What Are the Causes of Gout

Gout is caused by a number of different things, including primary diseases you may already have. Knowing why you have gout is the first step to finding gout treatments that will work for you. Doctors cannot always immediately determine the cause of your gout, but they can get an idea of why you have the condition.

By default, being male increases the risk of you developing gout. It isn’t definite, but for some reason males develops it much more often than females. This usually occurs in males over 60 as well.

Having a family history of gout is another cause, but it isn’t definite that you will get it if your brother or father had it. The way our bodies produce uric acid is an inherited trait. Inheriting gout is a rare occurrence, but you should still be cautious if your family members have it.

Being obese is another cause of gout, because of the poor diet and pressure on the body gout symptoms can become more severe and noticeable. It doesn’t mean that all obese people will have gout; it just means that their risk for getting the disease is heightened.

Eating too much meat and drinking too much beer are also major causes of gout. They can also cause heart disease, and gout can be a secondary condition from that. Men are more likely to eat more meat than women, and they are also likely to drink more beer. This is why they are prone to gout more than women are. Meat also has higher fat content, which is known to cause gout, especially organ meats.

Too much aspirin and diuretics can also cause gout symptoms. This is due in part to your body producing too much uric acid. When a diuretic flushes the salts from your body, you have a harder time processing the heavy amount of acids. Blood pressure medication can also cause gout. Be careful of certain medicines or diets.

Other causes of gout include, exposure to lead, being dehydrated far too often, eating extremely low calorie diets, eating extremely high calorie and high fat diets, and illness or infection that is acute. These things can lead to worsened gout attacks or the development of gout itself. It takes many years for gout to occur, but several of these things happening at once could cause a gout attack earlier on.