Families often share traits, everyone in a family will have the same color hair or the same color eyes or they will all be very tall. Gout is another thing that gets passed from parent to child, especially male children. So if you have gout then you owe it to your children to start them on the path to avoid developing it themselves.

Uric acid is a process involving the breakdown of purines that are present in the foods that we eat. The kidneys failure to process uric acid can lead to gout attacks. These attacks are characterized by painful arthritis like symptoms. In severe cases, uric acid build up can lead to occurrence of kidney stones, and kidney failure in worst cases.

Having elevated levels of uric acid in your blood does not mean that you will automatically suffer with gout attacks. Hyperucemia (thats the medical name for increased levels of uric acid in your blood) is something that if found may cause you to initially panic, but if you find out about it before you have any gout attacks then you are lucky. You can take steps to change your lifestyle and reduce the levels of uric acid.

Uric acid that isn’t cleaned out from your system will become crystals and these crystals move around your body until they stop somewhere. Uric acid crystals often stop in joints, in fact they most often stop in the joint of the big toe. The crystals cause inflamation when they are enveloped in white blood cells, this is part of your bodys defences. While trying to protect your body, your white cells are actually helping to cause you the intense pain that is gout.

Gout usually attacks men over the age of 21, this may be partly due to the increased alcohol intake that starts after than age. Although middle age and later is when most men will start to suffer with gout, most likely due to the increase in obesity and the fact that people tend to stop watching what they eat after a certain age.

Elevated uric acid in your blood doesn’t automatically equal gout attacks, in fact Dr’s have not been able to link the two unequivocably, it is howver definitely a warning point. If you have pains in your toe joints, inflamation and swelling and then a blood test finds elevated uric acid then it is safe to say that you probably have gout.

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