How Long Between Gout Attacks?
Here is the answer to your short gout question, “How long between gout attacks?”
As with many gout questions, the short answer is, “It depends.”
The long answer needs an explanation of what it depends on.
First, let me define what a gout attack is. You know it from painful swelling of one or more joints, usually accompanied by redness and/or flaky skin. You might also experience some feverishness.
The gout attack is caused by your reaction to uric acid crystals in and around the affected joint. A common misconception is, because these microscopic crystals are needle-shaped, the pain is related to needles being stuck in you. This is not true – the crystals are too small to cause physical pain in this direct way. The pain comes from your bodies immune system reaction to fighting the invaders. Similar to the pain you feel when your body is fighting a flu infection.
Unlike a viral infection, your immune system cannot kill uric acid crystals. White blood cells surround the crystals, and your body no longer sees the uric acid crystals, so it stops fighting, and the swelling and pain subside.
If nothing else changes, the formation of crystals lowers the amount of uric acid in your blood, and so no more crystals will form. But things do change. Whatever caused the uric acid to rise has probably not gone away. If your uric acid rises again then new crystals will form, and you will get another attack. If your uric acid level falls, old crystals will start to dissolve, shedding the white blood cell’s protein coating and revealing themselves to start another attack.
Not all attacks are the same. Some are so violent than you can hardly move. Others so mild that you notice only numbness or pins and needles. There is no standard rule here. You can get one gout attack after another, so that it feels almost continuous, or you might go many months without an attack. It all depends on how stable your uric acid levels are. Anything that triggers a rapid change in uric acid, up or down, can lead to an attack.
They will only stop if you manage your uric acid levels so that they remain below 6mg/dL. My last newsletter had some important information about managing uric acid levels. If you missed it, subscribe now, and you will get a confirmation message that tells you where the back-issues are.
That’s the best way I can answer, “How long between gout attacks?”
There is no definite answer, but you should be in a better position to manage your gout. If you still have questions, the Gout Questions page tells you the quickest way to get answers
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