Introduction

Gout can cause bad pain and swelling in your joints, usually in the joint at the base of your big toe. It can make walking difficult and painful. Most gout attacks go away within a week or 10 days, even without treatment.

We've brought together the best research about gout and weighed up the evidence about how to treat it. You can use our information to talk to your doctor and decide which treatments are best for you.

Gout is a fairly common condition that can cause bad pain and swelling in your joints, usually in your big toe joint. The disease occurs when tiny crystals of a chemical called urate build up in your joints.

Urate is a chemical in your blood. It's made in the body when you digest certain foods. It's usually in the form of a harmless liquid that passes out of the body in your urine. But in some people, the amount of urate in the blood builds up.^[1] It starts to form tiny crystals, which can collect in a joint. The crystals can cause inflammation and pain.

Gout normally affects only one joint at a time. The main big toe joint (which doctors call the first metatarsophalangeal joint) is most often affected. But you can also get gout in any of the joints in your:

• Feet

• Ankles

• Knees

• Wrists

• Fingers

• Elbows.

Gout can happen when you have too much urate in your blood, but not everyone with high levels of urate gets gout.^[2] However, the more urate you have in your blood, the more likely you are to get an attack of gout.^[1]

Here are some of the reasons why some people get more urate in their blood:

• Drinking too much alcohol. Studies show that drinking beer and spirits, but not wine, increases your chances of getting gout.^[3]

• Eating a lot of certain foods, especially red meat or some seafood. But low-fat dairy products, like skimmed milk, may protect you from getting gout. They help your body process urate faster.^[3][4]

• Being very overweight (obese).^[5][6]

• Having certain illnesses. These include heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.^[5][6] If you have an attack of gout, your doctor may test you for these diseases. But they are not caused by gout.

• Taking certain medicines, such as diuretics (water tablets) for high blood pressure and regular aspirin in low doses.^[7]