Signs Of A Gout Attack

By Kathy Nelson

After a few years of not looking after your body, eating lots of rich meats and drinking to much beer, there is a good chance that your body will have accumulated enough uric acid crystals for your first experience of gout.

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

1. The most common form of gout starts as what is known as podagra usually. This refers to pain in the big toe joint when it is inflamed from the build up of uric acid.

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.

Just because your pain is in your elbow or wrist it doesn't mean it isn't gout. While gout usually attacks your big toe joint there are many instances of people who have had no trouble at all with their toes but have had immense pain in other joints.

If you have recently had surgery then there is a increased chance that you will have a gout attack. These after surgery attacks seem to be short in length, although just as painful as any other attack, it can also be treated as a side effect of the surgery rather than actual gout.

If you or someone you know starts to have any of the symptoms we have mentioned here it is vital that they go to see a DR. While the initial pain may dissipate after a few days it will come back , and may be much worse the next time, unless they take proper medication.