Gout and cold weather

When temperatures start creeping down towards the freezing point of water, many people suffering from gout experience new attacks. The reason is not so much the temperature, however, as your heart.

Cold weather means cold feet, which means more risk of gout attacks.

I have written about gout in your big toe before, and about the role your heart and blood circulation play in gout. The reason your big toe is the most likely place for a gout attack is not only that it is full of ligaments. Uric acid is a complex organic compound and not a simple one like acetic acid or hydrocloric acid (which is the acid in your stomach acid). It has affinities for which types of tissue it attaches to, based on their structure. Uric acid will not accumulate in fatty tissue like body fat, or in muscles. One reason, and here we come back to your heart again, is that the blood flow in your extremities is lower the weaker your heart is, and the more congested your blood vessels are. In other words, the older you are.

Uric acid forms crystals when the concentration in your blood is above 6.8 mg/dL, but it is not quite the simple process that you can observe in a glass of water with dissolved sugar, when the sugar concentration reaches the crystallization point and suddenly precipitates in the bottom of the glass.
​Rather, uric acid forms a salt with the sodium ions in the blood, and it is this - monosodium urate - which forms crystals in the ligaments and joints in your body.
Monosodium urate forms easier at temperatures a couple of degrees below body temperature, and this is where your heart comes into the picture again. Because if your blood circulation is weak, not only will the crystals not be removed by the blood, the blood in your feet will literally not be as warmas the blood in your heart. And that means perfect conditions for uric acid crystals to form.