Differences Between Men And Women
Sex differences play a role in which joints are affected:
- In men, about 85% of gout flare-ups affect joints in the lower extremities. About 50% of first-time gout attacks involve a big toe joint.8
- In women, a gout attack is most likely to occur in a knee.10 In addition, women may be more likely to get gout in the upper extremities.9
While women are less likely to get gout, they are more likely to have multiple joints affected by gout.13
Treating A Gout Attack
Treating an attack of gout doesnt lower your urate levels or stop future attacks. The treatment helps you to manage your symptoms when an attack happens.
The most commonly used drug treatments for attacks of gout are:
Some people will be better suited to NSAIDS, while others will be suited to colchicine. But your preference is also taken into consideration many people with gout quickly learn what works best for them.
In cases where one drug doesnt seem to be working on its own, your doctor might suggest a combination of NSAIDs with either colchicine or steroids.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Attacks of gout are often treated with NSAID tablets, which can help with pain and reduce some of your inflammation. Ibuprofen, Naproxen and diclofenac are three NSAIDs you could be given.
If youve been prescribed NSAIDs to treat an attack, you should start taking them as soon as you notice signs of one coming on. Your doctor may let you keep a supply so you can start taking them at the first signs of an attack.
The earlier you start treatment, the better.
NSAIDs arent suitable for everyone, so talk to your doctor about them first if you have any other conditions. They can also interact with other drugs, so make sure you talk to a doctor before starting on any new medication.
Colchicine
Colchicine isnt a painkiller, but can be very effective at reducing the inflammation caused by urate crystals.
Colchicine tablets can cause diarrhoea or stomach aches.
Steroids
How Uric Acid Forms & Uric Acid Accumulation
Purines contribute to the building blocks for DNA and RNA however, the uric acid it produces has no useful function in the body.2 Uric acid builds up in the blood but will accumulate around the joints when it cant pass through the body as needed.1 A physician can conduct a uric acid test to measure the amount of the substance in the blood to diagnose gout and possible causes of kidney stones.3,4
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Different Causes Of Inflammation
One study of women with self-reporting RA showed they had significantly higher levels of serum uric acid. An excess of this bodily waste product in your blood can trigger gout.
It does this by building up and forming urate crystals. These crystals may then accumulate in your joints and cause pain and inflammation.
RA occurs when your immune system responds abnormally by attacking your joints, and sometimes your organs, instead of foreign invaders like viruses that enter your body.
Its a different cause of inflammation, but the symptoms can appear similar. This may make diagnosis more difficult.
List Of 34 Foods Which Lower Uric Acid Levels In Knee Joint Arthritis
So here we have a list of 34 foods which helps to lower blood uricacid level in your body and as a result helps to fight knee joint arthritis.
These Foods Are As Follow:
1. Water first on List Of 34 Foods Which Lower Uric Acid Levels In Knee Joint Arthritis
Water is the cheapest on our list. What water does is really a magic. Basically in high uric acid levels your blood concentration increase and makes in a little bit difficult to purify from kidney. So water dilutes your blood concentration and increases the filtration and excretion of uric acid from your body. More over in dilutes the fluid in your knee joint cavity and helps to dissolve crystal in your knee joint cavity. As a result your arthritis settles down this is the reason we have placed it on no # 1 on our list of 34 foods which lower uric acid levels in knee joint Arthritis. So I would recommend encouraging intake of plenty of water when you have high blood uric acid levels.
2. French Beans
French beans are plant source contents and they have less purine per 100mg of beans. they contains 13% Vitamin A , 16% Vitamin C, 3.4% Calcium, 3.6% Iron and only 1.9 g of proteins per 100mg of French beans. So as they are less in proteins they can be effectively used to lower uric acid levels this is the reason we have placed it on no # 2 on our list of 34 foods which lower uric acid levels in knee joint Arthritis. Their juice can be used, their recipes can be made of you can used them in salad.
4. Cherries
6. Berries
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Control Your Body Weight
You know that gout caused by uric acid affects your joints and results in inflammation. That is why you must maintain proper body weight to avoid this condition. It will also help you in preventing the risk of gout flare-ups and other serious health issues. One major scientific fact you must know is that there is a clear link between overweight and increased uric acid levels.
On the contrary, as fasting causes rapid loss of weight, it also raises your uric acid levels. Thus, you must not consider fasting to reduce your obesity. The safest option for you is to consult a physician who will create a proper diet chart. You can reach your goal safely.
