Crystal Arthritis and Gout

Gout is because of inflammation that is caused by crystals of uric acid forming in the soft tissues or joints. To be more precise, it is not actually an acid by the time it forms crystals, but urate. In some cases gout is thought to be hereditary, but it is not always that unambiguous.

There is also another type of arthritis, which is known as pseudo-gout, but this is due to the buildup of a different type of crystal that is made up of pyrophosphate.

Acute gout is painful to the extreme and it is usually the foot that is affected, which makes walking impossible and even the weight of bedclothes can be unbearable until the pain dies down. You will often find that an attack happens at night, accelerating fast with the affected part becoming red, shiny and swollen. In some cases the inflammation is so severe that the skin peels as with an abscess or boil.

An attack of gout may be brought on by stress, an acute illness, a heavy bout of drinking or it can just appear out of the blue. Even if left untreated an acute attack will generally subside after several weeks, but prompt treatment is necessary to prevent damage to your joints.

The highest risk factor for developing gout is a raised uric acid level, which is generally called hyperuricaemia. However this does not mean that everyone who has an raised uric level will develop gout, as this can be due to biochemical abnormalities, genetic factors, poor diet or underlying kidney disease.

What happens in gout is that the body's fluids are saturated with more uric acid than the kidneys can efficiently excrete, and uric acid turns into urate crystals, which accumulate in the joints.

These crystals are needle like, which means they irritate the surrounding tissues causing the body to respond by flooding the area with white blood cells, which causes inflammation and swelling.