Learn exactly what causes gout and pseudogout: difference between gout crystals and pseudogout crystals.

Gout Crystals Images

The above gout crystals image shows gout uric acid crystals also known as monosodium urate crystals in synovial fluid taken from a joint with gout disease. Seen during gout diagnosis under a polarized light microscope magnified 400 times only. A gout crystal is shaped like a needle or like a rod.

What causes gout is when high levels of uric acid or sodium urate accumulates in body fluids, form crystals and get deposited in joints causing gouty arthritis inflammation. Gout crystals may also be deposited in cartilage, in bones or as lumps or tophi under the skin on the edge of the outer ear, the back of your hand, elbow, heel or toes:

Gout crystal image showing gout tophi on the ear

Gout crystals forming gout tophi on each side of the bone near the joint. When no gout tophi are seen externally:

• the damage to or
• the erosion of the bone caused by such a gout tophus will be clearly visible on an x-ray.

Gout used to be a disease of adult men, because their kidneys excrete uric acid less well than women and children. Gout starts with a sudden gout attack that lasts for a few days. Without proper gout treatments, gout tophi will appear and disable the joints.

Treating gout focuses on keeping the uric acid level in your blood below levels that could trigger gout attacks.

Pseudogout Crystals

Pseudogout crystals are calcium phosphate crystals and clearly different than gout crystals.

Gout and pseudogout do show similar arthritis symptoms like sudden acute attacks of one joint getting warm, swelling up and becoming extremely painful. Treatments for reducing the acute symptoms of both forms of arthritis are similar.

However:

• pseudogout prevention is best achieved with small daily doses of colchicine
• gout prevention and gout treatment is based on avoiding purine rich foods that cause gout as well as medicines lowering the uric acid level in the blood or raising the efficiency of the kidneys to expel more uric acid, hence reducing the risk of the formation of gout crystals.

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Clear info about stages of gout arthritis and how they affect your gout treatment. Gout is a form of arthritis or joint inflammation. The cause of gout lies in a prolonged excess of uric acid in the blood that deposits itself as crystals in the joints causing the most painful of all arthritis. Knowing your gout stage will help you taking the exact gout remedies for further gout prevention.

4 stages of gout

Gout is a disease that can progress into the following 4 stages:

1. Asymptomatic hyperuricemia

In this stage, you won’t have any gout symptoms. However you will have elevated levels of uric acid in your blood. This is called hyperuricemia and can cause gout. Usually no gout treatment will be given in this stage.

2. Acute gout – Acute gouty arthritis

In this stage of gout, your hyperuricemia has caused the deposit of uric acid crystals in your joint spaces. This leads to the most know symptom of gout: a sudden and intense swelling and extreme gout pain in the joints, most likely the big toe, which also becomes very warm and tender. This acute gout attack usually happens at night and can be triggered by:

• alcohol or drugs
• the presence of another illness or
• stressful events.

With or without gout treatment, these gout symptoms will disappear after 3 to 10 days. It is utterly important that you get this attack diagnosed as a gout attack by examining the synovial fluid from the affected joint. Once gout is detected, cures for gout will be prescribed for future gout prevention.

Gout treatment in this acute stage will boil down to resting the gouty joint for at least 24 hours and gout pain relief using:

• orally taken NSAIDs (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs
• corticosteroids orally taken or directly injected into the gouty joint
• colchicine within the 12 first hours of the gouty attack, taken every hour until the gout symptoms improve or the side effects of colchicine outweigh the benefits
• the proven gout home remedy: ice wrapped in towels applied to the gouty joints a few times a day for at least 20 to 30 minutes

3. Interval or intercritical gout

This is the period between 2 gout attacks and you wont see nor feel any gout symptoms. Your second gout attack may only happen months or years after your first acute gouty arthritis and can keep people from taking gout serious and treating gout. However over time gout attacks will occur more frequently and last longer.

It is during this stage that you need to change your lifestyle, take doctor prescribed medicine to lower the uric acid levels in your blood or increase the kidney’s ability in removing uric acid and follow a diet for gout avoiding foods that cause gout.