Gout Symptoms And Complications
Gout is not gout until symptoms occur. When they do, they usually come on suddenly and, at least initially, affect a single joint. Within hours, that joint becomes red, swollen, hot, and painful they’re called gout attacks for a reason. It’s easy to mistake a gout attack for a localized infection of a joint. The metatarsophalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is often the site of the first attack, but the knees, ankles, and joints between the many small bones that form the foot are also common sites. People who already have osteoarthritis the most common form of arthritis often experience their gout attacks in the joints of the finger
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High Uric Acid Level Blocks Blood Vessels
Although uric acid may look like a waste product of the body, only about 10% of it is excreted from the body. Therefore, nearly 90% of uric acid in the body is returned to the bloodstream by the kidney. This is because it was found that uric acid has a role of being a powerful antioxidant, too. In fact, more than half of the antioxidant capacity of blood plasma comes from uric acid.
But even though uric acid has a vital role in the body, any excess amounts of it more that its normal reference value can be harmful to the body. In medical science, the exact cause of high production of uric acid by the body is not clearly known. However, studies show that blood vessels taking in the excess uric acid can lead to the thickening of blood vessel walls and blocks the normal passage of blood. As a result, heart attack and other conditions such as arteriosclerosis may occur.
High uric acid levels may also block the production of nitrous oxide, a gas that acts as anesthesia when inhaled and allows your blood vessels to relax. Therefore, a high uric acid can also lead to high blood pressure.
Treatment Of High And Low Levels
Certain foods contain purines, which create uric acid when the body breaks them down. Eating a diet that is too rich in purines can cause uric acid to build up in the blood.
It is not possible to avoid purines completely because small amounts are present in many foods. However, a person can follow a low purine diet and take other steps to help lower purine levels.
Foods that include moderate or high levels of purines include:
- alcohol
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Gout Attack Vs Chronic Gout
It is possible to have a gout flare-up and never experience another. Repeated instances of acute gout are called chronic gout17.
The treatment goals for a gout attack are different than those for chronic gout. When treating a gout attack, the goal is to relieve pain and inflammation. When treating chronic gout, the goal is to prevent future gout attacks and long-term joint damage.
While some people with chronic gout may get frequent gout attacks, others may have years in between attacks. If chronic gout is not treated, attacks may become more frequent and/or last longer.
Left untreated, a gout attack will usually resolve itself within a few days or weeks. Chronic gout can permanently damage a joints tissues and decrease its range of motion. For this reason, it is important to recognize symptoms, understand risk factors, get an accurate diagnosis, and treat and prevent gout.
Uric Acid May Increase Likelihood Of Severe Osteoarthritis
ScienceDaily – The amount of uric acid in one’s joints may increase the likelihood of severe osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis worldwide, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Osteoarthritis is a debilitating joint degeneration for which no drug has been proven to slow or halt its progression. Physicians can only offer to treat the symptoms associated with osteoarthritis, and people with the condition are often subject to a reduced quality of life.
“Finding a way to treat the degenerating joints of people with osteoarthritis would be a tremendous breakthrough,” said Virginia Byers Kraus, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at Duke University in the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology and senior author of the study. “This research is a step towards identifying uric acid as a risk factor for osteoarthritis.”
The researchers looked at 159 people, who had knee osteoarthritis but no history of gout, a type of arthritis triggered by uric acid crystals in the joints. The researchers found the severity of osteoarthritis in their knees to be strongly correlated with the amount of uric acid in their knees. The results, which are published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show, despite the lack of gout history, above normal uric acid levels in 39 percent of the study population, and evidence of the form of inflammation in the joints that is typically triggered by uric acid crystals.
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The Role Of Medication In Prevention Of Gout
Table 3: Medications to pevent attacks of gout
Standard medications in preventing gout attacks
i. Colchicine : using the matches analogy discussed above1, using colchicine can be seen as dampening the uric acid matches. Colchicine does not lower the bodys store of uric acid, but it decreases the intensity of the bodys inflammatory reaction to these crystals. Recent studies have shown that at least one mechanism of colchicines action is by acting to prevent a cascade of reactions that lead to the production of interleukin 1-beta, which is an inflammatory protein , which is important in gouty inflammation.8
ii. Allopurinol: This agent is presently the most commonly used drug for the prevention of gout. Allopurinol blocks the enzyme xanthine oxidase, which blocks the breakdown of purines, thus decreasing the bodys total amount of uric acid. Allopurinol is effective in preventing gout no matter what the mechanism of the elevated uric acid was. Whether a person is making too much uric acid, or has difficulty excreting it via the kidney, allopurinols decrease in uric acid production leads to the same goal: a decreased total body uric acid.
Table 4: Reasons to use medication to lower uric acid
What Is The Prognosis Of Gout
Gout is a chronic condition. Left untreated, patients may suffer from recurrent painful and disabling acute attacks of gout. Joint damage and other complications of gout may occur. However, excellent treatments for gout are available, and most patients respond very well to gout treatment with a good prognosis.
