Surgery Godfather
Chapter 503 - 459: Fatty’s Health Classroom

Chapter 503: Chapter 459: Fatty’s Health Classroom

Gout is an internal disease that rarely requires surgical intervention.

However, this patient’s gout nodules are not only numerous but also large. Several of them have stretched the skin until it ruptures, forming a long unhealed wound. At this point, without surgical intervention, the wound is almost impossible to heal.

The gout nodules are filled with uric acid crystals. Human tissue eroded by uric acid crystals hampers the healing ability of such wounds, sometimes rendering them unhealable. Even with surgery, the possibility of the wounds not healing and constantly oozing remains.

Gout progressing to this stage is usually due to a patient’s lack of attention to the condition.

Some patients believe gout is not worth treating. They think as the condition sometimes is painful and sometimes is not. Times it hurts are fewer than times it doesn’t. They feel normal when it doesn’t hurt, so they see no urgency in treatment.

Others acknowledge the need for gout treatment which requires medication use. They worry about the side effects of the medication, and thus continuously postpone treatment until it becomes irreversible.

Gout is a disease; it must be treated. Dietary adjustments are one type of treatment method, but this is only applicable for patients with high uric acid without gout flare-ups or patients with early mild gout.

A majority of gout cases require medicinal intervention to decrease the uric acid level in the blood.

Inside the human body, uric acid is the final metabolite of purines.

Gout patients experience a malfunction in purine metabolism, hence the increase in their uric acid metabolite. Unfortunately, this malfunction is often irreparable.

"Fatty, you are a gout specialist. When you have time, you should educate everyone about gout." After examining this patient, Yang Ping felt a need to share knowledge about this disease with everyone.

The hospital organizes a health class at the Tri-Bo Hotel every week, where lectures on public health knowledge are given. The audience usually consists of hospital staff, inpatients, or their relatives.

Liang Fatty once volunteered in the medical department hoping to take responsibility for gout education. However, adhering to the principle of specialized lectures, the medical department denied Fatty’s request and gave the gout lecture to internal medicine doctors.

Fatty was disappointed when he attended the lecture given by the internal medicine doctor. He thought it was not accessible enough, lacked localization, and did not address key issues.

Now that Yang Ping suggested for him to give a lecture on gout, he was eager to try.

"Why wait for another date when date seems fated. Since we have time now, how about a class now? If possible, we recommend that you give a lecture in the health class at the Tri-Bo Hotel?"

Little Five was very keen because his father-in-law has gout. Every time he inquired about it from Fatty, he only obtained fragmented knowledge. He hoped that Fatty could give a formal class, knowing that he possesses in-depth knowledge about gout.

"How about now? In our teaching room?" Zhang Lin also supported, because his father’s uric acid level was high every time he underwent a medical check-up.

"Fatty, give a lecture now without preparation, can you do it? If it’s good, I’ll recommend you for the health lecture." Yang Ping encouraged him.

With Yang Ping’s recommendation, Fatty will for sure be appreciated by the medical department. Going to the health class to showcase would fulfill Liang Fatty’s long-time dreams.

"Yes! If you all encourage me, then why wait for another day when the date seems fated. Give me half an hour, no, one hour. I’ll educate everyone about gout. I feel the pain of it and have done extensive research on it. I took the opportunity to study carefully. With accumulated knowledge, I’ve gained some achievements. Today, I’ll showcase them." Liang Fatty bowed his hand.

With instant support from Little Five and Zhang Lin, Zhang Lin shouted: "Let’s prepare now, immediately, immediately, everyone, Liang Jing, the master of gout at Sanbo Hospital is about to begin. It’s all valuable knowledge. If anyone of you or your family members has high uric acid or gout, invite them to attend the class. This class will help you so that gout sufferers don’t have to seek other’s help."

Hyperuricemia is when blood uric acid is high, but without signs of gout symptoms. It can be considered the pre-state of gout.

If blood uric acid is high and gout symptoms appear, it is officially diagnosed as "gout".

Suddenly, everyone crowded into the teaching room. The standardized training students and interns echoed each other: Comprehensive Surgery Department is giving a lecture.

What is the lecture about and who is giving it doesn’t matter, the key is the Comprehensive Surgery Department is giving a lecture, as long as they have time, they must attend.

The fact that the lecture relates to gout, and that an anesthesiologist is the main speaker, is not significant.

What’s important is that this anesthesiologist is overweight and a gout patient himself. So when this news came out, everyone immediately dropped their tasks and gathered in the Comprehensive Surgery Department.

The majority of the first few people to arrive at the teaching room were overweight. They wanted to secure the best spots.

The improvised lecture attracted so many people. It seems the potential scale of gout patients is extraordinarily large.

Fatty stood on the stage, a bit overwhelmed with the scene. He cleared his throat into the microphone, preparing to start the lecture.

"Today, I will tell you about the knowledge of gout. Being both a doctor and a gout patient, I am the most qualified as well as obligated to give this lecture."

"I will not hesitate to say that half of you here do not understand gout, while the other half who do are all outdated."

"Of course, the range of this statistic does not include Dr. Yang."

Although the attendees are standardized training students, interns, graduate students, and young doctors, they all have their dignity. Who is he looking down on? In internal medicine, who hasn’t read the Chapter on Gout?

For lectures, to attract attention, it’s necessary to create some headline-catching statements.

