Stop Gout Pain

How to Relieve Gout Pain

Gout is a severe form of arthritis that can come on suddenly and be very painful. Finding safe and effective types of gout pain relief can help you feel better faster. There are home remedies that can relieve gout pain and inflammation to speed up healing from gout attacks.

Overview of Gout

Gout is caused by the buildup of uric acid in the blood. The uric acid forms crystals that are deposited in the soft tissues and joints. Most people can break down uric acid and flush it out of the kidneys. People at risk for gout cannot get rid of the uric acid as easily. Risk factors for gout include: family history, being overweight, a diet high in purine foods (red meat, organ meat, sardines, and beer), having certain diseases, and taking certain medications. Men tend to get gout in their middle age years more often than women, but women can get gout after menopause due to hormonal changes.

Symptoms of gout are caused by the uric acid forming very sharp crystals that get lodged inside the joints and soft tissues. These crystals cause severe pain, inflammation, redness, and swelling in one or more joints. Your body tries to fight this off and sends out white blood cells to the area causing even more swelling and inflammation. This can also severely limit your mobility during an acute gout flare.

Gout Pain Relief

The symptoms are so intense, people often seek out various methods of gout pain relief at home while waiting to see their doctor. Here are a few home remedies that can help with gout pain:

Flaxseed/Charcoal Poultice – Try mixing 3 Tbsp. finely ground Flaxseed with ½ cup activated charcoal with warm water to make a paste. Apply it to the affected area(s) and cover with a piece of plastic or soft cloth. You can use this every four hours, or put it on before bed and change in the morning. Use caution with charcoal as it can stain so make sure you keep it covered well.

Activated Charcoal – You can take ½ Tsp. activated charcoal four times daily to help lower your uric acid levels. Make sure you drink plenty of water if you use this method. Activated charcoal can be found in many drug and health food stores.

Castor Oil – Try dipping a soft cloth into warm castor oil. Place the cloth over the affected joint, cover with plastic and apply heat. You can use a heating pad on low or a hot water bottle. You can do this twice a day for one hour.

Hot/Cold Packs – Alternate the use of a heating pad for 15 minutes then an ice pack for 15 minutes. You can do this 3 times a day to help improve blood flow to the area and relieve inflammation.

Epsom Salt Soaks – For feet, ankles, and toes you can take a bowl of hot water and sprinkle in 3 Tbsp. Epsom salts. Soak in this solution for 30 minutes. You can also run a bathtub full of water. This method requires about 1 to 3 cups of Epsom salts and can help to relieve gout pain over a larger area of the body when it affects more than one joint.

Natural gout pain relief is a safe and effective way to bring your gout pain under control naturally. It is important to see your physician if you suffer from gout or have symptoms of gout. Always check with your doctor before using home remedies.

Gout Cures

Types of Gout Cures

If you know where to look, you will find numerous cures that can effectively relieve the many symptoms of gout. Since gout is a form of arthritis, you many notice severe pain and swelling in one or more joints in your body. These joints may also become red and be warm to the touch. Gout is caused by excessive levels of uric acid in the blood. Uric acid is a waste product after food with purines is broken down. High uric acid levels are normally balanced out by the kidneys, but when you have gout the kidneys are unable to flush them out. This leads to the formation of uric acid crystals that deposit themselves near and in the joints. This is the main source of gout discomfort and symptoms. All-natural gout cures can help your body heal from gout faster.

You can find plenty of all-natural, safe and effective gout cures right in your own kitchen. The first line of natural treatment is cherries. Cherries are a powerful natural anti-inflammatory that can help relieve the inflammation and flush out uric acid from the body.

Begin by eating at least 25 cherries daily and start weaning yourself to 15 cherries daily. This helps to control gout symptoms while helping the body heal. You can also use canned or jarred cherries, but they are not as effective as the fresh ones.

Vegetable juice is helpful to relieve gout symptoms and helps you get good nutrition. Try drinking; beet, carrot, or cucumber juice. There are combination vegetable juices that are very tasty and help to relieve gout discomforts. Also, try eating French beans. They have been said to help relieve gout symptoms.

They have always said “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, and this is very true with gout. Apples contain malic acid that can neutralize uric acid and relieve symptoms. When gout flares are very intense, try eating a banana diet for a few days to relieve severe symptoms. You will need to eat 8 bananas daily to help bring relief to your flare.

Citrus fruits and vitamin C is another way to relieve gout symptoms. Limes can help to reinforce your connective tissue in your joints. Juice ½ lime into a glass of water and drink once a day. If you are not diabetic, consume orange juice daily.

Diet is one of the most important gout cures. Make sure you eat lots of fresh vegetables, sprouts, fresh fruits, and water. Try to avoid eating red meats, sardines, scallops, eggs, organ meats, fried fruits, coffee, tea and white bread or pasta.

Try a warm water enema daily to help flush out toxins from the body. Also, try soaking in epsom salts, which contain healthy magnesium that relieves soreness. Place ice packs on the affected areas to reduce inflammation. Sit outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and take a walk each day to keep your joints moving. Make sure you make emotional modifications to your lifestyle by getting rid of stresses in your life.

The easy gout cures above can help you feel better faster and help you get back on your feet!

Home Recipes For Gout Relief

Gout Home Recipes

One of the main treatments for gout is making a few healthy dietary changes. Changing the way that you eat can be tough, but with home recipes for gout relief you can fit in the foods that you need to control gout. Adding in fresh fruits and vegetables nature’s own anti-inflammatories, while lowering your intake of foods that raise uric acid can help reduce your symptoms quickly.

The symptoms of gout are caused by excess uric acid in the blood. This is a by-product of purines in the diet. Normally, you flush uric acid out through your kidneys. In gout, excess uric acid turns into sharp, painful crystals that lodge into the joints. This causes symptoms like; swelling, severe pain, redness and heat in one or more joints. Gout can come on suddenly and be very disabling during an acute flare.

When you are diagnosed with gout, one of the first things your doctor will explain is that you will need to lower your intake of purine foods. These include; red meat, sardines, beer, and organ meats. Also increase your daily intake of water from 8 to 12 glasses of water each day. This can help flush out uric acid from your body. Below are some home recipes for gout relief:

Home Recipes For Gout Relief

4 Carrots, 1 ounce Strawberries (fresh), 1 slice Pineapple, 1 Lime, 1 Mango, 1 small Cucumber. Cut up and place in juicer or smoothie maker and drink twice daily. This can help lower inflammation and swelling and prevent future gout attacks.
1 ounce Cranberries, 1 Qt Cold Water. Boil together for 3 minutes. Pour through a strainer. Drink 3 glasses a day to help flush uric acid from your body.
Tomato Juice. Drink 3 glasses a day to help flush out uric acid.
Baking Soda and water. Mix just enough water into baking soda to make a paste. Rub onto affected joints. Baking soda is a natural anti-inflammatory.
3 drops Rosemary Oil, 1 tbsp. Soy Oil. Mix together and rub onto affected areas to help relieve pain naturally.
1 tbsp. Vinegar, 1 tbsp. Wheat Bran, 2 Garlic Cloves (crushed). Mix together into a poultice and apply to swollen joint(s).
Oil of Elder. Use full strength on a cotton ball or pad and lay on affected area.
Bananas, Parsley, Cherries, Watermelon and Citrus Fruits. Include generous amounts of these in your diet each week. They can help the body get rid of the excess uric acid in the blood. Vitamin C rich foods can break down uric acid. Bananas have potassium, folic acid, and vitamin C to help reduce gout symptoms. Parsley is a low purine garnish that has vitamin C and folic acid. Watermelon is a great anti-oxidant and cleans the blood.

