Gout Signs You Should Never Ignore
Gout is a disease characterized by an abnormal metabolism of uric acid, resulting in excess uric acid in the tissues and blood. People with gout either produce too much uric acid, or more commonly, their bodies have a problem removing it. There are various foods that trigger gout. There are a number of possible consequences of this buildup of uric acid in the body, including acute and chronic gouty arthritis, kidney stones, and local deposits of uric acid (tophi) in the skin and other tissues. Gout may occur alone (primary gout) or may be associated with other medical conditions or medications (secondary gout).
The prevalence of gout appears to be increasing, to boot. Currently estimates report gout to be affecting over 6 million Americans.
Gout Signs You Should Never Ignore:
1. The pain began in the middle of the night. This arthritic problem often begins at night. When you are sleeping the synovial fluid responsible for cleaning your joints doesn’t flow enough to properly clear out the excess debris. This allows uric acid crystals to accumulate causing swelling leading to terrible pain. Ask yourself if the pain came on suddenly in the middle of the night. If you were not suffering when you went to sleep, but woke up in pain, chances are you have gout and you should check if you have any of the other gout signs.
2. You don’t remember injuring the affected joint. One of the problems with new onset of this condition is thinking you have a sprained foot or ankle versus having gout. The most common place for pain is in the big toe, however, this is not always the case. Often attacks occur in the ankle and many have felt they sprained their ankle. After a couple weeks of getting worse and not better many realize they don’t remember injuring their ankle. Ask yourself if you remember injuring your ankle or foot, if the answer is no, you may have gout.
3. The pain is getting worse. As mentioned in the last point, if your pain has not subsided over a few days, but is actually getting worse with increased swelling and redness, you could possibly have gout. When you suffer an injury the swelling will usually subside after a few days whereas gouty arthritis will continue to increase in intensity.
4. The pain has spread to other joints. Sometimes the gout will jump from one joint to another. You can have pain in your foot today and have it spread to your knees, elbow, wrists, and fingers. Sometimes it can feel like you have tendonitis, but in reality it is gout.
5. Even the slightest pressure causes intense pain. For many people with this disease, it has been noted that even the slightest pressure from something as light as a bed sheet can cause tremendous pain.
Gouty arthritis is a common cause of a sudden onset of a painful, hot, red, swollen joint, particularly in the foot at the big toe. Gouty arthritis is reportedly the most common cause of inflammatory arthritis in men over the age of 40. It is definitively diagnosed by detecting uric acid (monosodium urate) crystals in an aspirated sample of the joint fluid. These uric acid crystals can accumulate in the joint and tissues around the joint over years, intermittently triggering repeated bouts of acute inflammation. Repeated attacks of gouty arthritis, or flares, can damage the joint and lead to chronic arthritis. Fortunately, while gout is a progressive disease, there are several natural remedies to treat gout.
SOURCE:
Gout; National Library of Medicine –
Gout Natural Treatments; PositiveMed
