Gout Attack Lasting Weeks - The STUBBORN Urate Crystals

You know what is more stubborn than a kid who will cry all day just because you did not let them borrow your mobile for them to game all day? Gout attack that lasts a week.

Stubborn gout. You took every med you know – colchicine, NSAIDs and other pain killers. Still, the burning pain is still not extinguished! Makes you want to cut the joint off but please don’t.

This article aims to explain why gout attacks last weeks and cite a few ways to help you ease the gout attack.

The Mechanism behind Gout

There are usually two three things that comes to mind when people hears of gout; it is ancient; it is usually masculine; it is worth mocking. While gout seem to be an old sexist demon, it is not a laughingstock for anyone to laugh at. Gout is a serious problem. The lasting severe pain accompanied with complications of gout is not something to laugh at. In fact, even the mechanism behind this arthritis is not to be mocked.

Gout is caused by uric acid crystallization in the joints. The question is, why did the uric acid end up getting stuck in the joints?

The answer lies on the metabolic pathways in your body. Normally, the volume of uric acid in the joints, specifically in the synovial fluids, are very insignificant. However, with nowhere to go, the uric acid end up in the synovial fluids.

Your body has to balance the pH(acidity) of your bloodstream. This is because deviation from this level, especially acidic deviation, can cause damage to your body such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and endothelial function (which will then lead to various other diseases!).

To balance the pH of the bloodstream, the body employs a variety of mechanism such as exhaling carbon dioxide and excreting acids through urination (including uric acid). With too much acids in the body, the kidneys and the liver will become too occupied trashing all those stuff out. This means that very little “manpower” will be left to take care of uric acid. The unprocessed acids are then stored (or at least somewhat finds their way to) in the interstitial fluids which is the fluids surrounding your cells. Then, when even the interstitial fluids becomes too occupied, uric acid ends up to the synovial joints. Since uric acid has very low solubility in the synovial fluids, it ends up crystallizing.

This is where week-long gout comes in. In the beginning, chunks of small crystals form scattered throughout the joints. These small crystals or “seed crystals” are detected by your neutrophils and are attacked. Hence, pain and inflammation begins. As the crystal unites and settles, so will the pain. However, there are instances where small crystals keep on forming usually after binge-drinking or a purine-rich meal. The neutrophils will keep on detecting theses crystals and will keep on launching assault. Hence, week-long gout attacks happen.

Relieving the pain. . .

Usually, a few doses of colchicine or NSAIDs like naproxen or diclofenac will do. Sadly, that is not always the case. In this cases, you have to try alternative approaches.

Remember the problem? It is not just uric acid but acids in general. Hence, one should utilize the opposite of acids, which is alkaline. As week-long gout attack assaults, maintaining an alkaline diet will help. Take a look at this study concluding that alkaline diet will help flush uric acid out. Take note that it will not dissolve the crystal but it will offset your uric acid production. Thus, the uric acid that is supposed to crystallize for the rest of the week will be flushed out. Drinking alkaline water will also help. A good source of alkalinity for your water is ionic calcium. This provides plenty of minerals to not just offset uric acid you produced but also flush the accumulated uric acid out. Furthermore, ionic calcium can help a body in state of acidosis – and most likely a gout sufferer is acidotic. In the first place, uric acid will not accumulate if acids are not there to reduce the excretion rate. With ionic calcium, you replace the minerals consumed by the body to balance the pH of the bloodstream.