What is gout

Some people often wake up in the middle of the night due to joint pain, and feel tired, general discomfort and joint pain in daily life; some people find yellow and white bumps of varying sizes in the joints, some as small as sesame seeds and some as large as eggs. In fact, these are all related symptoms of gout. So what is gout? Now let me tell you what gout is and what harm it does to the human body.

Gout, also known as "hyperuricemia", is a purine metabolism disorder and a type of arthritis. Gout is a disorder in the metabolism of purine substances in the human body, which leads to increased synthesis or decreased excretion of uric acid, causing hyperuricemia. When the blood uric acid concentration is too high, uric acid is deposited in the joints, cartilage and kidneys in the form of sodium salt, causing an inflammatory reaction to foreign bodies in tissues, namely gout.

1. Pathogenesis of gout: It is mainly due to the lack of human body's positive energy, spleen and kidney dysfunction, and the accumulation of pathological products such as dampness, heat, phlegm and blood stasis in the body, which are retained in the meridians. In addition, due to diet, fatigue, emotional injury, and external evil, the body is affected, and the internal and external evils combine, causing qi and blood to stagnate, and dampness and turbidity flow into the joints, resulting in gout. Long-term illness affects the meridians, causing obstruction of the flow of Qi and blood, stagnation of blood, and the combination of phlegm and blood stasis, which leads to swollen and deformed joints and a long-term illness that is difficult to heal. Deficiency of spleen and kidney yang leads to internal accumulation of yin poison. It may develop into uric acid nephropathy and renal insufficiency.

2. Causes of gout: Gout is caused by two factors: congenital genetic genes (constitution) and acquired dietary environment. If you do not have a genetic gout constitution (not necessarily a family history of gout), it is not easy to develop gout due to excessive diet. However, if you have a constitution with high uric acid, you can reduce or prevent the onset of gout through dietary control. Gout can occur at any age, but most cases (85% to 90%) occur in people over 30 to 40 years old. In the past decade or so, it has tended to become younger, with many young people in their teens and twenties suffering from gout, which may be related to overeating.

3. Genetic factors of gout: Gout patients may have a family history of gout, or a family tendency to the disease, but the occurrence of gout is irregular in generations and families. Among patients with primary gout, approximately 10-25% have a family history of gout, with the reported range in various countries being 8-30%. Among the close relatives of gout patients, 15%-25% have hyperuricemia.

I believe that after reading the above, everyone understands what gout is. Many patients ignore this disease because the early symptoms of gout are not obvious. If we turn a blind eye to the disease, it will seriously threaten our health. Therefore, once we find symptoms of gout, we should go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible.