How far are you from gout? What are the causes of gout?

I believe many people have heard of gout, the so-called gout, which is the deposition of monosodium urate and bone joints, kidneys and subcutaneous parts, causing acute and chronic inflammation and tissue damage.

In ancient society, gout mostly occurred in high-ranking officials and nobles, so it was called "the disease of kings" and "disease of emperors". For example, Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty suffered from gout in his later years due to excessive drinking, which eventually caused him to be unable to walk normally.

Nowadays, with the improvement of people's living standards, gout has "entered the homes of ordinary people" and has become a common disease, and there is a trend of younger development.

According to the "2017 White Paper on the Status of Gout in China", the number of patients with hyperuricemia in China has reached 170 million, of which more than 80 million are gout patients, and it is increasing rapidly at an annual growth rate of 9.7%. The number of people with gout is expected to reach 100 million in 2020. Nowadays, gout has become the second largest metabolic disease in China after diabetes, and it is a health warning that cannot be ignored.

How is gout formed?

The formation of gout is directly related to hyperuricemia due to disturbance of purine metabolism or decreased uric acid excretion.

Purine is a genetic material that is found in cells and food, and the purine metabolite is uric acid. Generally, uric acid can be excreted from the body through urine and urine, and when the human body ingests too much purine food or uric acid is excreted poorly, it will lead to the accumulation of uric acid in the blood, inducing hyperuricemia. In the case of high uric acid, the uric acid in the blood will precipitate in the form of crystals, deposit in the joint cavity, and gradually turn into tophi, and can induce gout attacks, which are extremely painful.

How painful is gout?

Gout has a rapid onset, usually at night, and mostly occurs in the facet joints of the lower limbs, especially the first toe joints of the feet. During a gout attack, the affected joints are locally red, swollen, and severely painful, and extremely sensitive to temperature, touch, and vibration.

Gout tends to recur, can affect the joints, induce arthritis, lead to joint deformities, and can also cause severe renal damage.

Some people use the term "bone-eating pain" to describe a gout attack, and in the dead of night, the pain is like a demon just biting on the big toe, like a knife cut.

How is gout treated?

1. Eat a balanced diet

Long-term drinking, eating high-purine, high-protein, high-fat foods, is the main cause of gout, the treatment of gout should pay attention to a balanced diet, adhere to the principle of low sugar, low salt, beautiful land, low saturated fatty acids, but also to quit smoking and drinking, especially Cantonese people, do not often drink old fire soup.

2. Exercise

Lack of exercise or physical activity is also easy to induce gout, it is recommended that gout patients go out to walk instead of car, adhere to 30-60 minutes of exercise every day, choose brisk walking, jogging, tai chi and other activities according to physical conditions, but be careful not to do strenuous exercise.

3. Take medication

Patients can take it under the guidance of a doctor, for example: if it is diabetes mellitus with gout or hyperuricemia, it is necessary to adhere to two drug principles, one is to use hypoglycemic and uric acid-lowering drugs at the same time, and the other is to choose drugs for the treatment of one disease can not adversely affect the other disease.

All in all, gout is painful, but gout is preventable and treatable, and through a healthy lifestyle and improved diet, patients will be able to achieve better results and maintain a higher quality of life.