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Category: Articles » Health & Fitness » Diseases & Conditions » Article » Article Code

What To Do If You Have A Gout Attack

Oh, The Pain! Gout - even the word sounds painful. If you suffer from gout, you are likely in pain, irritated, and even losing sleep. The pain that seems to randomly and mercilessly attack you when you least expect it, usually while you are sleeping or about to fall asleep, can feel like a knife blade being forcefully wedged between your joint. The heat and swelling that accompanies the sharp, intense pain can make even the weight of a bed sheet unbearable. What Is This? You are probably wondering what could be causing such intense pain ... read more

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Oh, The Pain!

Gout - even the word sounds painful. If you suffer from gout, you are likely in pain, irritated, and even losing sleep. The pain that seems to randomly and mercilessly attack you when you least expect it, usually while you are sleeping or about to fall asleep, can feel like a knife blade being forcefully wedged between your joint. The heat and swelling that accompanies the sharp, intense pain can make even the weight of a bed sheet unbearable.

What Is This?

You are probably wondering what could be causing such intense pain in such a small area like the space between a joint and why you are its victim. The excruciating, jabbing pain of gout is caused by uric acid. Your body produces uric acid, but uric acid also is created when your body breaks down purines, a substance found in most foods but in high concentrations in certain foods. If your body produces too much uric acid, or does not excrete enough uric acid, or both, you can become a victim of gout. Uric acid is typically processed by the kidneys and excreted out of the body in urine. However, when too much uric acid accumulates in the body and is not excreted properly it begins to collect in the tissues of joints. The uric acid that collects in the joints forms sharp, needle-like crystals that are the cause of the sharp pain that for many people can be unbearable.

Who Else Is Suffering Like This?

Gout has been called a "rich man's disease" because of the association of rich foods like salmon, liver and many others that are high in purines that can usually be an observable link between diet and gout attacks. But wealthy men are not the only people throughout history or even today who have suffered from the extreme pain caused by gout attacks and the uric acid crystals that cause them. While the majority of people who suffer from painful gout attacks are men, women also suffer. Women are more likely to experience gout attacks after menopause, but men can begin experiencing them much earlier on in life than women do.

Is This Actually Gout?

So how can you be sure the painful attacks you are experiencing is actually gout? Fortunately, the symptoms of gout are fairly distinct, meaning that the symptoms of gout are not easily confused with other problems. Even though a gout attack can happen seemingly out of nowhere, the uric acid crystals that form in the joints and cause terrible pain have likely been accumulating for months or maybe even years. The most common symptom of gout experience by almost everyone who has suffered from gout is an unexpected night time attack. This random attack which can happen as you are going to bed or after you have already fallen asleep usually occurs in the first joint of the big toe where the toe connects to the foot. Gout attacks do not always occur in this joint, but the majority of gout attacks seem to happen in the big toe. Typically, a gout attack comes without warning and is more than just stabbing pain in a joint. Other symptoms that come with the stabbing join pain include swelling, intense heat, redness and tenderness where the sharp, jabbing pain is also felt and in the tissue surrounding the painful attack. While the first joint of the big toe is one of the most common sites of a gout attack, uric acid can also collect in other joints and tissues, causing attacks in other toes, other areas of the foot, ankles and knees. Gout attacks have even occurred in joints of the hand. A gout attack can leave someone in pain for hours, days, sometimes even several weeks. Then, almost as suddenly at an attack began, the symptoms of gout will disappear. You may experience another attack within hours or days, or you may not experience another attack for years.

Why Is This Happening To Me?

Gout is a condition that usually takes years to develop. There are certain lifestyle factors that can contribute to a person being more likely than someone else to having attacks of gout. Being overweight , eating certain foods and meats that have a large amount of purines, a substance that the body breaks down into uric acid, drinking too much alcohol, and even certain medications like aspirin and diuretics can all be factors that lead to gout attacks. Your gender and age can also play a role. Men are at least twice as likely as women to experience gout attacks. Men who experience gout attacks are usually over the age of 40, but not always. Women who do experience gout attacks usually are past menopause, but as with men, this is not always true.

A health care professional will be able to help you determine what lifestyle factors may be contributing to your gout attacks. Blood tests and joint fluid tests can also be effective in determining if there is a higher than normal amount of uric acid in your blood and joints. Blood can be drawn or fluid can be removed from a joint with a needle and observed for uric acid crystals. However, gout cannot be diagnosed simply from blood tests. Many people have high levels of uric acid in their blood but their kidneys are capable of processing the uric acid and excreting it from the body with not problems at all, while other people may have lower levels of uric acid in the blood but do not seem able to process it at well, or have certain lifestyle factors that contribute to the likelihood of experiencing gout attacks.

Will I Always Experience Gout?

Over time, you may experience more frequent gout attacks. Gout attacks can also occur in different joints than where an attack was previously experienced, and can occur in more than one joint, especially if it is not your first gout attack. Gout symptoms can become increasingly more severe with each gout attack, and the more gout attacks you experience, the longer gout symptoms may last with each new attack. Damage to the joints can also occur with repeated gout attacks. Uric acid can collect into lumps near the joints or bones and create painful, raised bumps called tophi, where the skin around them is typically red or even purple and very tender.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for gout or the painful attacks it causes. Treatment is available to help manage the symptoms of gout but you can experience another attack out of nowhere at any time. Treatment methods usually include pain relief and attempts to reduce inflammation and swelling, so NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, which is not a prescription but is available over-the-counter, are typically suggested. For people who cannot take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids may be prescribed, but they usually cause several side effects, including weight gain.

Sometimes drugs that can affect uric acid levels are temporarily prescribed but they typically cause side effects and many people would rather find other methods of handling their gout attacks than experiencing the side effects of steroids or other prescription methods of dealing with gout attacks and their cause. Unfortunately, for most people, changes in diet will do little to control or change uric acid levels. There are alternative methods that many people say have been extremely effective but without unwanted side effects.

Gout may seem to attack from out of nowhere but you do not have to live in fear of another attack. The most important step is to educate yourself about what you are experiencing and make an educated decision on your treatment.

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