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Differences Between Ra And Gout
Both diseases cause redness, swelling, and pain in the joints. Both can cause serious disability and disrupt your quality of life.
However, a close look at initial signs and which joints are involved will clearly differentiate these two diseases. The best way to know whether you have RA or gout is to make an appointment with your doctor for a diagnosis.
Specific signs that distinguish the diseases:
What Does A Gout Attack Look And Feel Like What Would A Foot Or Toe With Gout Look Like
When gout occurs, the joint tends to be extremely painful and is warm, red and swollen . The inflammation that is part of a gout attack is systemic, so that fever and chills, fatigue and malaise are not uncommonly part of the picture of a gout attack.
Figure 6: Toe with Acute Attack of Gout
Gout attacks can occur in joints that look normal, or in joints that have easily visible deposits of uric acid. These deposits are called tophi and can be in numerous locations, but especially on the feet and elbows. In Figure 9, the little finger of the right hand is bandaged since fluid was just removed from it, which demonstrated innumerable uric acid crystals.
Figure 7a: Tophi on Foot
Figure 7b: Tophus Over Achilles’ Tendon
Figure 8: Tophus on Elbow
Figure 9: Tophi on Hands
Figure 10: Large Tophus of Finger
While some gout attacks will solve quickly by themselves, the majority will go on for a week, several weeks, or even longer if not treated. Since gout attacks are usually quite painful and often make walking difficult, most gout sufferers will request specific treatment for their painful condition.
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High Uric Acid Levels Can Lead To Heart Attack
A high uric acid level can lead to many serious health conditions. One of these is gout, which is a common and painful form of arthritis that affects the big toe.
The pain felt with gout is said to be comparable to the pain being experienced by women during childbirth. However, there are cases where a high uric acid level does not cause any pain and is asymptomatic. Therefore, if you don’t go through any dietary and lifestyle changes, you can be at risk of life-threatening conditions like heart disease.
In this article, we’ll let you know the relationship between heart attack and uric acid and what you should do about it.
Do Gout Medications Have Any Side Effects
- Gout medications are well tolerated by most people. However, like other medications, they have potential side effects.
- Allopurinol is well tolerated by most people, but in some people, it can cause an allergicrash. Very severe rashes rarely can occur after taking allopurinol, and any allergic type rashes that develop while a patient is taking allopurinol are taken seriously.
- Colchicine can cause signs and symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, and rarely muscle weakness and abnormal blood counts.
- Probenecid is generally well tolerated but should not be used in patients who have uric acid kidney stones, as it can worsen the kidney stones and potentially harm the kidneys in these patients.
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Who Is Affected By Gout
Gout can affect anyone. It usually occurs earlier in men than women. It generally occurs after menopause in women. Men can be three times more likely than women to get it because they have higher levels of uric acid most of their lives. Women reach these uric acid levels after menopause.
People are more likely to get gout if they have:
- Obesity, or a lot of extra weight.
You are also more likely to develop gout if you:
- Consume a diet high in animal proteins
- Consume a significant amount of alcohol
- Are on water pills .
How Uric Acid Can Build Up In The Body
Purines are chemical substances that occur naturally in the body and in some foods. When the body breaks down purines, this creates uric acid as a waste product. The kidneys filter it from the blood and pass it out of the body in the urine.
However, uric acid can sometimes build up in the blood. The medical term for this is hyperuricemia. It can occur if the body produces too much uric acid or does not get rid of enough of it.
Too much uric acid in the blood can lead to crystals forming in the joints and tissues, which may cause inflammation and gout symptoms.
Some medical conditions and treatments are also associated with high uric acid levels, particularly gout, cancer treatment, and kidney disease.
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The Four Stages Of Gout
Gout is best understood by seeing it as having four phases or stages :
Stage 1: High uric acid
Elevated uric acid without gout or kidney stone, this stage has no symptoms and is generally not treated.
Stage 2: Acute flares
This stage is marked by acute gout attacks causing pain and inflammation in one or more joints.
Stage 3: Intercritical periods
These are periods of time between acute attacks, during which a person feels normal but is at risk for recurrence of acute attacks.
Stage 4: Advanced gout
This is a stage of chronic gouty arthritis, in which there are lumps of uric acid, or tophi , frequent attacks of acute gout, and often a degree of pain even between attacks .
Figure 1: Stages of Gout
Figure 2: Illustration of Toe Joint with Gouty Tophus. normal toe joint Urate crystals, shown in white, at the “bunion joint,” represent a gouty tophus.)
Figure 3: Progression of Gout