Do You Ever Wonder If You Have Gout?
There is nothing new about gout, it has been around for hundreds and probably thousands of year and has seen millions of people suffer with it. Gout is prevalent in some families, if your father or other male member of your family has gout then there is a chance that you to will develop it.
Your kidneys work very hard removing items from your body that can cause illness and even poison your body from the inside. If you don’t take care of your kidneys by doing things such as drinking 8 glasses of water a day to help flush toxins from your body then there is always the chance that they won’t be able to remove as much uric acid from your system as they should.
In milder cases, the person may only develop a condition called hyperucemia, a condition characterized by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood. Such a condition may not develop into arthritis or other kidney problems.
The use of the term “gout” has been commonly applied to the episode of painful arthritis like attacks. A more specific term to these attacks is “gouty arthritis”. It is characterized by sudden severe painful episode appearing as inflammation of the affected joint.
The inflammation of the joint is hastened by the occurrence of crystallized uric acid deposits in the person’s joints. These crystallized uric acids may be found in joint or synovial fluid and joint or synovial lining. Intense inflammation develops when white blood cells envelops the uric acid crystals as a defense mechanism. This action causes the release chemicals that results in inflammation. The person will experience severe pain, redness and heat in the area afflicted.
In the United States, there are approximately a million people who have the disease. It is more prevalent in men than women. In the males, the most at risk are those after puberty and menopausal stage in women. Elevated levels of uric acid in the blood or hyperuricemia in medical term, may point to a heightened risk of gout development but, medical studies has yet to uncover the relationship of hyperuricemia and gout. It is known however that many of those who have hyperuricemia will not necessarily succumb to development of gout. In contrast, there are many who have experienced gout attacks actually have normal to low uric acid levels.
Ever wonder what the causes of gout? If you knew the symptoms and causes are then you can try to avoid them and prevent yourself suffering from gout or at least reduce the severity of your gout episodes.