Gout and the risk of Parkinson’s disease in Denmark

Excerpt

There is growing evidence that oxidative stress plays a major role in Parkinson’s disease (PD) etiology [1, 2]. Importantly, uric acid has been shown in experimental studies to have an antioxidant effect on neurons [3, 4]. Recently, several observational studies have also evaluated associations between serum uric acid levels and PD risk and have consistently reported a lower risk of PD among individuals with the highest levels of serum uric acid [5‐10]. The most common metabolic disorder underlying hyper uricemia is gout. Thus, if hyperuricemia decreases the risk of PD, gout should also be negatively associated with PD risk. Two studies, to date, have evaluated the association between gout and PD risk and both reported an inverse association [11, 12], although the association was only observed among men in one of the two studies [11]. …