Many people in their entire lifetimes would never have thought that they could have gout, and it comes to them as a great surprise and shock when they discover painful joint and toe swellings that turn out to be gout when diagnosed. It is true that gout could be a hereditary disease and may actually run in the family, but it has happened that many people within a family have lived without any signs of the disease, only to have it surface again in some other persons down the generational line.
Gout occurs more in men than it does in women, and if often occurs in men between the ages of 50 and 65. What then is gout? Gout is a joint and foot disease that occurs when there is over production of uric acids in the body, and most especially when the liver and kidneys cannot cleanse them out of the body system. Gout can affect the toes, the joints and even the fingers, and there is even gout foot. Gout foot causes very painful swellings on the big toes of the feet, and it may as well affect the legs as well. What causes the swellings and the pain?
Gout foot is usually very painful and swells because of the uric acid crystals that react to the efforts of the body white blood cells in combating them, and hence the inflammation that causes the pains and the soreness. Gout foot on the toes could come as a result of eating foods that are rich in purine. These are elements that ginger the production of more uric acids in the body. It should be noted that when you eat foods that are rich in red meat, chicken, turkey, spinach, beetroot, nuts, asparagus, mackerel and others, you could stimulate more uric acid and its crystals in the body. These will definitely react to the attack of white blood cells to cause inflammation and painful swellings.
In addition, these happen to be gout foot symptoms. There is redness of the affected toes and joint, and the placed becomes inflamed to even make the foot nearly unusable. Most sufferers do not ever remember ever hurting the affected gout foot, and they mostly report the pain starting in the night in their sleeps. The affected gout foot will make it impossible to wear shoes, and it may grow to affect the other joints in the legs like the knees, the ankles and the other toes. These symptoms may come and go and they may become acute or chronic over time, but you must visit a doctor for gout foot treatment or the excess uric acid in the body could rise to abnormal levels as to lead to kidney failure and death.
To treat gout foot, you must visit your podiatric physician and he may place you on specific antibiotics or colchicines medications, which are usually prescribed. He may also ask you to change your diet, eat more of cherries, and drink more water daily, in order to be able to inhibit the growth of uric acid and flush out the crystals from the body.