Symptoms of Gout: Signs to recognize the disease

Gout is a musculoskeletal disease that damages and deforms joints, and in severe cases can completely destroy joints. Recognizing the symptoms of gout early will help patients promptly treat, avoid a series of dangerous complications caused by gout.

Join SignsSymptomsList.com to learn about the symptoms of gout in the following article

Overview of gout

Gout is a common and complex form of arthritis that can affect anyone. The most direct cause of gout is uric acid accumulation in the body for a long time, leading to urate crystals forming in and around joints, causing acute gout attacks. Gout attacks often come on suddenly, causing you to wake up at night and feel a burning sensation in your big toe. Gout symptoms may appear and go away afterward, but you need effective control to avoid further flare-ups in the future.

Joint areas commonly affected by gout

When you have gout, urate crystals accumulate for a long time, causing inflammation in one or several joint areas. If not one but many joints are inflamed at the same time, it is called polyarticular gout or polyarticular gout.

The most typical pain of gout usually occurs in the big toe joint. However, other joint areas are also likely to be affected, such as joints in:

• Foot
• Ankle
• Knee
• Elbow
• Wrist
• Finger

Rarely, gout manifests itself in joints in the center of the body such as the spine, shoulders, or hips.

Common gout symptoms

Gout can manifest differently from person to person, but here are some of the most common gout symptoms:

Prolonged pain and discomfort in the joint area

Many gout patients often wake up in the middle of the night because of a sharp pain in the affected joint. In particular, the most common gout symptom is pain in the big toe joint. Symptoms rapidly develop and worsen within 12-24 hours of the onset of pain. The most severe pain is likely to appear within the first 4-12 hours, then subside but persist for days to weeks and cause extreme discomfort to the patient. As the gout progresses, gout attacks will last longer, with more joints affected.

Symptoms of Gout: Joints are inflamed and red

Affected joints can become inflamed, which in turn leads to gout symptoms such as swelling, tenderness, warmth, and redness. The skin covering the joint looks shiny, sometimes peeling.

Development of tophi . nodules

Many gout patients have nodules around the joints. These nodules are called tophi. They are usually painless but sometimes break open and release a pus-like fluid containing a milky substance, which is urate crystals that accumulate around the joint. Tophi that develops in joints has the potential to permanently deform the joint. With the right treatments, you can dissolve these crystals.

Mild fever and fatigue can be symptoms of gout

During acute gout attacks, you may feel tired and weak. Sometimes, you also have a fever and muscle aches.

Limited range of motion

As gout progresses, it becomes difficult for patients to move their joints normally, partly because of pain when moving.

Maintain a healthy lifestyle to improve gout condition

The following lifestyle changes will help you improve your condition and ease gout symptoms:

• Weight loss: Excess weight has the potential to make people insulin resistant, and insulin resistance also promotes elevated uric acid levels. Losing weight will help with this problem. However, the patient should not fast or lose weight quickly. Research shows that sudden weight loss increases the risk of gout attacks. Let's lose weight in a scientific, reasonable and right way.
• Exercise more: Regular exercise helps prevent gout attacks, maintain a healthy weight, and keep uric acid in the body low.
• Drink enough water: A well-hydrated body will help eliminate excess uric acid better through the urine, reducing the risk of gout attacks.
• Pay attention to your diet: Stay away from beer, wine or any alcoholic beverage. In addition, you need to avoid eating foods such as red meat, some fish, organs because these foods are not good for gout patients.