Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Signs of a Gout attack

By Kathy Nelson

The condition known as gout will normally take several years to form before a person starts to suffer from it. This is because the uric acid crystals need time to build up in a person's joints and the tissue surrounding it before gout symptoms and signs begin to show.

If you have any of the following symptoms then there is a good chance you have gout:-

1. They will feel some warmth along with extreme tenderness when the infected joint is touched. Normally the joint most commonly affected by this condition is the big toe. But as well as the warmth and tenderness a person will notice the joint has become inflamed and it is also painful. These particular symptoms of gout are more commonly referred to as podagra.

2. Nighttime can often be the first time you notice the intent pain that gout can give you from even the light pressure of a bed sheet.

3. If your toe joint feels like it is on fire and that pain goes on for several hours then the chances are you have gout. The pain should start to disperse over the following 2 days although it can take as long as a week to go totally.

4. When the gout attack actually begins to subside then the person finds that the skin around the joint, which is affected, may feel itchy and starts to peel.

Like any illness, gout affects different people in different ways. Some people will recognize all the symptoms mentioned here while others won't recognize any of them, you may only get pain in your elbows for example and none in the big toe joint which we mentioned.

The most common part of the human body where a person is likely to experience gout is the big toe joint. However, some people may develop gout in other joints in their bodies including their feet, ankles, knees, wrists, fingers as well as their elbows.

Gout can attack after an illness or surgery, to make it even worse it can often be missed and just treated as another ache or pain from the surgery or illness. Older people seem to suffer this misdiagnose more than others.

It is important however that should a person start to suffer from any of the gout symptoms we have mentioned above they should seek medical advice as soon as possible. Although the pain caused by an attack normally relieves itself a few days after the attack taking the right kind of medication can help to prevent the chance of such attacks occurring again.

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