Feburic for hyperuricemia and gout: limits to effectiveness.

Feburic for hyperuricemia and gout: limits of the effectiveness

While hyperuricemia can have different reasons, from insulin resistance to chemotherapy, all types of hyperuricemia are characterized by high level of uric acid in the blood. Feburic (Febuxostat) is effective for suppressing the enzyme which produces the uric acid in the body. But how far are the limits of its effectiveness? Will Feburic help with all cases of hyperuricemia and gout? Let’s study it out together.

How does Feburic (febuxostat) act?

Basically, there are three types of getting high level of the uric acid in the blood:

1. verproducing the uric acid in the body,
2. bad exertion of the uric acid,
3. mixed type, combining the first two problems.

Feburic (Febuxostat) from Japan is effective for suppressing xanathine oxidase/dehydrogenase, an enzyme that catalyzes oxidation of hypoxanthine to xanthine and further to uric acid. Thus, Feburic reduces the amount of the uric acid produced in the body. However, febuxostat doesn’t inhibit other enzymes having part in purine and pyrimidine synthesis and metabolism. Moreover, Feburic (Febuxostat) can be also used for patients with mild-to-moderate renal impairment and for patients who cannot be treated with allopurinol (Ignacio Garcia-Valladares, Tahir Khan, Luis R. Espinoza. “Efficacy and Safety of Febuxostat in Patients with Hyperuricemia and Gout”. Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease, 2011 Oct; 3(5): 245–253). It was approved by FDA in 2009.

Pros and cons of using Feburic (Febuxostat) from Japan

Unfortunately, there are certain cases, when Feburic might not be the best option for the patient. Firstly, Feburic (febuxostat) tablets contain lactose, so they cannot be used for people with lactose intolerance. Secondly, patients with severe heart, kidney, liver or thyroid problems should be examined by the consulting doctor prior to using Feburic and discuss all benefits and risks. Thirdly, some researches point out concerns about increasing goat flares when the patient starts to use febuxostat. Nevertheless, for the long-term treatment Feburic (Febuxostat) doesn’t show such increase in goat flares (Jean H. Tayar, Maria Angeles Lopez-Olivo, Maria E. Suarez-Almazor. “Febuxostat for treating chronic gout”. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008653.pub2 ). That’s why many therapists choose to prescribe their patients Feburic (febuxostat) from Japan as an effective medicine for gout even understanding that it goat flares might not decrease at the beginning of the treatment. In this case, it might be better to combine using febuxostat with colchicine or a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug for preventing goat flares.