Do people with gout live longer? Antioxidants reduce damage to tissue (by scavenging the free radicals) and thus may reduce ageing.It is known that Uric acid is a very good antioxidant. People with gout have excess accumulation of uric acid. Considering the above information the authors of the book "Why we get sick?" put up an interesting question : Do people with gout live longer ? I would like to know if there are any studies done to answer the question.

In men, gout is associated with a higher risk of death from all causes. This would imply that their life expectancy is shorter. From a review by Kim et al. (1):

> Among men who did not have pre-existing coronary heart disease, the increased mortality risk is due primarily to an elevated risk of cardiovascular death, particularly from coronary heart disease. Also, an extension study of a large clinical trial among men with above-average risk for coronary heart disease found that a diagnosis of gout accompanied by an elevated uric acid level is associated with increased long-term (approximately 17 years) risk of all-cause mortality that arises largely from an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

This does not rule out that some subset of people with gout (patients with less severe symptoms?) might benefit in some way from an antioxidant effect, but in general gout is obviously not good for life expectancy.