The uric acid crystals that cause gout will have been building up in your joints for years before they cause your first actual attack of gout. You may not even realize that the aches and pains are not just normal aging pains until you have a full blown gout attack.
If you have any of the following symptoms then there is a good chance you have gout:-
1. They will feel some warmth along with extreme tenderness when the infected joint is touched. Normally the joint most commonly affected by this condition is the big toe. But as well as the warmth and tenderness a person will notice the joint has become inflamed and it is also painful. These particular symptoms of gout are more commonly referred to as podagra.
2. No one who hasn’t had a gout attack start at bedtime can believe how much pain can come just from the brushing of your partners foot against the infected joint, normally your big toe.
3. Many people who suffer from gout find that when an attack occurs the discomfort that they feel comes on very rapidly and may last for a few hours during the night. But then the discomfort that they are feeling will slowly begin to ease once more over the following 2 to 7 days.
4. After your attack of gout has started to subside you may find that the skin around the inflamed joint will feel itchy and it may even begin to peel.
The above are just some of the symptoms that people with gout may have. Not everyone who suffers with the above will have gout and not every gout sufferer will suffer with all (or any) of these symptoms.
While it is usually your big toe joint that suffers the effects of gout , which of course makes walking very painful, you can also get it in any joint in your body. This includes your fingers, elbows, ankles and even your wrists.
Gout can attack after an illness or surgery, to make it even worse it can often be missed and just treated as another ache or pain from the surgery or illness. Older people seem to suffer this misdiagnose more than others.
It is important however that should a person start to suffer from any of the gout symptoms we have mentioned above they should seek medical advice as soon as possible. Although the pain caused by an attack normally relieves itself a few days after the attack taking the right kind of medication can help to prevent the chance of such attacks occurring again.