I am in my 34th year of being a pharmacist, and I recall rather distinctly the lectures on arthritis from one of my pharmacy school instructors. Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by excessive uric acid in the synovial fluid, the fluid that fills the space between our joints. When the concentration of uric acid gets too high, crystals start to form in the joint, and if you can imagine, having a crystal grinding into the bones of your joint is going to be very painful. The joint most often affected is the big toe.   To continue reading click link above.