4. Chronic tophaceous gout

In this stage of gout, the causes of gout will have disabled you by inflicting permanent damage to joints or even damage to the kidneys due to the development of kidney stones. When diagnosed early and following an holistic gout cure, people should never reach this advanced stage of gout.

Gout stages summarized

The cure for gout lies in early detection. Take regular blood samples to find out whether your uric acid levels are above 6 mg/dL. Once you have your first gout attack, make sure it is diagnosed properly with a synovial fluid examination. Once you know you have gout, make sure you change your lifestyle and follow a gout diet to avoid a next gout attack to never reach stage 4 of chronic tophaceous gout.

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What is gout

Maybe you do know what is gout but you just don’t know that it is called gout: not all gout symptoms occur on your big toe…

Myself it took me quite a lot of doctor visits in different countries to learn that the arthritis in my left index finger that came and went actually was caused by gouty arthritis after 1 doctor examined the fluid taken out of my joint (called "synovial fluid") and discovered the uric acid crystals. Do know that I had injured the affected joint about 20 years ago.

More than 5 million people in the United States live with gout. In Europe it’s called a rich men’s disease… Since I don’t consider myself rich at all, it took me quit a while to find out the painful attacks in my finger where called gout attacks. To make the best out of a bad situation, I share my research about gout, gout symptoms, gout causes and cures of gout on this site.

Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in men between 40 and 50 and it affects approximately 3 times as many men as women. Myself I got my first gout attack when I was about 42. The number of newly diagnosed gout cases is on the rise.

What is it about gout being a rich men’s disease?

Hippocrates called gouty arthritis “the disease of kings”. Gout was associated with a rich diet of rich people.

One of the cures that help preventing gout is to avoid food rich on purines found mainly in beer and certain meat and fish.

Gout pain

Gout pain is extremely painful, some say it is even more painful than giving birth. Gout pain, also known as gout attacks or gout flares feels like somebody is poking your joints from the inside with a huge needle.

This description describes the cause of gout attacks: needle-like uric acid crystals are deposited in connective tissue and/or in the fluids cushioning your painful joint.

These needle crystals are actually uric acid crystals, a substance produced when the body breaks down purines found in human tissue and many foods we eat.

We will elaborate more about uric acid and food that contain purines on our other pages.

Normally, the kidneys eliminate uric acid from the body in the urine. But when the kidneys don’t manage to do this, uric acid will build up in the blood which is hyperuricemia. At this stage you don’t have uric acid needles yet though!

A gout attack usually starts with a sudden, severe pain in the large joint of the big toe. With me it occurs in my left index. This attack will fade away after 3 to 10 days. According to your gout food and gout diet, the next gout
attack maybe is due for a few months or even a few years.

If gout symptoms are not treated well, gout attacks will become more severe, occur more often, last longer and affect more than one joint. That’s why you need to follow one of the many gout treatments available to keep your gout under control or prevent it from returning.

I would say I keep my fingers crossed never to get a gout attack again, but in my case my gout finger already looks a bit crossed without having to make any effort…

What is severe gout

Severe gout or chronic tophaceous gout is the worst stage of gout causing so much damage to the joints that they will get disabeled. Luckily there are enough remedies for gout to control your gout symptoms in an acceptable manner. Do read more about gout prevention in the 4 gout stages post.

Treating gout and home remedies for gout

After popping up some Celebrex pain killers and putting ice on my foot, I stumbled upon lots of other real treatments to battle gout, especially what you need is a gout treatment that prevents future attacks and make life much more enjoyable!

Gout treatments are categorized as:

• medication and gout remedies to deal with acute gout pain
• medication for gout prevention: lowering the uric acid level in your blood or increasing your kidney’s potential to excrete uric acid
• gout diet to reduce your purine intake : avoiding foods that cause gout
• gout diet to increase your excrement of urine acid (or " good gout food")
• homeopathic remedies for gout and home remedies for gout

To learn more about what is gout, gout symptoms and treating gout, please browse around on our site or ask your gout questions.

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