Everything You Should Know About Gout

Content

• Is It Possible To Prevent Gout?
• How Common Is It?
• Diet & Nutrition
• What Are The Complications Of Gout?
• Asymptomatic Hyperuricemia
• Gout: Symptoms & Signs

In extreme cases of recurrent gout, surgery may be needed to remove the uric acid crystals from the joint to prevent further damage. Our podiatrists will always look for conservative options first, and only suggest surgery when absolutely necessary. Laboratory results including serum uric acid and synovial fluid analysis are important in differentiating between gout and pseudogout, as treatment options differ.

Is It Possible To Prevent Gout?

While the skin rash sometimes can be serious, other side effects usually are not serious and may go away as your body gets used to the medicine. If any side effects continue to bother you, contact your doctor. The treatment needs to be tailored for each person and may have to be changed from time to time.

Gout occurs more often in men, primarily because women tend to have lower uric acid levels. After menopause, however, women's uric acid levels approach those of men. Men are also more likely to develop gout earlier — usually between the ages of 30 and 50 — whereas women generally develop signs and symptoms after menopause. Eating a diet rich in red meat and shellfish and drinking beverages sweetened with fruit sugar increase levels of uric acid, which increase your risk of gout. Alcohol consumption, especially of beer, also increases the risk of gout.

How Common Is It?

Normal uric acid levels typically range between 3.5 and 7.2 mg in men and between 2.6 and 6.0 mg in premenopausal women. The most common site for a gout attack is what is known as the bunion joint on the big toe. As gout worsens, the ankle, mid-foot, knee, and elbow can become common sites of gout attacks. Uric acid crystals can also collect in soft tissues and form lumps called tophi, most typically on the hands, fingers, elbows, and ears.

Long-term medicine treatment depends on how high your uric acid levels are and how likely other gout attacks are. In general, the higher your uric acid levels and the more often you have attacks, the more likely it is that long-term medicine treatment will help. Long-term medicine treatment depends on how high your uric acid levels are and how likely it is that you will have other gout attacks in the future. To prevent future attacks, your doctor can prescribe a medicine to reduce uric acid buildup in your blood. Your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and do a physical exam. Your doctor may also take a sample of fluid from your joint to look for uric acid crystals.

These conditions resemble gout but are not caused by uric acid crystals. To determine which type of arthritis you might have, your doctor may have to remove fluid from an affected joint and examine it for crystals. Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis caused by a build up of crystalized uric acid in the joints and can be severely painful. It may develop in the ankles, knees, wrists, fingers, and elbows, but most commonly develops in the foot – specifically at the base of the big toe. Gout also most commonly develops in men, peaking at age 75, but can occur in women at any age as well. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , such as ibuprofen, indomethacin, or naproxen.

accumulates in your body, it can form needle-like crystals in your joints or the surrounding connective tissue and cause a painful attack of gout. Chronic kidney diseaseHigh levels of uric acid in the blood can increase the risk of chronic kidney disease. Colchicine may also be used either po or by IV and may produce substantial pain relief if started immediately after onset of symptoms.

Your doctor will also want to know if you have any family history of gout. Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the microscopic appearance of urate crystals in 1679. In 1848, English physician Alfred Baring Garrod identified excess uric acid in the blood as the cause of gout. Dietary causes account for about 12% of gout, and include a strong association with the consumption of alcohol, sugar-sweetened beverages, meat, and seafood.

Does soaking in hot water help gout?

Soaking in cold water is most often recommended and considered most effective. Ice packs may also work. Soaking in hot water is typically only recommended when inflammation isn't as intense. Alternating hot and cold applications may also be helpful.

Some patients do not respond to treatment because they fail to follow protocols, have alcoholism, or are undertreated by physicians. Sometimes an acute gouty arthritis attack has a sudden onset at nighttime. The big toe joint pain may be so severe that even the weight of bedsheets causes discomfort. Gout is a crystalline or inflammatory form of arthritis in which high levels of serum urate cause painful, swollen, stiff joints. For some people gout looks like a sudden swelling at the base of the big toe. Gout is an inflammatory disease where uric acid precipitates into crystals that deposit in various joints around the body, causing pain and inflammation.

Diet & Nutrition

Diet has been discussed in more detail above, and gout is clearly one of the rheumatic diseases where diet is unequivocally important. Devil’s claw , curcumin and many other herbal treatments have been proposed as gout therapy, and further study of these is indicated. Cherry juice, which has long been an alternative remedy and which had anecdotal support, now has been studied. At the American College of Rheumatology meeting in November there were two studies looking at cherry juice. It appears that cherry juice may have a small effect in decreasing production of uric acid. It also, possibly through its Vitamin C content, can increase the excretion of uric acid by the kidney.

What Are The Complications Of Gout?

The increase in younger people is not explained, but the increase in older people, at least in part, relates to increased life span, increased weight and increased use of diuretics. Diuretics are used commonly for hypertension, for example, and they elevate the blood levels of uric acid and can increase the risk of gout. When the body has high levels of uric acid, or hyperuricemia, uric acid crystals can concentrate in the joints. However, many people with higher uric acid levels never get gout. Gout is a common form of inflammatory arthritis that is very painful. There are times when symptoms get worse, known as flares, and times when there are no symptoms, known as remission.

If the disease is not controlled by medication, attacks may occur more often and may last longer. If your joints have been damaged, you may have joint stiffness and limited motion after an attack. Gout is a dramatic example of a type of arthritis called crystal arthritis, sometimes called microcrystalline arthritis because the crystals are very small. As the body tries to remove the crystals, a painful inflammation occurs.