What Causes Gout Attacks
Dec 102017If you listen to gout sufferers on the internet they are all convinced that specific foods, exercises, stresses, etc., causes their gout attacks; and they are probably correct. But from how they describe their problem, it seems that they only get gout-like attacks when they do whatever they shouldn't do. This seems more like pseudo-gout than actual gout, which is easily resolved using a stage-1 treatment for their pain (see Treatment of a Gout ATTACK).
For people with actual gout it is more complicated. These people have high uric acid levels that cause deposits in their joints that eventually cause swelling and excruciating pain. Unfortunately, reducing the blood uric acid levels has momentary if little effect. The way I see it, once you have had a stage-3 gout attack it's too late, you will have attacks intermittently for the rest of your life. It may be five times a year or once every five years, but it will occur. For me, reducing the daily uric acid blood level with drugs or avoiding high purine diets has little to no effect: my 465-day intense study of purine intake, uric acid levels and pain confirmed that for me. So I dropped the notion that purines and high uric acid levels cause gout ATTACKS, although it predisposes us to them.
The actual cause of a gout ATTACK (not gout, but a gout attack) in a gouty person are muscle trigger points. Because of our daily (standing, sitting, etc.) habits we weaken certain muscles, especially those in the lower back and legs. This causes “Trigger Points” in the weakened muscles, which shortens parts of that muscle causing the tendon that muscle is attached to, to pull the bone joint that tendon is attached to out of position (muscle pulls on tendon which pulls on joint). This causes pain or numbness in that joint. If that trigger point is not eliminated through massage, the pain will cause fluids (and probably urates/tophi already in the joint) to inflame the area, making the pain more and more intense. This is the what most people experience as a gout attack.
So, there are many causes of a pseudo-gout or real gout attacks, but they are all initiated by muscle trigger points. This makes sense since that muscle is pulling its joint out of its natural position and we are trying to use it naturally, causing pain.