Helpful Tips for Gout

In addition to the home recipes for gout relief above, use the following tips to help reduce your discomfort:

Try to stay off your feet during an acute gout flare. Pressure to the affected joints increases inflammation and pain. Elevate painful swollen joints on pillows.
Use a wrap. Compression and immobilization can help keep your painful joints stable.
Avoid ice or heat. Heat increases blood flow to the area and can make swelling worse. Ice can cause more irritation to the affected area.
Wear properly fitting shoes. If you have an inflamed toe or ankles, shoes that are too tight will increase irritation and discomfort. You can add special insole pads to help cushion and decrease friction.

Gout Diet

The Proper Gout Diet

Gout is caused by inflammation of the joints due to high uric acid levels in the body. It causes severe joint pain and possibly severe disability during the initial flare up. When a gout attack occurs, the body produces too much uric acid, and this leads to uric acid crystal formation in the joints and soft tissue. Attacks can be very painful and reduce your activity levels dramatically.

Using a gout diet can help reduce uric acid levels in the body and reduce pain. It can also help keep your weight under control during periods of inactivity. Here are some helpful tips for dealing with a gout attack:

Joint Rest – During a gout attack, rest the affected joints as much as possible, until the pain begins to get better, and at least for a full 24 hours after the pain subsides.
Elevate – Keep the affected joints elevated above the heart as much as possible during the attack.
NSAIDS – Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications can help relieve the initial pain and inflammation. Avoid aspirin as that can make the symptoms worse.
Increase Fluids – Drink plenty of fluids to help reduce and flush out uric acid in the body.

Gout Diet

To help reduce uric acid levels and relieve symptoms, try to remove offending things from your diet that can raise uric acid levels. Even after the initial attack subsides, you may still need to limit these foods to prevent it from coming back. Here is a list of diet tips for gout:

Eat smaller amounts of fish, meat and poultry. Proteins that come from animals contain high levels of purines. Organ meats are the highest, but all meats have purines. Try to only eat 4 to 6 ounces of meat a day.
Eat a low-fat diet. When you eat too many saturated fats, your body cannot flush uric acid from your body. Shoot for plant proteins like beans and fat-free dairy.

Skip beer. Beer has a reputation for helping your body hold on to uric acid. A 5 ounce glass of wine daily is okay, but try to avoid any alcohol during a flare-up.

Stay away from high fructose corn syrup. Stick to products that are 100% fruit juice and stay away from fructose. Fructose can actually cause uric acid levels to increase.

Eat more whole grains. Refined carbohydrates can interfere with uric acid reduction in the body. Whole grains can help your body eliminate it. Try whole wheat bread and whole grain pasta or plain white.

More tips:

A good healthy gout diet goes along with healthy lifestyle changes. Try these other helpful tips to complement your diet and heal faster:

Keep your weight under control – Being overweight increases the risk for gout and the pain that goes along with it. Try to eat a healthy sensible diet and lose weight over a period of time.
Discuss medications with your doctor – Make sure you clear any medications or remedies you use for gout with your physician.
Get plenty of exercise – As long as you are not in a gout flare, get regular exercise to keep joints healthy and keep weight off. After a gout flare, look into a good regular walking or stretching program that is gentle on the joints.

The good news is gout isn’t life threatening. However, gout can reduce your activity levels and increase weight gain. Eating a healthy gout diet can reduce the overproduction of uric acid in the body and help flush out the excess.

Getting prompt treatment for gout along with a healthy diet and lifestyle changes, can help you heal faster and lower the incidence of flare-ups in the future!

Gout E-medicine

Gout and Emedicine

Emedicine sites are a great source of information for medical questions. Gout sufferers often have trouble finding good information on gout that can be trusted. Family and friends may be hesitant to talk about gout, or no very little about it. You may want to talk to your doctor, but they often seem rushed. Gout emedicine is one way you can learn all you need to know about gout. There are many websites that outline what gout is, the symptoms, treatments and prevention.

