Gout and hyperuricemia are associated with cardiovascular disease and its major risk factors and even more closely with chronic kidney disease. The preponderance of results from observational cohorts demonstrate that gout and hyperuricemia are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease that is independent of other factors, though that increase is of a smaller magnitude than that seen with traditional risk factors. In some studies, the relative increase in risk associated with elevated uric acid is more pronounced in women than in men. We have interpreted these results as a prompt to be more aggressive in screening our gout patients for modifiable cardiovascular risk factors and chronic kidney disease and reducing those risks as much as possible through lifestyle changes, modifications to diet, and medications. Many gout patients have indications for urate-lowering therapy related to their disease, so the dilemma of whether to initiate treatment is not present. There has not yet been sufficient demonstration in randomized controlled trials of benefit from urate-lowering therapies in patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia with regard to cardiovascular or renal outcomes. However, there are intriguing preliminary results in several studies that may demonstrate a specific benefit of allopurinol or febuxostat in certain populations.