Do you know if you have gout?
Written by Paul Mahon on February 24th, 2009Families often share traits, everyone in a family will have the same color hair or the same color eyes or they will all be very tall. Gout is another thing that gets passed from parent to child, especially male children. So if you have gout then you owe it to your children to start them on the path to avoid developing it themselves.
Uric acid is a process involving the breakdown of purines that are present in the foods that we eat. The kidneys failure to process uric acid can lead to gout attacks. These attacks are characterized by painful arthritis like symptoms. In severe cases, uric acid build up can lead to occurrence of kidney stones, and kidney failure in worst cases.
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.
The use of the term “gout” has been commonly applied to the episode of painful arthritis like attacks. A more specific term to these attacks is “gouty arthritis”. It is characterized by sudden severe painful episode appearing as inflammation of the affected joint.
If you do have gout you are not alone, in the us there are at least a million others who have gout. Most of the people who suffer with gout are men.
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.
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Tags: Arthritis, gout, healthy eating, lifestyle, Weight Loss