When you find a gout emedicine site where the information is highly researched and supported by doctors, scientists, and pharmacy experts, then you know that you have found a good source of information. When you see reviews about gout studies and new treatments, that is an even better sign! Best of all, most of these sites are free of charge and there is no obligation to read and learn what you need to know. This helps you find current information that can help you find the best treatment for your gout attacks.

Educating yourself with gout emedicine prior to consulting with a doctor will help you know which questions to ask your doctor once you arrive at the office. You will also understand the available gout treatments, the side-effects, and what they do.

This way, when your doctor explains your options, you will be better able to decide on which one works best for you. Gout emedicine sites also help you learn about all the safe, effective and all-natural treatments, there are available.

Emedicine sites are also backed by research, doctors, pharmacy professionals, and consumers who have had positive experiences with them. They can also give you diet and lifestyle tips to help you increase your healing. Many have Q and A sections where you can ask common questions about gout treatments actually answered by doctors and pharmacy experts.

Some have boards where you can meet other gout sufferers. They can help you understand which gout treatments worked for them and which ones did not work so well. While everyone is not the same, it does help to get some input from others.

Keep in mind that not all gout emedicine sites are reputable. They may only have their own best interest in mind. Some message boards may only be hosted by fellow gout sufferers with little medical education. They may mean well, but information may not always be accurate. Make sure you look for a doctor’s endorsement for the best websites.

If you think you have symptoms of gout, always consult your doctor for diagnosis and to discuss treatment. Using gout emedicine can help you understand the disease and maybe encourage you to get help. This way you can recover faster and enjoy your life again!

How To Cure Gout

Curing Gout

If you have just recently been diagnosed with gout, you will notice many types of cures. This can be very overwhelming. From herbal all-natural treatments to prescription medications, diet, over-the-counter medications and more, it can get very confusing. Most treatments out there are very good, can help control your symptoms, and may even prevent future attacks.

When deciding which treatment to use, research and learn about all that is out there and discuss your options with your doctor. The right treatment is out there waiting for you right now so that you can be free from gout pain.

Overview Of Gout

Gout is a type of arthritis that is very painful and can be very debilitating. It happens when the uric acid levels in the body become too high and form crystals in the joints. The crystals lodge into the tender tissues causing the body to send out white blood cells to the area. This causes inflammation and then leads to severe pain. The uric acid levels can build-up over time without causing pain in the beginning, and then suddenly one night, you are hit with a full-fledged gout attack.

If you find yourself in this situation, you may be wondering how to cure gout and looking everywhere for answers. The good news is there are gout cures that can help lower your uric acid levels and help relieve your pain and inflammation. These take time to work, but can help you heal faster. With the right lifestyle and diet changes you can work together with your doctor to bring your gout under control.

Gout and Diet

Dietary changes are one of the first lines of defense in gout. Since gout is caused by high uric acid levels, lowering the amount of purines in the diet can help relieve gout symptoms. Eating a diet low in purines prevents uric acid levels from getting even higher and building up. High purine foods are red meat, organ meat, scallops. and sardines. You will need to keep your alcohol intake to a minimum and try to avoid beer completely. Beer is very high in purines.

Overall, try to eat a healthy diet and keep your weight stable. Being overweight can make gout attacks worse and strain your joints. If you are overweight, try to lose weight slowly and don’t starve your body of the nutrients it needs to heal. Just eat sensibly. If you increase your exercise, your joints will have an easier time staying mobile and the weight will come off.

Natural Supplements and Medications

There are some excellent gout cures in the all-natural supplement industry. You and your doctor may also discuss some of the many prescription medications available on the market. What is most important is that you find the right medications that can relieve your inflammation and pain, while lowering the uric acid levels in the blood. Between you and your physician you can work out a plan that works best for you.

Gout cures also include over-the-counter medications that can help lower inflammation and relieve pain and discomfort. Your doctor can also give you prescription anti-inflammatory medications, but sometimes these have side-effects.

