Hi all,
I have had gout ever since I was 11 years
old, with excruciating pain in my big
toes. It was only after two years that I
was diagnosed with it though. Anyway, I
treated it with parsley extracts and not
having red meat, and it never appeared
until I was around 19.
And then, at the age of 19, I started
getting an unbelievable pain in my right
ear, so much that I cant even touch it. It
feels like the earlobe is being fried. It
is only on the lobe and never inside.
Still, eight years later, I still have
that pain, and the doctor associated it
with gout, though the treatment that
worked before doesnt seem to work
anymore.
The pain often comes when there is a
drop in temperature and stays even when
the temperature is back to normal. It is
always in the right ear, and now, it feels
like it has a bit swollen shape. I checked
recently and found that it could be
Raynaud's Phenomenon, but then, does that
mean that gout and the latter are related?
Or is it just another form of gout? Or am
I just having a bizarre gout attack?
Help me if anyone can.
|
halfcow
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 11
Posted: 04-18-08 10:40am
The only helpful thing I can say is that I
have heard of another doctor who also said
gout can occur in the ear. I don't quite
understand it, because I did not think
there were any joints in the ear, but at
least this might confirm that your doctor
is not crazy. Have you tried any type of
ointment like Ben-Gay or Blue Emu? There
are versions of these products that claim
to help with arthritis pain. I have tried
them on my ankles, but with mixed results.
Sometimes they seem to relieve a little
of the pain, then other times not.
Anyway, if you've tried everthing else, it
may be worth a shot.
|
stanl
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: San Francisco, CA USA
Posted: 04-18-08 12:26pm
It could be tophi, which are MSU crystals
that have formed on the earlobe. Sometimes
you can see these crystal deposits,
sometimes they are under the skin.
Generally tophi are painless, but not
always.
Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 28 Location: Barnet, England
Posted: 04-18-08 13:55pm
I always thought that these crystals only
formed in the lowest part of the body.
|
halfcow
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 11
Posted: 04-24-08 13:50pm
That is not entirely true, about the
crystals forming only in the lower body.
It is true that gout usually begins in the
feet for most people, but over time it can
also begin to affect other locations. I
have personally had it in my knuckle and I
have a friend who had it in his wrist.
My doctor confirmed mine was gout (not
just arthritis).
|
althene
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 05-02-08 08:50am
I have done some research lately and have
found out that the gout attacks that I
have had in my big toes and now in my
right earlobe might not be the full-grown
gout, but its earlier stage,
hyperuricemia, because there has never
been any swelling. When there is no
swelling, it is said that the uric acid is
not yet at a significant level in the
body, but only to a level that makes gout
highly likely.
The remedies, home-stuff, that I have
found are sodium bicarbonate each time I
have an attack, and relaxation, because I
have tried, and it works: having a nap
while having an attack causes the latter
to go away.
What I dont know yet is how can uric
acid travel in the body and is it true
that it causes pain only where it
accumulates at a dangerous level? If so,
what makes it travel in the first place?
In my case, it's been in toes for years,
and now in my right ear?!
Whether it is hyperuricemia or gout is
no longer relevant from the pain point of
view, but only on how efficient a proper
diet will be.
|
halfcow
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 11
Posted: 05-02-08 13:43pm
Althene, good question about "how" gout
travels throughout the body. I have never
really considered how, nor have I asked my
doctor. However, my elementary
understanding of it is that it is absorbed
through your digestive system (like
anything else) and gets into your
bloodstream. It is not the uric acid,
itself, that causes pain. But, rather it
is the build-up of excess uric acid that
forms little crystals in your joints.
Well, the doctors call them "crystals,"
but it makes more sense to think of them
as tiny shards of glass. Since they're in
the bloodstream, they can accumulate
anywhere.
|
painfree
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 14 Nov 2004 Posts: 69 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 05-03-08 13:31pm
Uric acid is the by-product of the
metabolic processes of the cells in the
body. In other words, it's a waste product
from their processing of nutrients and
oxygen to sustain life. And when cells
undergo catabolism ,i.e., start to die,
they generate even more uric acid. The
cells dispose of the uric acid into the
blood stream, which carries it throughout
the body. About 2/3 of it is processed by
the kidneys to be excreted in the urine,
and the other 1/3 is broken down by the
action of naturally occurring intestinal
bacteria.
Uric acid is carried through the blood as
a supersaturated solution, which means it
can be precipitated from solution in the
form of solid crystals of monosodium urate
(MSU) when something happens to trigger
that event. The trigger for such an event
can be that the cells start to generate
uric acid at a rate faster than the
kidneys can dispose of, or the kidney
activity slows down so that it can't
dispose of it fast enough, or the blood
becomes too acidic for other reasons.
When MSU crystals form, they are usually
deposited in connective tissues in the
body, which is present in joints, in the
ear lobe, and many other places. The
reaction of the body's immune system to
MSU through chemical sensing of its
presence is to initiate defense mechanisms
because it interprets the MSU as an
indication of excess uric acid in the
blood which may be caused by dying cells,
which the immune system attempts to
prevent from spreading. The immune
system's chemical response to MSU in a
joint leads to the intense pain of gout.
The fact that MSU crystals have a
needle-like shape has nothing to do with
the pain they cause. It is all chemistry.
Hypoxia (lack of sufficient oxygen in the
body) is an event which can lead to the
precipitation of MSU by two effects.
First, it leads to cell catabolism, so
that they generate excess uric acid.
Second, it makes the blood more acidic, so
that MSU is more likely to precipitate.
One medical journal publication reports
that hypoxia caused by moving to a much
higher elevation results in a notably
higher incidence of gout. Another very
common cause of hypoxia is sleep apnea -
the repeated cessation of breathing during
sleep for many seconds at a time. That's
how sleep apnea can be a very immediate
cause of a gout attack. Unfortunately, the
vast majority of people who undergo sleep
apnea have never been diagnosed with it,
and don't know that they have it. Even
more unfortunate is that most doctors
don't pay enough attention to the
possibility of sleep apnea in their
patients, and don't know enough to screen
their gout patients for it. My primary
care physician has been doing that
screening for several years, and has found
that a very high percentage of his gout
patients have sleep apnea that was
previously undiagnosed. Anyone with gout
should be screened for sleep apnea.
Untreated sleep apnea can lead to many
other serious, even life-threatening,
conditions, as well as continued gout
attacks.
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This page was last updated on June 11, 2008
Anyway, if you've tried everthing else, it
may be worth a shot.