accuracy of your uric acid test
03 / Detection time
Uric acid levels fluctuate throughout the day, generally speaking, they are relatively high in the early morning and drop after daytime activity. Therefore, it is best to measure uric acid at a fixed time, and it is recommended to test it on an empty stomach in the morning.
Uric acid should be measured on an empty stomach in the morning
04 / Drug effects
Many drugs can affect uric acid levels, including promoting uric acid production and inhibiting uric acid excretion. The most common medications that can affect uric acid levels include diuretics, low-dose aspirin, etc., which can also cause uric acid levels to rise if taken before uric acid testing.
Medications, such as aspirin, can raise blood uric acid levels
05 / Other health problems
In addition to the above factors, uric acid is also affected by one's own health status, such as staying up late overtime, overwork, psychological stress, etc., these factors will interfere with the patient's metabolism and lead to an increase in blood uric acid levels. In addition, obesity and metabolic diseases such as three types of metabolic diseases can also cause or promote high uric acid, and if high uric acid is detected at the same time, it is necessary to pay more attention to it and formulate a reasonable management plan.
Staying up late and working overtime will also affect uric acid metabolism
(2) How to ensure the accuracy of uric acid testing? Remember 5 points
The definition of hyperuricemia is that adult men and women, regardless of gender, have a fasting blood uric acid test value higher than 420 μmol/L on two consecutive days under a normal purine diet. Normal diet, fasting, and two tests are all aimed at improving the accuracy of the test. To ensure an accurate uric acid measurement, there are 5 things that should be done:
- (1) Avoid excessive intake of purines, alcohol, and fructose 24 hours before the test, and fast 8~12 hours before the test;
- (2) maintain adequate but not too much water intake;
- (3) Choose the test on an empty stomach in the morning and repeat the test once the next day to increase the accuracy;
- (4) If you are taking certain drugs during the test, you should inform the doctor in advance to see if the drugs will have an effect on uric acid, so as to facilitate accurate interpretation of the results;
- (5) If hyperuricemia is diagnosed, the uric acid value should be monitored regularly and the trend of uric acid level should be observed for a long time.
If the uric acid value is higher than 540 μmol/L, the incidence of gout will skyrocket
To sum up, the physical examination found that the uric acid is high, don't worry, recall whether there was alcohol and meat before the physical examination, if there is, then the measured uric acid value may be higher than the real level, can not be used as diagnostic evidence, can be normal purine diet, proper drinking water, in the morning on an empty stomach to see if it is still high. If hyperuricemia is diagnosed, it is necessary to control uric acid through reasonable diet, exercise, work and rest, and monitor it regularly to avoid continuous elevation of uric acid and increase the risk of gout, tophi, and kidney damage!