Do I have Gout?
Gout is uniquely known in the medical world as one of the most regularly recorded medical disease throughout history. It is frequently related to hereditary abnormality in the ability of a person’s body to excrete uric acid.
No one thinks much about purines in their food, the items that are high in purines are often amongst the most flavourful foods. Shellfish, red meats and game meats are all high in purines. Only when you have an agonizing attack of gout or even worse kidney stones do you start to even consider the purines in your food.
Not everyone with increased levels of uric acid in their blood stream will develop gout, but if you find your blood contains eleveated levels then it is a good reason to start taking precautions to reduce it. At it’s worst increased uric acid can lead to kidney stones and even kidney failure, as well as gout.
Gout attacks are partly caused by your body trying to protect itself, it sees the uric acid crystals as an invader and white blood cells are sent out to put a safety envelope around the crystals. This is when the pain starts.
Gout usually attacks men over the age of 21, this may be partly due to the increased alcohol intake that starts after than age. Although middle age and later is when most men will start to suffer with gout, most likely due to the increase in obesity and the fact that people tend to stop watching what they eat after a certain age.
In the United States, there are approximately a million people who have the disease. It is more prevalent in men than women. In the males, the most at risk are those after puberty and menopausal stage in women. Elevated levels of uric acid in the blood or hyperuricemia in medical term, may point to a heightened risk of gout development but, medical studies has yet to uncover the relationship of hyperuricemia and gout. It is known however that many of those who have hyperuricemia will not necessarily succumb to development of gout. In contrast, there are many who have experienced gout attacks actually have normal to low uric acid levels.