What Is Gout And How Can It Affect You?

Gout is caused when too many crystals of uric acid are deposited in the tissues of a person’s body. These large deposits can cause ongoing attacks of arthritis and joint inflammation.

Doctors relate gout to an abnormality in the bodies ability to process uric acid. Most believe that this disease is inherited and passed along through families genes. Uric acid is the breakdown product of purines - which are parts of the majority of foods that we consume on a daily basis.

When there is an abnormality of how our bodies handle it, it will cause attacks of painful arthritis, kidney stones, and uric acid crystals will block the kidney filtering tubules. This last symptom can lead to kidney failure. There are some patients with gout that only develop elevated blood uric acid levels without suffering from kidney problems or arthritis.

An acute gout attack will usually occur at the base of the big toe. The other joints that can be affected include the knees, ankles, fingers, wrists, and elbows. You can recognize an acute gout attack by an increasing amount of pain in these joints. The pain will usually hit you fast and will be followed by warmth, swelling, tenderness, and discoloration.

The tenderness can sometimes be very intense and any small or light thing that touches it will become unbearable. Fever is another symptom of gout that can affect someone during an attack. These attacks can last for up to a few hours or days. It all depends on the type of gout treatment you are using.