New research suggests that gout have a protective effect for the brain against Alzheimer's.

Gout, the most common inflammatory arthritis, is linked to a higher risk of heart and kidney problems and their resulting health issues.

Researchers led by the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and at Boston University Medical Center, in Boston found that there was a 24 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease amongst people with a history of gout. This protective effect may be due to uric acid, the chemical in a person's blood that can crystallize, leading to gout.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN), an electronic medical record database from general practices that is representative of the UK general population, from Jan. 1, 1995 to Dec, 31, 2013.

They looked at 3.7 million people aged 40 and over who had been registered and enrolled with a practice for at least one year during the period studied. Individuals diagnosed with gout or any dementia prior to the start of follow-up were excluded from the study.

Analysis was carried out of Alzheimer's disease amongst adults with gout compared with up to five non-gout individuals matched by age, date of study entry, enrolment year and body mass index (BMI) using the THIN data.

Participants were followed up until they developed Alzheimer's disease, died, left the THIN database or the follow-up ended, whichever came first.

Overall, the researchers identified 309 new cases of Alzheimer's disease among 59,224 patients with gout (average age of 65) and 1,942 cases among 238,805 people in the comparison group over an average five-year follow up.

"Our findings provide the first population-based evidence for the potential protective effect of gout on the risk of AD [Alzheimers' disease] and support the purported neuroprotective role of uric acid," researchers concluded. "If confirmed by future studies, a therapeutic investigation that has been employed to prevent progression of PD [Parkinson's disease] may be warranted for this relatively common and devastating condition."

The findings are detailed in the BMJ.