My mom texted me from the East Coast yesterday. “My foot is swollen. I have it raised on a pillow. I think it’s gout.” She’d never had a gout attack before, but she IS diabetic, so I cautioned her to contact her doctor for a proper diagnosis. Gout typically attacks one joint in the lower extremities and tends to be quite painful. It is caused by a build-up of uric acid crystals in the joint following certain food triggers, like fatty foods. Some people, like my cousin, are put on medication for life to prevent a flare up!
If you are one of those people, or even if you occasionally suffer from such an attack, there are several things that you can do to speed up the healing and prevent the gout flare up to begin with:
