Uric Acid crystal question

[cjeezy]

Ok, from what I understand, uric acid crystals take time (months, years, etc) to develop in your joints.  Then one day you eat or drink something (or whatever) and it tips your systems and you have an attack.  My question is, once an attack is over and the crystals are completely  dissolved, how does one have another immediate attack from eating, drinking etc? Doesn't there need to be time to develop the crystals in your joints again?  or is the time it takes one to develop crystals vary from person to person? Hope I'm making sense 🙂

[Tavery]

To my knowledge, it doesnt quite work like that.

The crystals build up in your joints until you finally have a physical flareup. When the flareup is over, you still have almost as many crystals as you did before it just drops off enough to make the pain part stop.

So basically you end up hovering right below the threshold with occasional flareups. It only takes a slip or two to put you over the limit. Mind you, that slip may not be that you ate or drank stuff you shouldn't have – but also can happen if you dont drink as many liquids in a day (so you arent flushing as fast as you normally do) or you get sick and end up a bit dehydrated or any number of other things can cause an episode.

That is why it is sooo difficult to manage gout via diet. You may eat exactly the same thing every single day and still end up with a flareup if another factor changes.

Allopurinol actually reduces the number of crystals you have, but even on Allo you will still have crystals in your body…..its just few enough to not matter.

[cjeezy]

Thanks for the quick response.  I guess the problem with me (and any new gout sufferer) is that it is too early too tell exactly what the “triggers” will be. 

[trev]

I understand that, during an attack 'proper', white blood cells recognise the needles as attackers and coat them- while fluid seeps into the surrounding tissues to swell and protect what is mistaken as an external injury. This does immobilse rather well , as we know.

Taking Cochicine at this point actually reduces the effectivity of the immune system going 'hell bent on a mission' and would, I suspect likely reduce the time to next attack, depending on dosage at this immediate point.

Of course, this is not a priority worry during an attack – but bears thinking about.

it's easy to see why Gout is described as a metabolic disease and equally, hard to analyse or treat between individuals responses ,as we're all different in how our bodies operate.

I notice particularly after an attack my joints and old flare sites can respond quite sensitively to food or strain factors without actually really going again for another attack. This must be the protection given by WBCs which will eventually wear off as new UA comes along in solution.

A good time to start AlloP, if you're going to, perhaps?

[Keith Taylor (GoutPal Admin)]

cjeezy said:

Thanks for the quick response.  I guess the problem with me (and any new gout sufferer) is that it is too early too tell exactly what the ?triggers? will be. 

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Be very careful about your attitude to gout triggers.

The most important thing you can do is to monitor uric acid levels. Lowering uric acid might trigger gout attacks for a short period of time, but it is the only way to avoid the long-term debilitating effects of gout.

[Author]

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