The results of a study show that smoking reduces the risk of gout among men, according to Medpage Today.
The overall risk of gout among individuals who reported current smoking was 20% lower than for those who never smoked (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.70-0.91), according to Gim Gee Teng, MD, of the National University Health System in Singapore, and colleagues.
The risk was decreased by 27% for men (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.63-0.84), but there was no risk reduction for women (HR 1.13, 95% CI 0.85-1.51), the researchers reported online in Arthritis Care & Research.
This result was similar to what was seen in a recent publication from the Framingham Heart Study, where the hazard ratio for gout among men who smoked was significantly reduced, at 0.68 (95% CI 0.49-0.93) compared with a nonsignificant 0.92 (95% CI 0.60-1.41) for women.
But Teng and colleagues sounded a note of caution about their findings. “While we certainly do not advocate smoking as a means of reducing the risk of gout, further studies are needed to verify this finding and elucidate the suppressive effects of nicotine on the pathophysiology of gout.”
