Treatment of gout
Gout is a type of an arthritis that is caused by the concentration of uric acid crystals in the joints. It is also characterized by painful swelling in the joints along with inflammation of the surrounding tissue. It can be quite painful and %75 of the time, gout will first be seen in the toes. One bad news about gout is the fact that it has no known cure. Although gout has been around for thousands of years, no cure has been found although effective treatment protocols do exist. However, the only positive thing that can be said for gout is the fact that even if untreated, it can go away by itself in couple of days.
The best course of treatment toward gout is by using anti inflammatory medication along with pain killers to reduce the pain and swelling. Once gout affects the joints, in many cases the pain will be intolerable. Thus medications such as anti inflammatory drugs are used to reduce the inflammation and the pain. Usually the first choice in light cases of gout is to use non-steroidal drugs, as the first line of defense. When you take non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs in low doses, they will relieve the pain. However, if you take them at higher doses, then the inflammation will be reduced. Thus, usually your doctor will prescribe the appropriate dose for you, relevant to the symptoms that you are experiencing.
If however, you have an acute case of gout, then steroidal drugs may be prescribed for you by your physician. In fact in severe cases of gout (in which you have extreme pain and swelling) then an injection of corticosteroids may be ordered by your doctor. Since corticosteroids contain the hormone cortisone, which is a hormone in the body that reduces inflammation; the case of gout may be cleared up in minutes. However, due to their side effects, these types of drugs are used very rarely.
In addition to reducing the pain and the swelling in your joints, your doctor may also prescribe medicine to help your body control the levels of uric acid in your body. This is usually done in chronic cases of gout, and it is usually not done frequently due to the negative effects on your kidneys.
Of course, besides the medication to relieve the symptoms of gout, you can also use other remedies to help. These remedies include using cold compresses on the affected area to reduce the swelling and the pain or using heat packs (hot compress) to relax the tissues and the muscles in the area, as well as to help improve circulation in the affected region. In addition to these remedies, special exercises can also help reduce the stiffness and the pain in your joints. In fact, your doctor may give you a combination of medicine, exercise, cold compression and even diet to treat your gout. |
