Gout is a disease that essentially stems from inflammatory arthritis and causes reddness, swelling and pain at a specific joint. More specifically, the metatarsal phalangeal joint (the joint in the big toe of the foot). However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, gout involves kidney stones, tophi and urate nephropathy. Generally gout is caused by increased levels of uric acid in an individual’s fluids. These often crystallize and collect in the joints, tendons and nearby tissues or present themselves as kidney stones.
Diagnosis of gout is done in the clinic where the professionals visualize the characteristic uric acid crystals in a blood sample. Treatment is usually done with anti inflammatory drugs while steroids and colchicine relieve the often very painful symptoms. Both treatment and symptom relief depend highly on how soon the disease is detected and which gout medications you take.
If it is caught early, when the crystals have no fully formed, then they take a shorter time to dissolve and healing can occur within weeks of diagnosis and treatment prescription.
The difficulty with this is that the early signs of gout are difficult to detect because they are not very obvious right off. Many times people do notice the early signs but they do not know what they are, rather they put it off as mere annoyance or something to go check out at the doctor’s in a week or two.
Knowing and being aware of these early signs, may save you time, money and pain.
As the crystals that characterize gout form in the joints (any joints) you may experience pain (increasing pain as times goes on), swelling, discoloration and numbness. Many people assume that they hit their elbow or knee against something and do not remember. Although this may be the case, usually you can distinguish the numbness from any other kind by the characteristic pins and needles feeling that often radiates through the bone.
This type of pain can soon become very difficult to bare and it can even impair movement. Knowing what the beginning pains are, before the excruciating painful stage occurs, is key in getting rapid treatment. Sometimes the symptoms of gout resolve on their own for a period of time. In other words, the body may by itself dissolve the crystals and where you once had a tender, painful joint the next day you may be feeling good as new. However, in most cases, because the root of the problem was not addressed, the symptoms return. This is another key aspect of gout symptoms that may help you rule out other things. If the pain and joint swelling goes away, and then comes back after a week or two, you can suspect gout and visit you physician right away. He may even prescribe Uloric gout medication.
An interesting and unique characteristic of gout crystals is that they usually form late at night or in the early morning (majority of the time it takes the crystals 8 – 12 hours to form enough to cause pain). This may wake you up from your sleep, giving you another early sign that you may have gout.
Many people, after a couple days start to experience mild chills and a fever. This is the body’s way of trying to tackle what it thinks is foreign invaders (but are really crystal formed within the body itself). If this occurs in addition to the above mentioned symptoms you can almost be sure that you have gout.
If fever does not occur to confirm your suspicions, take a close look at the skin around the area of pain. If it is shiny and tense looking, then you have a good indication that you may have gout.
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