Why should you immediately treat gout?
Like many medical issues, leaving gout untreated can be dangerous to your health. It will start from your toe and may slowly affect your ankle to knees to joints.
However, what’s so dangerous about untreated gout complications? Well, read on to find out why untreated gout should never be your option.
What Is Gout?
Gout is a condition of inflammatory arthritis. It can happen when high uric acid levels develop in your blood, which induces joint pain and swelling. Gout complications can include heart disease, kidney damage, and joint damage.
The extra uric acid yields needle-shaped crystals, which develop around joints, causing inflammation. People might see gout symptoms occur in one joint at a time, usually beginning in the big toe. However, people might experience symptoms in more joints over time when left untreated.
Kidney Stones
One of the most common untreated gout complications is kidney stones. This affects almost one in five individuals with gout. If urate crystals amass and increase into your urinary tract, they become kidney stones.
Signs of kidney stones include:
- Pain when urinating
- Excruciating pain in the back and side below the ribs
- Pain that emits to the lower groin and abdomen
- Red, pink, or brown urine
Your physician might ask that you measure your urine to ensure that you’re drinking enough water. In other cases, an alkalizing agent may liquify the uric acid stones.
Heart Disease
Cardiovascular disease and gout generally occur together. Gout can double your chances of heart failure death. You may need more assertive control of other heart disease risk factors that arise with gout, like high blood pressure.
Tophi
What can untreated gout lead to, and how dangerous are the complications? Untreated gout can lead to tophi and many more severe complications. Tophi are clusters of urate crystals composed of uric acid accumulation, forming on cartilages and joints.
These crystals can induce bumps of differing sizes, developing on parts of the body, including the:
- Feet and toes
- Fingers and hands
- Elbows
- Ears
- Ankles
Tophi is one of the many long-term effects of untreated gout and can form in people with recurring gout flares. Although tophi are rarely painful, it causes joint impairment, making it hard to move. In addition, if you press on a nerve or get an infection, it can generate pain and damage.
A high dosage of uric-acid lowering medications may help stop the uric acid from crystallizing. However, treatment for tophi may take many months. In severe circumstances, you may need surgery to remove it from your body.
To avoid this, consider taking Colchicine 0.6mg. Colchicine is a medication intended to relieve symptoms of swelling and pain in patients with gout. For prevention, it’s best to take Colchicine 0.6mg once a day until you no longer see any signs or symptoms.
Act Now And Avoid Untreated Gout
Untreated gout can lead to dangerous complications like diabetes and heart disease. However, you can reduce these complications by managing your gout flare-ups and reducing uric acid levels with medication. Likewise, changing your lifestyle and diet can help minimize the occurrence of gout.
Gout is not the only medical condition to look out for. Want to learn more about certain diseases and conditions as well as how to avoid or minimize them? Then, browse through our collection of health articles to help you live a healthier life!