Approximately two million U.S. citizens have gout symptoms every year. Decreasing your chances of getting gout require you to know the signs to be alert for so you can get treatment immediately and lessen the time it takes for you to get better. With the following signs below, you'll be armed with knowledge that'll help you better avert the more damaging aspects of gout.

The first of several gout symptoms will more than likely creep up on you at night while you're sleeping. You'll wake up to swollen, shiny red skin pulled tightly over an inflamed joint. The big toe is usually the main culprit, but other joints can be affected too. Check your wrists, elbows, ankles, knees, and fingers.

Then you should continually check to see if your joint pain gets worse over a few hours. After several hours have gone by, you may find that touching the joint without wincing is impossible due to the horrible pain.

Sometimes gout symptoms show themselves as a slight fever and extreme fatigue. If you feel constantly tired and listless, in addition to having a painful joint, then you may have gout. Or if your temperature is 99.5 degrees F or more, along with having a painful joint, you could have gout.

So, to go over the gout symptoms checklist again, ask yourself the following questions:

- Do you have a shiny, red, swollen joint that warm and painful to the touch?

- Does the pain increase over a few hours time?

- Do you feel slightly feverish or very, very tired, in addition to having an inflamed joint?

If so, get treatment from your doctor or try a gout symptoms remedy as soon as you can.