Is Gout a Problem You Continuously Deal With?
Gout is one of several different types of arthritis. It is something that can cause a person to experience an attack of a sudden burning pain, swelling in a joint, or stiffness, and it usually happens in one of their big toes. Unless it is treated promptly, gout can cause these attacks to happen over and over again. They can harm your tendons over time, as well as your joints and other tissues. It is a condition that most commonly occurs in men.
Gout is a condition that normally happens from too much uric acid in the blood. Having too much uric acid is not harmful most of the time. Many people never get gout from high levels of uric acid in their blood, but when the level gets too high, it can form hard crystals in the joints
If you are overweight, the chances of getting gout are higher. Your chances are also higher if you drink too much alcohol, or eat too much fish and meat that are high in the chemicals called purines. Another cause of gout can be from taking water pills (diuretics).
One of the most common signs of gout is a nighttime attack of tenderness, redness, swelling, and sharp pain in your big toe. The attacks can also occur in a person’s ankle, foot, or the knees. They can last anywhere from a few days up to many weeks at a time before the pain weakens or goes away. A following attack may not happen for a few months or a year. You may want to see your doctor even if your pain from the gout is gone. Even though pain subsides, the buildup of uric acid that led to your attack can still harm your joints.
One way that gout is diagnosed is the doctor will ask questions about symptoms experienced and do a physical exam. This doctor may also take a sample of the fluid from your joint to look for uric acid crystals. This is one of the best ways to test for the gout. There may also be blood tests ran to measure the amount of uric acid in your blood system.
To stop a gout attack your doctor can give you a corticosteroids shot, and they may also prescribe a daily dose of one or more medicines. These doses will get smaller and smaller as the symptoms go away. The relief from a gout attack will begin within 24 hours if you get the treatment started immediately.
In order to ease the pain while having a gout attack, the joint affected should be rested. Another way to help you feel better is to take ibuprofen or another anti-inflammatory medicine. Taking aspirin will not help, and it can also raise the uric acid level in the blood.
Medications can be prescribed to reduce uric acid buildup in your blood in order to prevent future attacks. Be sure to take the medicine your doctor prescribes as directed so it can reduce and lower the uric acid levels in your blood. In some cases these drugs may be needed for the rest of a person’s life.
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Dealing with Joint Pains Positively
July 7, 2009 by admin
Filed under Gout, Joint Pain Relief
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People suffering constantly from joint pains live miserable lives. Joint pains have become regular fixtures in their everyday lives so much so that they have learned to live with it. If you suffer from joint pains, you need to educate yourself concerning the disease condition so that you will be able to learn how to manage it and live a better life where you are in control and not the joint pains controlling you.
Pains associated with arthritis include the severe pain from the inflammation of the joints, acute pain from damaged joints, and exacerbated pain brought by chronic suffering from joint pains.
People with arthritis will, in many ways. experience all these forms of pain. Without proper treatment, medical intervention and pain management, people will suffer for an entire lifetime.
When people who suffer from constant joint pains learn to arm themselves with the knowledge of the disease and how it can be effectively managed, then they are able to better control joint pains which will go a long way to living the life you desire and not a life which is handicapped by joint pains.
So what makes an effective management program to meet joint pains head-on?
Educate yourself. Read, ask, and understand the enemy, in this case, it’s your joint pain. Study how it works and what happens inside the body and why is there so much pain. Arm yourself with coping and life management skills and learn methods on harnessing the power of your mind to promote wellness and comfort such as the one promoted by bio-feedback or cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Don’t wallow in self-pity. When joint pains strike, treat it as a call for action. Don’t give up and suffer in silence. You deserve to have a better life than the one you have now. Do something to help you for this can increase your self-confidence and determination to fight the disease condition.
There are also some tools to help you in your quest to effectively manage and eventually conquer joint pains.
Take pain relievers right on time before the pain will flare up. Be careful, though, of side effects which are linked to long term use of certain painkillers.
Do yoga and other activities that promote meditation to relax the body and mind. It can help relieve pain and reduce stress that is bombarding your body.
Keep busy. Don’t dwell on the pain. Don’t let pain dominate you. Do something to keep your mind and body busy.
Have a heat and cold therapy as well as a good old massage. These are time-proven and tested treatments that can give you quick relief for joint pains.
How Is Gout Diagnosed?
Gout may be difficult for doctors to diagnose because the symptoms can be vague, and gout often mimics other conditions. Although most people with gout have hyperuricemia at some time during the course of their disease, it may not be present during an acute attack. In addition, having hyperuricemia alone does not mean that a person will get gout. In fact, most people with hyperuricemia do not develop the disease.
To confirm a diagnosis of gout, a doctor may insert a needle into an inflamed joint and draw a sample of synovial fluid, the substance that lubricates a joint. The joint fluid is placed on a slide and examined under a microscope for uric acid crystals. Their absence, however, does not completely rule out the diagnosis.
The doctor also may find it helpful to look for uric acid crystals around joints to diagnose gout. Gout attacks may mimic joint infections, and a doctor who suspects a joint infection (rather than gout) may also culture the joint fluid to see whether bacteria are present.
