In today's society however, with the advent of massed produced super farms no one is safe from the pain of gout symptoms. It can hit both the rich and the poor.

Whether it has been a couple of weeks or a couple of years since your last attack, you dread that feeling that strikes in the middle of the night when you are least expecting it. You're sound asleep, comfy and cozy in your bed when you are awaken by painful gout symptoms in your big toe. (or some other joint in your body)

The pain may be bearable for the first few hours, the redness and swelling may or may not be obvious, but it is a feeling you've learned to dread and you know if you don't do something fast, the next 24 hours will end with severe pain.

Hyperuricemia, an elevated uric acid level in the blood stream, is one of the better known conditions that cause a person to be predisposed to having a flare up of gout symptoms. As the level of uric acid in the blood stream rises, the risk of having an attack of gout symptoms goes up accordingly.

Other things that cause a flare up of gout symptoms include having too much stress in your life, drinking too much alcohol, some medications and even some other medical problems. At the same time however, a person could have all of the risk factors and never have a gout flare up. No on can predict with 100% certainty when or if you will have an attack.

One thing known for sure however is that by reducing the number of risks factors you have for gout, you reduce your chances of having a gout symptom flare up accordingly.

If you are currently taking medications known to cause gout symptom flare ups, speak with your doctor to see if there is another medication that will take care of your problem that will not cause a flare up.

Watch your diet to ensure you do not consume large quantities of the foods known to cause a gout symptom flare up. Reduce stress in your life as much as possible. If you are in a situation where you have to endure a lot of stress, find some time to meditate each day or find some other way to reduce your stress level.

If you have not looked into it before, you could also find relief from the pain of gout symptoms by eating one of more of the foods known to reduce the blood level of uric acid. For many, these foods are proving to be almost a cure to gout and by eating just a small portion of one food from the list, daily or for some 3 or 4 days a week works fine.

If you don't have access to a list of these foods, you can get a free list by visiting the author's website, which was set up because the author has remained pain free for 3 years now and wants to share this information with as many people as possible, absolutely free of charge.