Diet, Medication, Accupunture and Gout Treatment
So you or someone you know has receive a diagnosis of gout. There are several things that can help to reduce gout attacks. Diet and gout, medication and gout, and accupuncture and gout all go hand in hand in getting a handle on gout attacks.
Let's begin with diet and gout. Remember that an excess of uric acid crystals in the joints causes gout. It would make sense then, to reduce your intake of the foods that increase the production of uric acid. Red meats, organ meats, anchovies, and some shellfish will increase the production of uric acid. Reducing your intake of these foods will help lessen the amount of uric acid production and will then help to reduce the gout attacks.
Medication and gout are also interrelated. There are two types of medication that may be prescribed for the treatment regimen of gout attacks; anti-inflammatory and uric acid lowering medications. The anti-inflammatory will reduce inflammation as well as help to reduce the pain that the gout attack. The following are anti-inflammatories that may be used in treating gout attacks:
- NSAIDs
- Corticosteroids
- Colchicine
Medications are also prescribed to lower the uric acid levels. Unlike the anti-inflammatory, these medications are not started during a gout attack because the a new gout attack can begin or an existing one can be prolonged by the sudden lowering of uric acid. Some of these medications are:
- Allopurinol
- Probenecid
Lastly, accupunture and gout can go hand in hand. Using acupuncture as a treatment is surprising to many people. Acupuncture, however, has been found to be a very effective treatment for gout as well as many other forms of arthritis.
The acupuncture specialist will insert anywhere from two to twenty needles into your skin. The needles are about the size of a hair. Some are inserted close to your arthritis pain and some are very far away from it. The needles are left in for more than twenty minutes. The length of the sessions as well as how often the sessions are needed vary depending upon the type and severity of the arthritis.
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