After you have explored all your available gout cures, find something that suits your needs and make sure you include the necessary elements listed above. Gout cures should fit into an overall plan for managing your condition and your lifestyle. If you follow your plan, you may be able to prevent any future problems with gout.

How To Treat Gout

Treating Gout

Gout is a form of arthritis that usually appears first in the feet. This condition affects over 8 million people in the United States and can be severely debilitating if left untreated. It can also cause permanent damage to joints and the kidneys. Many gout sufferers do not know how to treat gout and it is important to obtain treatment for gout early on to help prevent disability.

Gout is caused by high levels of uric acid in the bloodstream. Uric acid is formed as a by-product of purines in the diet. When this waste builds up, the kidneys normally flush it out. When levels of uric acid are too high, it can form crystals in the soft tissues and joints. This causes the painful attacks associated with gout.

The first attack usually affects the great toe and then can spread to the knees, ankles and elbows. Factors for acquiring gout include; genetics, uncontrolled high blood pressure, certain health conditions, and being overweight. Also, consuming high purine foods can increase uric acid levels in the body.

How To Treat Gout

Gout attacks must be treated as early as possible to prevent permanent damage. Your physician can prescribe certain medications to help control the inflammation and reduce uric acid levels. Regardless of the treatment options, it is important to see your physician for diagnosis. Here are some tips to help with gout treatment:

Avoid alcohol. Especially beer, which can raise uric acid levels. A 5 ounce glass of wine daily may be okay, but try to avoid alcohol during an acute attack.
Control your weight. Being overweight contributes to gout and can increase pain levels due to excess weight on the affected joints.
Drink water. If you don’t already, try to get in at least 8 glasses of water daily and as many as 10 to 12 glasses if possible. This will help rid your body of uric acid.
Get tested. Your doctor can aspirate some fluid from an affected joint and check for gout. They can also draw uric acid levels from the blood. This will help you and your doctor find the right treatment.
Rest and Elevate. Rest the affected areas and elevate it above the heart. Try not to walk around too much during the acute flare and use ice wrapped in a towel. Wear loose clothing and properly fitting shoes. Too much pressure can increase your gout pain.
Avoid purine foods. Foods high in purines can elevate uric acid levels. Avoid red meats, organ meats, alcohol, and seafood until the attack subsides.
Eat gout relieving foods. There are certain foods that can help relieve gout including, cherries, citrus, and certain berries. Cherries have a known effect on relieving inflammation from arthritis.
Use anti-inflammatory medications, but not aspirin. Naproxen and ibuprofen are helpful with pain and inflammation but aspirin can increase uric acid and make the attack worse. Always check with your doctor before using any medications.

Foods To Prevent Gout

Types of Foods that Prevent Gout

Of the many home remedies for gout, one of the easiest is changing your diet. Since gout is a type of arthritis caused by excess uric acid levels in the blood, eating foods lower in purines can help lower uric acid levels naturally. There are also many good foods to prevent gout that may be right in your very own kitchen already!

Cherries

Cherries have long been one of the best natural home remedies for gout. They contain a natural anti-inflammatory, anthocyanin’s that help reduce inflammation levels and pain. Eat at least ½ pound of cherries daily or try drinking cherry juice. They can help any type of arthritis including gout and help you get back on your feet faster.

Vegetables

Eating fresh raw vegetables and drinking vegetable juices can help relieve gout symptoms. Try making a juice out of beetroot, carrots, and cucumbers to increase healing from gout flares. Use 100 ml of beetroot juice, 300 ml carrot juice, and 100 ml cucumber juice every day. Use a variety of colors on your plate when choosing vegetables to get the most anti-oxidants.

French Bean Juice

French bean juice has been found to have gout relief in many people. You can drink a glass every day to help reduce gout pain.

Apples

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” holds true with this one. Apples have the chemical malic acid that neutralizes uric acid and can reduce the pain and inflammation of gout flares. Better yet, finish off each meal with an apple to help relieve your pain.

