Gout is a disease that is caused by the buildup of uric acid in the human body. The uric acid accumulates on the cartilage of joints, tendons and surrounding tissue because of the elevated amounts of the acid in the bloodstream. This leads to an inflammation of the tissues affected by the uric acid. Gout is derived from the Latin word gutta. Sufferers of gout experience sudden, excruciating pain that burns. They also experience swelling, redness, warmth of the area and stiffness in the affected joint. Gout most commonly affects men, especially in their toes, but can also occur in women; although it is not common to occur in women.
Gout usually affects the big toe but it can also affect the ankle, the heel, the instep, the wrist, elbow, fingers and even the spine. Uric acid can also form kidney stones on a side note. To diagnose gout a doctor must examine fluid aspirated from the joints affected under a microscope to be able to effectively tell if the patient is suffering from gout or a handful of other possible diseases or conditions.
Treatment for patients with gout comes in stages. The obvious first stage of treating gout is to relieve the patient of any pain they are suffering from. Medicines used are indomethacin and any other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Doctors will also inject medicine directly into the joints affected by gout. These are treatments for acute gout cases. There is the possibility that the case could become chronic or extremely severe. If and when this occurs the doctor will recommend surgery to remove the large tophi and correct any joint deformity. Tophi is a ball of crystallized uric acid that develops on the outer areas of the body, in tune with a joint, when a patient is suffering from chronic gout.
There isn't a full proof way to prevent people from developing gout but there are ways to prevent the attacks from happening more than once. Doctors feel that the consumption of potassium will help patients with gout fend of any future problems and one study done by the University of British Columbia found that drinking coffee and other caffeine drinks on a long term basis will help prevent the development of gout and fend off any other gout flare ups for patients that already suffer from the condition. Doctors do recommend that patients with gout avoid certain foods. Those foods are sardines, anchovies, seafood, poultry, soft drinks, fruit preserves, syrup, candy and much, much more. Doctors recommend to avoid eating high volumes of these foods; not cutting them out of the diet altogether.
Doctors also recommend avoiding dehydration at all costs by drinking plenty of liquids; especially water. Water will help to dilute the excretion of urates in the body. Also avoid diuretic foods and diuretic medicines such as Aspirin, Vitamin-C, alcohol and tea. Only patients with gout should avoid these final object altogether as directed by their doctor. These objects do not need to be avoided by patients not suffering from gout.
