Non-Profit Group Launches Educational Web Site For Gout Sufferers

The Gout & Uric Acid Education Society, a non-profit group of health care professionals, today launched http://www.gouteducation.org , a valuable educational resource for gout sufferers and their caregivers. The Web site is designed to help gout sufferers enhance their understanding of the disease and its treatments, embrace lifestyle modifications and, ideally, restore some control and spontaneity to their lives."Many people think gout died with Ben Franklin, but more than two million people in the United States suffer with gout today," said N. Lawrence Edwards, M.D., Chairman and CEO of the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society and Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville. "We formed the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society and launched this Web site to educate the public and the health care community about gout and the related health care consequences of hyperuricemia, with the aim of improving the quality of care and minimizing the burden of gout. Our site is a one-stop resource for gout sufferers and their caregivers."The Society's Web site, http://www.gouteducation.org, provides information on risk factors and triggers of gout, diagnosis, lifestyle and diet adjustments and treatments to manage the disease, among other relevant topics. Additional information will be added to the site on an ongoing basis. The site text is adapted from the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society's brochure About Gout: What you need to know about gout and uric acid.