Bananas

Many people who suffer from gout have tried the “banana diet.” This consists of eating only bananas for about 3 to 4 days. You can then eat a banana a day as a type of gout prevention. Bananas are also high in potassium and other vitamins to strengthen your body while healing from gout.

Lime, Orange, and Lemon

Eating fruits rich in vitamin C can help break down uric acid for the body in order to excrete it through the kidneys. Vitamin C can also help rebuild collagen in the joints. Oranges can be eaten or you can drink orange juice. For lemon and lime juices squeeze them into a glass of water to make them more tolerable and drink them twice daily.

Activated Charcoal

Make a paste with activated charcoal and place on the affected joints. Use about ½ cup activated charcoal with just enough water to make a paste. You can also place some in water and use as a foot soak.

Herbal Remedies

There are herbs that can help reduce inflammation in the body. These include devil’s claw, ginger root, and white willow bark. These can help relieve pain and inflammation, but you should consult with your physician and an herbal practitioner before using them.

Ginger

As listed above, ginger has remarkable anti-inflammatory properties and is one of the better home remedies for gout. Use it as a soak by putting 1/3 cup ground ginger in warm water and then soak your feet for 30 minutes. It can even pull uric acid out via the sweat glands. Make sure you wash off any ginger residue to prevent skin irritation.

Safflower

Safflower oil can help improve your blood flow, clean out your blood, and relieve gout pain. Use safflower oil capsules a little stronger than safflower cooking products. Check your natural or health foods section in the drug store.

Any of these gout home remedies are safe and effective to help relieve gout pain and inflammation naturally. Always check with your physician before choosing the best one for you.

Healthy Gout Diet With Cherry Juice

How Cherry Juice & Diet Control Gout

Eating a healthy diet with cherry juice can help gout sufferers relieve the inflammation that can sometimes be debilitating. Gout is a very painful form of arthritis that comes on suddenly and causes severe pain and swelling to a single joint or sometimes more than one joint. If gout is not treated quickly after onset, flares will continue to come and go over months or even years after the first attack. Each gout attack after the first tends to last longer and can cause significant disability.

Whatever gout cure you choose, a healthy gout diet with cherry juice can help your body recover faster and easier. The use of complimentary herbal remedies are usually very safe together with prescription medications, and these help the body to flush out excess uric acid – the main culprit in this disease.

Healthy Gout Diet

First, you will need to focus on some dietary changes. The reason is, gout is caused by elevated uric acid levels in the blood. Uric acid is a waste product from purines that come from our diet. Diet is the single most important factor for controlling gout, and you need to eat less foods that are high in purines. These include; red meat, herring, sardines, organ meats, and scallops. It wouldn’t even hurt to not eat these foods at all during an acute gout attack. Healthy alternatives include; lean turkey, chicken, and salmon.

Second, you must increase the amount of water that you drink each day. Normally, you would shoot for about 8 glasses of water each day. When you are suffering from gout, it is best to increase that amount to 10 to 12 glasses of water daily. This helps flush out excess uric acid from the body and can relieve pain and slow the flare-ups.

Put Together a Healthy Eating Plan

Eating healthy in general can prevent many diseases. It is especially important to eat healthy when you are suffering from gout because the more purine foods that you eat the worse the attack will feel. Changing your diet as soon as symptoms appear, gets you through much more easily. If you try to eat the same way you have been prior to the attack, your pain will become more intense.

Your doctor will most likely prescribe anti-inflammatory medications and gout medications. However, in order for these to work properly you need to stop eating the foods that elevate uric acid levels and remind yourself to drink water. Coming up with a healthy eating plan can help you manage these changes. You can also add in age old home remedies to increase your healing. Make up a menu plan with the necessary water you need to drink and hang a copy on your fridge and keep a copy with you. Stick to it!

