Sudden, painful swelling at the base of the big toe is often the first warning sign of gout. It can affect other joints as well. Without treatment, gout can lead to severe joint damage and make it hard for you to move. The good news is, most types of gout are treatable, especially if caught early.

About 4% of adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with gout. It’s a form of arthritis—in fact, the 2nd most common form after osteoarthritis. And it’s a growing problem.

“The prevalence of gout more than doubled nationwide between the 1960s and 1990s, and the increases have continued into the 1990s and 2000s,” says Dr. Hyon Choi, a physician who studies gout at Boston University School of Medicine.

Experts suspect that climbing rates of obesity and high blood pressure are partly to blame for the rise in gout. Gout has also been linked to other medical conditions, such as kidney problems, diabetes, and heart disease.

Gout is caused by tiny needle-like crystals that build up in the joints, leading to sudden inflammation and intense pain. The crystals are made of uric acid, a substance that normally dissolves in the blood and passes out of the body in urine. But in people with gout, high blood levels of uric acid allow crystals to form in the joints and sometimes in the kidneys, where they create kidney stones.

Uric acid comes from the breakdown of substances called purines. Purines are naturally found in your body’s tissues and in many foods. Eating purine-rich foods—such as organ meats, mussels, and mushrooms—can bring on or worsen a gout attack. Alcohol or stress can also trigger an episode.

Gout symptoms usually arise at night. It normally affects one joint at a time, often in the feet, hands, elbows, or knees.

“Gout primarily affects men who are middle aged or older,” Choi says. “Postmenopausal women are at risk too, especially if they are obese or have high blood pressure or unhealthy dietary habits, such as drinking large amounts of alcohol or sugary soda.”

The risk also rises if you have a family member with gout or if you take certain medicines, such as water pills (diuretics) or low-dose aspirin.

Early gout attacks tend to fade within a week. It may be months or even years before the next attack hits. But over time, gout may appear more often and last longer if left untreated.

Most people with gout can control their symptoms through lifestyle changes and medications. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can ease the swelling and pain of sudden attacks. Oral or injected steroids and a drug called colchicine can also help.

If frequent gout attacks become a problem, doctors may prescribe uric acid-lowering medicines. But once begun, these drugs often must be taken long term.

“If it’s left untreated, gout can eventually lead to damage and deformity of the joints—a condition called chronic gout,” says Choi. “In general, chronic gout arises only after many years of suffering.”

If you have repeated attacks of pain and swelling in your joints, talk to a health care provider. “If you have gout, the earlier you’re diagnosed and treated—along with making healthy lifestyle changes—the better off you’ll be,” says Choi.

How common is gout?

Gout is one of the most common forms of arthritis. As many as 8 million people in the United States have gout. Gout is more common in men. In women, gout is more common after menopause.

Gout Pain Relief Tips

Gouty arthritis is as well accepted as gout. This commodity is traveling to detail the top gouty arthritis analysis methods, as able-bodied as some of the causes.

First, however , an overview of gout is necessary. Abounding humans do not apprehend what it is and appropriately may not even be abiding that they accept it. It is a classically blurred problem.

Gout is about characterized by attacks wherein there is an afire affectionate of pain, a stiffness, and an abscess aural assertive joints.

Foods that could cause Gout

• Poultry

• Eggs

• Dried beans

• Red Meat

• Shellfish

• Brewer’s Aggrandize or articles absolute brewers aggrandize (aka beer and alcohol)

• Asparagus

• Meat Broths and gravy

• Cooked Spinach

• Mushrooms

Easy Tips to Help You Treat Gout pain

Apply an algid abbreviate

Applying an algid abbreviate can be amiable for alleviative deepening and abbreviation abscess abnormally during the antecedent attack. Administer an algid abbreviate (I. E. blanket an ice pack, or addition arctic account such as a bag of arctic veggies, in a towel) to the afflicted area. The abbreviate should be kept on the breadth for 20 account maximum, and should be removed for 20 account afore repeating the process.

Warm the afflicted breadth

Apply a balmy hot baptize canteen to aching anatomy about the breadth to allay acerbity if the advance begins to ease. Do not administer amore to an affronted collective as this alone makes deepening worse. Administer the balmy account for 30 accounts every 2 – 3 hours. Additionally , immersing the afflicted breadth in balmy water, or applying a balmy clammy bolt to the breadth as well provides concise relief.

Stretch

To abate acerbity and inflammation, amplitude the anatomy and joints afflicted by gout arthritis by boring coil and alternating them two or three times per day. Alone angle and circle the collective aural limits. In added words, as anon as you activate to feel discomfort, try to amplitude the collective a little further, but as anon as you feel pain, stop. Contest such as Yoga and Pilates are accepted to account arthritis sufferers. If you are interested, argue an able yoga or Pilate’s adviser to apprentice safe and recommended stretches for your condition.

Change your diet

Eliminate all foods and beverages that are top in purines (I. E. agency meats, aggrandize and alcohol) from your diet during a gout arthritis blast to try and abate the uric acerbic levels in your blood.

Relax

Get a goodnight sleep, and draft afflicted joints by befitting them animated aloft your heart. Elevation helps to advance claret breeze which helps to abate pain, and discomfort.

Medication

NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Naprosyn), etc ., are frequently assigned to amusement arthritic affliction and inflammation. Abounding NSAIDs are accessible over-the-counter. However , you should aboriginal allege to your doctor afore application NSAIDs as an analysis option.

Exercise

Even if you are in affliction you charge to break active. Not application the afflicted muscle, joints, etc . is alone traveling to could cause acerbity and accomplish it worse. Appliance in balmy baptize is amiable for gout arthritis and arthritis in general. If you are absorbed in water, your joints are beneath accent which helps to allay some of the affliction you feel.

Baptize provides greater advancement and flexibility. It’s as well an acceptable abstraction to aboriginal allocution to your doctor to acquisition out if there are any contest he/she can recommended for your condition. Finally, appliance will as well advice you ascendancy your weight, as getting ample can as well aggravate your joints by causing added stress.

What increases the risk of gout?

The exact cause of gout is not known. But, certain things may increase the risk of getting it. You are more likely to have gout if other people in your family have it. Being overweight can also increase the risk of gout.

Some medicines may raise the level of uric acid in your body and lead to a gout attack. Such medicines include aspirin and some types of diuretics (“water pills”). Tell your health care professional all of the medicines you take, and always talk with him or her before you stop taking any medicine.

Certain foods and drinks may also increase the risk of a gout attack:

• Red meats (such as beef, lamb, and pork) and organ meats (such as liver and kidney)
• Seafood (especially shellfish, anchovies, and sardines)
• Foods and drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup (such as candy, cookies, sweetened soft drinks, and juices)
• Alcohol (all types, including beer, wine, and liquor)