Wednesday, April 15, 2009

What Types of Gout Remedies Should I Consider?

Gout Remedies Available for You to Use

There are several gout remedies that are available for you to use. You can use prescription medications, such as Allopurinol, Colchicine, and Indocin. You can also use natural remedies for gout such as eating plenty of fruits for their vitamin C and potassium. Another option are herbal remedies for gout, such as celery seed and its extract. Then there are the countless home gout remedies such as ice, nonprescription anti-inflammatory medications, and general health improvement techniques such as losing weight.

Which should you choose. That is primarily up to you and your physician and which method you are comfortable with. My hsuband used to get gout quite often. He has used all the methods we've described in this blog to varying degrees of success.

The biggest problem with gout patients, I believe, is that they tend to only attack the gout symptoms and forget about this disease while it is not affecting them. That will only lead to more attacks. The best gout remedies are those that work on gout even when it is not a painful incident you are dealing with. Preventative maintenance is the key. Over time, if you neglect to prevent and treat gout before an attack occurs, you will eventually destroy your joints and if not taken care of properly, this damage can become permanent. So, please take care of yourself.

I recommend that anyone who has gout goes and visits their doctor to discuss all your options in regards to preventing and treating this problem. For one thing, your treatments for gout may be slightly different than someone else with gout. Gout is usually caused by excessive uric acid concentration. However, this can occur for a couple of reasons. In some patients, their uric acid levels are so high the body cannot process all the excess and crystallization occurs and an attack soon follows. On the other hand, some people have very high uric acid levels and never get gout. Some people have normal levels of uric acid and still get outbreaks. Why is this? Because their body cannot properly process the uric acid it does have. So there are essentially two reasons why someone can get gout. A simple test that your doctor can do will help you determine which case you belong to and you can receive appropriate treatment.

Knowing which case you fall under will help your physician decide which medications are appropriate for you. And if you decide you wish not to use prescription medications this can help you determine which gout remedy to use.

Are your kidneys the problem or uric acid accumulation from too many purines in your diet the problem? If your kidneys are the problem, then you know you consider remedies that will help your kidneys function better. If your are having a problem with too much uric acid, you can consider changing your diet to reducing high purine foods and eating foods that help to neutralize or reduce this acid such as foods high in potassium and high in vitamin C. This is one reason why cherries are so successful in fighting gout. They contain potassium and vitamin C.

Once you have an attack, if you choose not to use medication, you can focus on foods that reduce swelling and provide pain relief such as pineapples. However, as always before trying something new, seek your doctor's advice. Most gout remedies are not dangerous, however, there are a few that can be under certain circumstances and it is important to seek proper medical counsel to avoid these instances.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Trish! Are you still planning to continue with this blog? If not, would you mind if I just got it? Or if you want, maybe we can work on it together. Thanks!

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  2. John thanks for stopping by. I plan on continuing to use this blog.

    ReplyDelete