ABOUT GOUT
Here’s what Wikipedia says about it: “Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected (~50% of cases). However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate nephropathy. It is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood which crystallize and are deposited in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues.
Gout has increased in frequency in recent decades affecting approximately 1–2% of the Western population at some point in their lives. The increase is believed to be due to increasing risk factors in the population, such as metabolic syndrome, longer life expectancy and changes in diet. Gout was historically known as "the disease of kings" or "rich man's disease".
Hyperuricemia is the underlying cause of gout. This can occur for a number of reasons, including diet, genetic predisposition, or underexcretion of urate, the salts of uric acid. Renal underexcretion of uric acid is the primary cause of hyperuricemia in about 90% of cases, while overproduction is the cause in less than 10. Dietary causes account for about 12% of gout, and include a strong association with the consumption of alcohol, fructose-sweetened drinks, meat, and seafood. Other triggers include physical trauma and surgery. Recent studies have found dietary factors once believed to be associated are in fact not, including the intake of purine-rich vegetables and total protein. Coffee, vitamin C and dairy products consumption and physical fitness appear to decrease the risk.
The occurrence of gout is partly genetic, contributing to about 60% of variability in uric acid level. A few rare genetic disorders, including familial juvenile hyperuricemic nephropathy, medullary cystic kidney disease, phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase superactivity, and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency as seen in Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, are complicated by gout.”
I had it in the left large toe in the fall of 2010. (The first time round, several years ago, it was in the large right toe.) When I told someone I had gout they usually winced and said, “I bet that’s painful.” Well, not compared to kidney stones. If kidney stones are 10, and no pain is 0, gout (mine, at least) was about a five. Painful enough so I couldn’t run, and it hurt to walk, but not terrible. The worst part was that contact with covers at night hurt, so I found it hard to sleep.
Then it went away. Thank goodness. I don’t recommend it.