The Truth about Gout

As a kid, I remember certain ailments being, well just creepy. Like a goiter, or corns, or gout. While I had no idea what any of these things were, in my mind I would picture an old grandpa or grandma sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair rubbing a sore elbow saying something like, "I feel a storm's a comin'." I even thought at one time that, while creepy, it might be kind of cool to predict the weather just by the way your elbow felt for the day.

I have since learned that it is in fact NOT cool to feel the changes in the weather in a particularly sore joint. There is nothing creepy about a case of gout-just a lot of pain!

Gout is one of "those" ailments that seems to affect everyone else...that is until it affects you and it can catch you right out of the blue. In the clinic, we see at least a couple cases a month and can range from an occasional sore toe to a chronic, painful state with multiple painful joints with skin and other manifestations (such as kidney stones-yuck).

So what is gout anyway? It is a disease of abnormal metabolism of uric acid. Sounds clear as mud, doesn't it? Uric acid is a byproduct created as your body breaks down protein (like digesting a nice steak dinner). If you don't eliminate this efficiently, the levels can build up in your blood and crystallize in your joints causing pain-that's a gout attack).

Gout causes pain in joints-this is often the only sign you may have of gout, although there can be many other symptoms as well. Interestingly, the majority of the people who have an attack usually get it in a very specific joint-at the base of the big toe (don't ask me why, but for some reason there is a preference for the big toe). Certainly you can get gout in any joint but the big toe is far more common. It's very quite tender and it hurts to walk on.

It's usually swollen. It's hot. It's painful and you won't want to move it.

As you can imagine, you can have other problems from high uric acid levels. People with gout may be at risk for developing uric acid stones (kidney stones are super painful) or a buildup of uric acid in the skin, often referred to as tophacious gout where tophi (gouty nodules) grow on the ears, elbows or other places.

The treatment for gout is pretty straightforward-typically an inflamed joint is treated with anti-inflammatory medications and they generally work fast. Of course avoiding certain foods can be helpful. A quick GOOGLE search for an anti-gout diet can be worthwhile. There are some good medicines as well that help the body eliminate the uric acid, the most common being allopurinol taken once daily.

Check with your health care provider, check out web MD or Mayoclinic.com if you have questions. Stay healthy, eat right, and as always...see you at the clinic.