Gout & Cracking Joints

[Eric Bolvin]

Gout & Cracking toes

Hi; I find that sometimes cracking my toes will stop a gout attack or slow it down. Whenever I feel an attack I take the Colchicine and then try cracking my toes. My theory is that when you crack a joint the synovial fluid is flushed out of the joint, making the crack. When this happens the flushing synovial fluid takes along some of the crystals with it.

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Can cracking knuckles ease gout pain?

[Rich Blazeski]

Gout in my Middle Toe

hey guys,

long time no posted

Apparently, I am in the middle of an attack, my middle toe-right foot just got swollen, started on Monday. Easy pain, I thought it is because my shoes which were a bit tight, and I was running a bit with them. But the pain developed and now I got the tip of the toe pretty painful, a bit swollen and a bit red. I guess it’s an attack. Last value of my uric acid was 5.4 (raised from 4.3-while on 20 days of alopurinol) one and a half month ago. Didn’t take alopurinol since July. Didn’t drink meanwhile (only a 0.3 l beer and a shot of tequila) but I Ate tomatoes in the last 20 days, daily like 3-4 middle sized tomato per day.
What do you think? Is this an attack? Can’t be something else?

[nobody]

Hi again,
Swelling, redness and pain does look like gout. But the redness is normally around the joint(s) and not at the tip of the toe. Gout symptoms are not always typical though.
You started lowering your uric acid not too long ago so you could still have gout symptoms. But so far as I know, there is also a chance you never had gout in the first place. If your tests results keep coming back under 5.5 mg/dl but your symptoms do not go away next year, you may want to ask for a more thorough investigation of your problem.
There are things other than gout which cause swelling, redness and pain. You might want to watch for signs of infection in particular like whether you cut yourself recently or your temperature. See a doctor if there is any doubt.

[Rich Blazeski]

Hey nobody,

I took a Ketonal forte last evening and in the morning the pain was almost gone and just a bit of swelling, still persisted along the day in a low degree..I don t know what to say, I think it s gout ..can t be something else, altough I have a red dot like 1 cm diameter on my left foot near my ankle..I saw it since I started to have pain like 5 months ago..for 2 weeks I saw a second one started to form near it, the doctor didn t know what to say about it, no itching, no pain..just a red point and now a second one on the way

[Eric Bolvin]

There is a limit on how long my post can be!
One time I had an attack and instead of a blood test, they drained fluid straight from the toe joint for analysis. This also stopped the pain as they drained off the crystals as well.
It doesn’t work with a full-on attack because of swelling. I am wondering if anyone has tried ultra-sound during a full attack followed by a chiropractic crack. Might be worth a try if you had access.

[Eric Bolvin]

Part 3
Hi; I find that sometimes cracking my toes will stop a gout attack or slow it down. Whenever I feel an attack I take the Colchicine and then try cracking my toes. My theory is that when you crack a joint the synovial fluid is flushed out of the joint, making the crack. When this happens the flushing synovial fluid takes along some of the crystals with it.
One time I had an attack and instead of a blood test, they drained fluid straight from the toe joint for analysis. This also stopped the pain as they drained off the crystals as well.
It doesn’t work with a full-on attack because of swelling. I am wondering if anyone has tried ultra-sound during a full attack followed by a chiropractic crack. Might be worth a try if you had access.

[Keith Taylor]

Firstly, Eric, I’m sorry you are having problems posting. There is no limit on the length of posts or number of posts. So, I must assume there is a problem with the computer you are using. I’m not trying to pass the buck, and I’ll try to help if I can. Maybe you could start a new topic in General Discussion about this? Then you can describe what is happening. Also, you could send me a screenshot so I can see what is happening.

Gout & Cracking Joints

Your theory about cracking your toes is interesting. So let’s look at what really happens during joint cracking

It doesn’t support your idea about synovial fluid. Because no fluid leaves the joints when gas bubbles form and burst. But, it does show that extraordinary events happen when joints crack. So that might have an impact on the very complicated gout pain process. Unfortunately, that research also leaves questions unanswered. Specifically, we need research on gout sufferers.

I like your idea of trying it during an ultrasound scan. Because ultrasound can be a helpful gout resource. So combining those findings with any changes from cracking the joint would be very interesting.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from anyone else who gets gout pain relief by cracking the affected joint.

[Keith Taylor]

Due to the high level of interest in this topic, I had another look for studies about gout and cracking joints. But there aren’t any.

In fact, I had a closer look at the study mentioned in the video above:
Castellanos, Jorge, and David Axelrod. “Effect of habitual knuckle cracking on hand function.” Annals of the rheumatic diseases 49, no. 5 (1990): 308.

Now, that study mentions gout. But only as a condition suffered by joint crackers and non-crackers in that study. So I can confirm that joint cracking does not appear to affect your chance of getting gout. But I also confirm there are no studies of the effects on joint pain.

So the only way forward is to try for yourself. Because the consensus from the reports of long-term effects is that there little or no harm caused by cracking joints. But remember to post your results here.

[Greg Wolf]

I have suffered for years with gout in my right big toe. Pain relievers barely helped at all. Although my gout still flares up, I have found immediate relief by simply cracking my toe knuckle. I was skeptical when I read about it but it absolutely works. My pain is often unbearable at night but when I crack my toe, it’s gone. Right away. Do yourself a humongous favor and try it out. Good luck!

[Keith Taylor]

Thanks for sharing that, Greg. It sounds very brave to pull your toe in the middle of a gout attack. I’m not sure I would have the guts to try it. But it’s great that you’ve found something that works to stop the pain. Cost and drug-free too!

It reminds me of a discussion we had years ago when a gout sufferer reported that he got relief from stamping his foot. Like joint cracking, maybe that’s also some kind of shock wave that triggers relief. I really don’t know, but I had a similar experience when I stepped down once and misjudged the height.

Anyway, I decided to do some quick research and found that there is actually a pain relief treatment called extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT). But the only gout study I could find relates to treating gouty tophi:

Extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT) is an alternative therapy that delivers high energy sound waves to the affected area in an attempt to disintegrate the calcific deposit

Abbott, Joel D., Gene Ball, Dimitrios Boumpas, Stanley Louis Bridges, Winn Chatham, Jeffrey Curtis, Catherine Daniel et al. “Tophaceous gout.” Rheumatology and Immunology Therapy (2004): 859-861.

So thanks again, Greg. Because I’ve learned something new today. However, here’s the bad news…

Gout is a progressive disease. So left untreated, it spreads to other joints. Eventually, the uric acid deposits cause physical damage. Because cells that should be repairing tendons, cartilage, and bone sacrifice themselves in the war against uric acid crystals. Next, the deposits spread beyond the joints damaging skin, kidneys, heart, etc. In fact, all organs except the brain have been shown to be affected.

So, the toe-cracking is fine for now. But you really need to get uric acid safe while you’re young enough to deal with occasional gout attacks. Because I’ve had 70 and 80-year-old men crying on my shoulder when their doctors have left it too late. And that ain’t good for any of us.

[Michal Pozar]

cracking toe knuckles certainly helps
…

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