Can you prevent gout in your fingers and hands?

There’s no cure for gout, but treatment can help prevent future flare-ups and related complications.

While gout symptoms may improve within 12 to 24 hours on their own, it’s still important to visit a doctor for treatment to help prevent future episodes.

When left untreated, gout can recur over your lifetime and eventually start to affect multiple joints in your fingers or hands, or even affect larger joints. Symptoms can also become more severe over time.

Certain medications can also help prevent gout, but you can also consider talking with a doctor about how lifestyle strategies may help. For example, weight management, reducing alcohol intake, and avoiding high fructose corn syrup are all possible strategies.

If a doctor suspects a high purine diet is linked to gout in your fingers, they may recommend you limit red meats and certain fish. Also, while more research is needed, some people benefit from adopting a plant-based, DASH, or Mediterranean diet.