You must lose weight if you are overweight and try not to gain weight during the attack. This can be hard for some when gout restricts movement. Don’t diet too much because your body needs calories to recover. Eat sensibly and the weight will come off naturally. After you begin to lose weight, the pain will start to become less intense.

An Age Old Remedy: Cherry Juice

Cherry juice is a safe all-natural and extremely effective gout cure that is very cheap and easy to obtain. Researchers have found that people who eat large amounts of cherries have less inflammation in their bodies. Cherry juice can even help to flush out uric acid and prevent it from forming uric acid crystals in the joint areas.

The type of cherries that you use are up to your individual preference. If you eat cherries, it is recommended you eat at least ½ a pound a day. You can also use a cherry concentrate at about 1 Tbsp. daily. Cherry juice is available in most health food stores and you can drink as much as you can tolerate. Cherries are also low on the glycemic index or low in sugar. Diabetics should still check with their doctor or nutritionist for safe amounts.

Gout Medicines

There are numerous gout medicines on the market today and each has a specific role in managing gout symptoms. Because there are so many types, this article can help you understand what they do and possible side-effects. This way you can make an informed choice or even better understand ones you may already be using.

Gout medicines each serve a specific purpose for treating gout. From reducing inflammation to lowering uric acid levels, it is important to understand how they work. Here is a list of commonly used gout medicines and what they do:

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory (NSAIDS) Gout Medicines

The role of NSAIDS is to reduce the inflammation in the body. Anti-inflammatory medications stop certain proteins and enzymes in the body from causing them to react as inflammation or bleeding. One commonly used NSAID aspirin, is contraindicated in gout because it can actually raise uric acid levels. Examples of NSAIDS used for gout include; ibuprofen or naproxen.

It is important to check with your doctor before using an NSAID medication because there can be adverse effects with other diseases such as; heart, liver or kidney disease. They can cause bleeding ulcers, low iron counts and other bleeding issues.

Colchicine

Colchicine is often prescribed for gout to stop the inflammation caused by uric acid crystals. This gout medicine does not lower uric acid levels, but helps stop the body from becoming inflamed because they are there. Colchicine can reduce the severity and frequency of gout flares and can either be taken for short periods at a high dose or longer periods at low doses.

There are side-effects including; liver complications, bone marrow complications, nausea, diarrhea, and kidney problems.

Corticosteroid Medications

Corticosteroids are cautiously used to lower the inflammation in the body. They help in treatment for one single joint and are used as little as possible because of the large risk of side-effects. They are only considered as a gout medicine when other methods of treatment have failed such as; NSAIDS or colchicine.

When more than one joint is affected, it is usually given via intravenous route in the hospital.

They are given in the lowest dose and shortest time possible for relief because they affect the adrenal glands and the body’s normal steroid production. Side-effects include; weight gain, fluid gain, moodiness, bone loss, poor wound healing, increased infection, acne, cataracts, increased blood pressure, and glaucoma.

Corticosteroids cannot be given for a long period of time because they have serious side effects, such as osteoporosis, mood swings, fluid retention, weight gain, and increased risk of infection, difficulty in wound healing, glaucoma, acne, cataracts, and high blood pressure. These are all good reasons to avoid steroid gout medicines if at all possible.

Uricosuric Agents

Uricosuric agents are gout medicines for actual uric acid removal. They stimulate the kidneys to filter out uric acid from the bloodstream. They can help to prevent gout flares in the future. The side-effects include; stomach issues, headaches, rash, and kidney issues.

Allopurinol

Allopurinol is one of the gout medicines that can be used on a long-term basis. This medication helps stop the production of, xanthine oxidase. Xanthine oxidase increases uric acid in the blood, so allopurinol used over long periods of time can help to lower how much uric acid your body produces. This medication also has side-effects including: liver inflammation, rash, and problems with the bone marrow.

Discuss gout medicines with your doctor to see which one will be a good fit. You should let your doctor know about your health history, medications, and if you experience any side-effects from the medications for gout to prevent serious complications.