Saturday, June 14, 2008

Risk factor of arthritis gout

There are certain factors that can affect your likelihood of getting gout. In addition to an inherited abnormality in handling uric acid, other risk factors for developing gout include

· are a man, as the plasma urate level normally tends to be higher in men than women. Men are more sensitive to gout than women. Women may be protected from gout by the female hormone estrogen. Men start building uric acid levels in puberty. However, uric acid does not start accumulating in women until after menopause
· consume food with high levels of a substance called purine
· drink lots of alcohol
· take certain medicines, such as diuretics, niacin, low doses of aspirin, cyclosporine, and some drugs to cure cancer which increase the flow of the body , have some chemotherapy drugs
· obesity, excessive weight gain, especially in youth
· have a family history of gout
· have a family history of kidney disease causing the kidneys to not pass enough urate out in the urine, abnormal kidney function
· overweight
· have a medical condition such as psoriasis which can sometimes cause your body to produce too much
· have high blood pressure
· injure a joint
· have a surgical operation
Gout can be managed by dealing with the things that make it worse (see "Risk factors" above).
Identifying and avoiding the things that bring on an attack of gout are an essential part of your overall treatment plan.

About arthritis gout symptoms

The big toe is the most common gout symptom. Other joints affected include the ankles, insteap, heel, foot, hand, knees, wrists, fingers, and elbows. The most common gout symptom are characterized by a rapid onset of pain in the affected joint followed by warmth, swelling, reddish discoloration, and marked tenderness, fever. People usually have 'attacks' of gout - it may affect you for a period of time and then go away eventually, even without treatment.
Deposits of uric acid, called tophi, tophi is the specific gout symptom, can appear as lumps under the skin around the joints and at the rim of the ear. In addition, uric acid crystals can also collect in the kidneys and cause kidney stones. Tenderness can be intense so that even a blanket touching the skin over the affected joint can be unbearable. Patients can develop fever with the acute gout attacks. The painful bouts of gout symptom are caused by too much uric acid (a waste product of the kidneys), which forms crystals in the joint fluid.
Without treatment, gout symptom would be decrease usually lasts up to about two weeks. With treatment, this can be reduced to two to seven days. Left untreated, attacks of gout may become more frequent and last longer.