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Published On January 15, 2010
CLINICAL RESEARCH
Getting Out the Gout
An underdiagnosed condition gets its first new drug in 40 years.
An ailment that usually strikes during ages of opulence now afflicts 5.1 million Americans. The return of gout, which is caused by uric acid crystallizing in the joints, is linked with the obesity epidemic. The overweight produce too much uric acid and don’t excrete it well. Though gout has been around for millennia, the condition is still often underdiagnosed and mismanaged—more’s the pity, now that the FDA has approved Uloric (febuxostat), the first new gout drug in 40 years, which lowers uric acid more effectively than previous treatments.
Dispatches
Where Have All the Microbes Gone? Internist and researcher Martin Blaser believes that disturbances in the gut may underlie several modern maladies.
Podcast: Can AI Save Us from Despair? Psychiatry is finding its footing with machine intelligence. New tools may dramatically help those who need it the most.
A New Iron Age As more bacteria gain resistance to standard treatments, is the answer a return to therapeutic metals?
The Pharmacist Will See You Now As the role of the pharmacist changes, one program explores how it can help people with heart disease and other conditions.
Podcast: Mothers in Medicine Women are significant contributors to research, but their careers are often cut short when they have children. What can be done to remedy this gender disparity?
Your Brain on Drugs, Revisited People with drug addictions produce more of a certain brain chemical—and research may point to new ways to block it.
Podcast: Polar Lessons Researchers are untangling how animals can live in the Arctic and Antarctic cold. The applications for human medicine could be vast.
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