‘Tis the Season for Gout

Each year during the holidays, this common scenario plays out: You enjoy a scrumptious holiday feast, starting with shrimp and scallops in puff pastry with a rich cream sauce, a prime rib, scalloped potatoes, and a fine red wine. You finish off the evening with dessert and a glass of excellent brandy. Several hours later, you awaken in the middle of the night with an excruciating stabbing pain in your big toe. The joint at the base of the toe is red, swollen, and throbbing. Chances are you are experiencing a gout attack.

What Pulled the Trigger?

Gout is an arthritic condition that occurs when crystallized uric acid builds up in a joint. Uric acid is a byproduct of the breakdown of purines–chemicals that are naturally occurring in your body and in certain foods. Some people may overproduce or have difficulty eliminating uric acid from the body. It can build up and cause pain in any joint, but the big toe is the most common site.

If you are prone to gout, purine–rich foods, such as red meat, shellfish, organ meats, red wine, brandy, and rich sauces, may cause an attack. Other potential factors may increase your risk for this condition as well, including:

Diabetes
High blood pressure
Obesity
Stress
Chemotherapy
Certain medications and vitamins

For many patients, the predisposition for gout is hereditary.

Fending Off an Attack

Give us a call if you have the symptoms described above. If gout is diagnosed, we may prescribe oral medications or injections for treating the pain, inflammation, and swelling. You may also need to rest your foot and keep it elevated. Gout symptoms will usually stop within three to ten days with treatment.

If you have more than one flare up a year, it may be time to step up your gout treatment. Until now, nothing targeted the crystals in the joints of the big toe joint, hands, or knees quite like Krystexxa.

Krystexxa is the only gout treatment that controls chronic gout by changing uric acid into a water–soluble substance called allantoin that your body easily gets rid of through urine. For those of you that have kidney disease and can’t take the usual gout medications, Krystexxa can treat your condition without harming your kidneys. Family Foot & Leg Center is one of the few Krystexxa Infusion Centers in Southwest Florida. If you have chronic gout, contact us to find out more information at (239) 430-3668 (FOOT) or visit NaplesPodiatrist.com

Family Foot and Leg Center has several Centers from Collier, Lee, & Charlotte Counties to quickly resolve all your foot and ankle problems.

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FFLC Downtown Naples 730 Goodlette Road, suite 102
FFLC Ft. Myers @ Int’l Center 6846 International Center BLVD. Suite B
FFLC Cape Coral 530 S.E. 16th place, Suite A
FFLC Estero 21401 Corkscrew Village Lane, Suite 4
FFLC North Naples 840 111th avenue north, Suite #3
FFLC East Naples 12250 Tamiami Trail East, Suite 101
FFLC Ft. Myers @ Colonial 1645 Colonial Blvd
FFLC Port Charlotte 3161 Harbor Blvd, Suite B