Signs and Symptoms of Gout
- hyperuricemia
- presence of uric acid crystals in joint fluid
- more than one attack of acute arthritis
- arthritis that develops in a day, producing a swollen, red, and warm joint
- attack of arthritis in only one joint, often the toe, ankle, or knee
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What Causes Gout?
A number of risk factors are associated with hyperuricemia and gout. They include:
- genetics. Twenty percent of people with gout have a family history of the disease.
- gender and age. It is more common in men than in women and more common in adults than in children.
- weight. Being overweight increases the risk of developing hyperuricemia and gout because there is more tissue available for turnover or breakdown, which leads to excess uric acid production.
- alcohol consumption. Drinking too much alcohol can lead to hyperuricemia, because alcohol interferes with the removal of uric acid from the body.
- diet. Eating too many foods that are rich in purines can cause or aggravate gout in some people.
- lead exposure. In some cases, exposure to lead in the environment can cause gout.
- other health problems. Renal insufficiency, or the inability of the kidneys to eliminate waste products, is a common cause of gout in older people. Other medical problems that contribute to high blood levels of uric acid include:
- high blood pressure
- hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland)
- conditions that cause an excessively rapid turnover of cells, such as psoriasis, hemolytic anemia, or some cancers
- Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome or Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, two rare conditions in which the enzyme that helps control uric acid levels either is not present or is found in insufficient quantities.
- medications. A number of medications may put people at risk for developing hyperuricemia and gout. They include:
- diuretics, such as furosemide (Lasix1), hydrochlorothiazide (Esidrix, Hydro-chlor), and metolazone (Diulo, Zaroxolyn), which are taken to eliminate excess fluid from the body in conditions like hypertension, edema, and heart disease, and which decrease the amount of uric acid passed in the urine
- salicylate-containing drugs, such as aspirin
- niacin, a vitamin also known as nicotinic acid
- cyclosporine (Sandimmune, Neoral), a medication that suppresses the body’s immune system (the system that protects the body from infection and disease). This medication is used in the treatment of some autoimmune diseases, and to prevent the body’s rejection of transplanted organs.
- levodopa (Larodopa), a medicine used to support communication along nerve pathways in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
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What Is Gout?
Gout is a painful condition that occurs when the bodily waste product uric acid is deposited as needle-like crystals in the joints and/or soft tissues. In the joints, these uric acid crystals cause inflammatory arthritis, which in turn leads to intermittent swelling, redness, heat, pain, and stiffness in the joints.
In many people, gout initially affects the joints of the big toe (a condition called podagra). But many other joints and areas around the joints can be affected in addition to or instead of the big toe. These include the insteps, ankles, heels, knees, wrists, fingers, and elbows. Chalky deposits of uric acid, also known as tophi, can appear as lumps under the skin that surrounds the joints and covers the rim of the ear. Uric acid crystals can also collect in the kidneys and cause kidney stones.
What Is Uric Acid?
Uric acid is a substance that results from the breakdown of purines. A normal part of all human tissue, purines are found in many foods. Normally, uric acid is dissolved in the blood and passed through the kidneys into the urine, where it is eliminated.
If there is an increase in the production of uric acid or if the kidneys do not eliminate enough uric acid from the body, levels of it build up in the blood (a condition called hyperuricemia). Hyperuricemia also may result when a person eats too many high-purine foods, such as liver, dried beans and peas, anchovies, and gravies. Hyperuricemia is not a disease, and by itself it is not dangerous. However, if excess uric acid crystals form as a result of hyperuricemia, gout can develop. The crystals form and accumulate in the joint, causing inflammation.
What Are the Four Stages of Gout?
Literally translated, arthritis means “joint inflammation.” It refers to more than 100 different diseases that affect the joints. Gout accounts for approximately 5 percent of all cases of arthritis. The disease can progress through four stages:
- Asymptomatic (without symptoms) hyperuricemia – In this stage, a person has elevated levels of uric acid in the blood (hyperuricemia), but no other symptoms. Treatment is usually not required.
- Acute gout, or acute gouty arthritis – In this stage, hyperuricemia has caused the deposit of uric acid crystals in joint spaces. This leads to a sudden onset of intense pain and swelling in the joints, which also may be warm and very tender. An acute attack commonly occurs at night and can be triggered by stressful events, alcohol or drugs, or the presence of another illness. Attacks usually subside within 3 to 10 days, even without treatment, and the next attack may not occur for months or even years. Over time, however, attacks can last longer and occur more frequently.
- Interval or intercritical gout – This is the period between acute attacks. In this stage, a person does not have any symptoms.
- Chronic tophaceous gout – This is the most disabling stage of gout. It usually develops over a long period, such as 10 years. In this stage, the disease may have caused permanent damage to the affected joints and sometimes to the kidneys. With proper treatment, most people with gout do not progress to this advanced stage.
When It’s Not Gout, It May Be Pseudogout
Gout is sometimes confused with other forms of arthritis because the symptoms – acute and episodic attacks of joint warmth, pain, swelling, and stiffness – can be similar. One form of arthritis often confused with gout is called pseudogout. The pain, swelling, and redness of pseudogout can also come on suddenly and may be severe, closely resembling the symptoms of gout. However, the crystals that irritate the joint are calcium phosphate crystals, not uric acid. Therefore, pseudogout is treated somewhat differently and is not reviewed here.