"Currently, China has over a hundred million patients with high uric acid. What does a hundred million mean, brothers? Generally, one in ten people have high uric acid. If you have high uric acid, raise your right hand. If someone at home has high uric acid, raise your left hand."

Many raised their hands in the audience, without the need to count. Those who attended the lecture today either did it for themselves or their family members.

"I will not elaborate on the definitions of high uric acid and gout. They can be considered as two different stages of the same disease."

"In a nutshell, hyperuricemia and gout are the result of the body’s malfunction in purine metabolism. Uric acid is the result of purine metabolism, and when this metabolism is messed up, blood uric acid levels rise. When a blood test reveals high uric acid levels, but you’ve never experienced any adverse feelings, it’s referred to as hyperuricemia. If a blood test reveals high uric acid and you’ve had symptoms of gout, this is gout."

"When there’s an issue with purine metabolism resulting in an abundance of uric acid, which the body can’t eliminate, the uric acid levels in the bloodstream breach a certain threshold, leading to the formation of uric acid crystals. It’s akin to middle school chemistry knowledge that overly salty water will crystallize into salt - the principle is the same. These crystals erode and stimulate surrounding tissues, causing symptoms of gout."

Liang Fatty (still a bit tentative), got everyone into the right mindset.

"Many people assume that gout is the result of diet, specifically high-purine foods. For example, if you eat a lot of seafood, you’ll get gout. Wrong! Completely wrong!"

With Liang Fatty looking so concerned and frustrated, the atmosphere of the meeting was instantly stoked.

This level of discussion could go on national television.

"Many people, after receiving a gout diagnosis, are taken aback: ’I don’t eat seafood, or drink beer, so how could I have gout?’ Some even follow this logic: ’I’ve been strictly following the gout diet plan, abstaining from seafood, organ meat, beer, soy products, and the likes. Why isn’t my gout getting better?’"

"What you’re eating doesn’t have a strong correlation with gout. It’s not that if you eat a lot of seafood, you’ll get gout; It’s more like because you’ve got gout, you can’t consume lots of seafood. Seafood is just a trigger. You already had gout, and eating lots of seafood merely induces the symptoms."

"So if gout isn’t caused by diet, should I continue tormenting myself by adhering strictly to the diet plan, depriving myself of this or that, living a life of a dietary ascetic?"

Fatty posed the question to the crowd.

The crowd immediately reciprocated: "Yeah, do we have to avoid certain foods or not?"

In everyone’s knowledge, it’s only natural that one should avoid certain foods when suffering from gout.

"Excellent, I’ll begin our discussion by talking about food restrictions in cases of gout. I responsibly tell you, gout doesn’t necessitate strict dietary restrictions. You can eat seafood, as well as poultry, fish, and meat. By abstaining from this or that, you’re eliminating high-protein food, leading to dietary imbalance, and consequently higher uric acid. A balanced diet is more conducive to lowering uric acid," said Fatty confidently.

His conclusion isn’t some unfounded blarney to please the crowd, but a conclusion drawn from reading the latest research findings on gout.

His novel argument certainly captured everyone’s attention, and all listened intently.

"About eighty percent of the body’s purines come from endogenous metabolism inside the body, while only twenty percent come from external foods."

Higher uric acid levels do not indicate that you’ve consumed excess high-purine food, but rather that your purine metabolism has malfunctioned.

So, the food you eat has a very minimal effect on the purines inside your body.

"At the same time, there’s a dynamic purine balance system inside your body. If your intake of dietary purines increases, your endogenous purine sources will decrease; if your intake of dietary purines decreases, your endogenous purine sources will increase, maintaining a dynamic balance."

"The food you eat has a minute influence on purine levels – to the tune of approximately 5%."

"Following a strict gout diet will hardly help in lowering uric acid levels, and because of the dietary imbalance, it might even cause some side effects."

"So, when it comes to diet, it’s crucial for those suffering from gout to consume a balanced diet. Don’t be partial to any particular food, consume fruits, vegetables, poultry, fish, and meat. Strict dieters following gout diets can only reduce their uric acid levels by about 50umol/l. While in contrast, those following a balanced diet without specific restrictions may reduce their uric acid levels by up to 100mmol/l."

"But remember, a balanced diet does not mean an unrestrained diet. Even drinking too much water can make you burp."

Liang Fatty, all in one breath, eloquently abandoned the outdated diet concept and established a new concept of a balanced diet.

I’ve summarized several golden rules for gout, which I don’t generally tell everyone, so remember to take notes.

"Don’t drink alcohol,

Don’t drink sugary beverages,

Reduce your salt intake,

Feel free to eat fruits and vegetables,

You can eat seafood, meat, eggs, fish, poultry, etc., in moderation. There’s no need for dietary restrictions as long as you don’t overindulge.,

You must exercise, must sweat, you must lose weight. Otherwise, it’s all in vain.,

Drink lots of water, urinate frequently, and emphasize this with a red pen.

If your uric acid levels are still high despite consistent exercise, weight loss, drinking copious water, and maintaining a balanced diet, you should decisively start taking medication,"

These simple rules, compared to the comprehensive gout diet plans, are far more practical.

Although Liang Fatty is an anesthesiologist, as a doctorate holder from Huaxi, he’s used to focusing on investigating gout in depth.

His easily understood new arguments are all backed by persuasive facts and scientific data. They are not mere hearsay or rumors."

"If medication becomes necessary, how should one choose the right medication?" Little Five was eager to know.

He trusts Fatty’s approach to meticulous research, and finds him highly reliable.