Gout is a rheumatic pathology caused by the formation in the joints of salts of uric acid.The signs and treatment of this disease are very detailed in our material. Disease is one of the most common types of arthritis and occurs more often in middle-aged men.
What is this disease? Gout is a chronic disease associated with a violation of uric acid metabolism, in which uric acid salts, still known as urate, are deposited in the joints.
Pathology is otherwise called "disease of kings", an ancient disease that was already known in the time of Hippocrates. Gout in the past was considered a sign of genius. She suffered such famous people as Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander of Macedon, many members of the Medici family from Florence, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin.
Nowadays, according to epidemiological studies conducted in Europe and the United States in recent years, gout up to 2% of the adult population fell ill, and among men aged 55-64 years the incidence rate is 4.3-6.1%.
The first signs of gout are characterized by a sharp onset with the appearance of severe soreness, redness and stiffness in the joints. Most often there is gout on the big toe, which should be treated immediately. The main recommendations for reducing the symptoms of chronic gout are adherence to treatment and lifestyle. This article on gout, symptoms and treatment of this disease, we will try to consider in detail today.
Causes
What it is? The cause of gout is the deposition of crystals of uric acid (urates) in the cartilaginous tissue of the joint. Their accumulation leads to inflammation, accompanied by severe pain. Sodium urate crystallizes and is deposited in the joints by small particles, which in the end results in complete or partial destruction of the joints.
Risk factors:
- Abuse of certain drugstores: aspirin, diuretic diuretics, cyclosporins.
- Presence of conditions and diseases in the form of diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity.
- The use of fatty varieties of meat, seafood, carbonated and alcoholic beverages in no small degree contribute to the accumulation of purines in the body.
- The disease is more susceptible to men aged 30-50 years.
Gout attacks can be provoked by stressful reactions to alcohol, citrus, viral infections, physical or mental stress, trauma and hypothermia, bruises, pressure fluctuations, taking medications. At the first attack of gout, the signs are very distinct, and the treatment should be started as soon as possible in order to relieve the pain.
Kinds
There are three types of disease: metabolic, renal and mixed.
- Metabolic form with the highest amount of uric acid.
- Renal form, a moderate amount of uric acid with increasing salts,
- With a mixed type, a reduced or normal ura- ture and a normal clearance are possible.
The diagnosis is established by the rheumatologist at survey and interrogation of the patient. Laboratory diagnostics are also used: in a biochemical blood test, a high content of uric acid is detected.
Symptoms of gout
Arthritis of the joints of the lower extremities is usually observed. Often the inflammatory process involves the big toe, then the frequency of the ankle and knee joints. Less common arthritis of small joints of the hands and elbows.
With gout, the symptoms develop during an attack - it's a pain that develops quickly enough, and reaches the highest sensation literally in a couple of hours. Attacks happen more at night or early in the morning.
A person is not able not only to move his foot, but even a slight touch of the sheet to the affected joint causes unbearable torment. The joint swells swiftly, the skin feels hot and feels red in the joint. Probably an increase in body temperature.
After 3-10 days, the attack of gout subsides with the disappearance of all signs and the normalization of functions. A repeated attack happens, as a rule, three months after the first, or the disease does not manifest itself for two decades.
Chronic gout is characterized by the fact that seizures become more frequent, and intervals without symptoms are shorter.
Complications
Hyperuricemia and accumulation of urate salts with gout leads to their deposition in the kidneys with development:
- nephropathy;
- gouty nephritis;
- arterial hypertension with the subsequent transition to chronic renal failure.
In 40% of adults there is a development of urolithiasis with renal colic at the height of a gout attack, complications in the form of pyelonephritis. To avoid the effects of gout on your legs, how to treat ailment should be puzzled at once.
Treatment of acute attack
Treatment of gout involves the gradual implementation of several stages of therapy. First of all, it is very important to remove acute symptoms of the disease. Further treatment is aimed at preventing the worsening of gout symptoms in the future.
When the gout is attacked, it is necessary to provide sufficient rest for the affected joints and try to injure the joint as little as possible with clothing or shoes. In the case of intolerable pain, you can apply ice. Then it is desirable to make a compress on a sore spot with Vishnevsky ointment or dimexide.
To stop acute signs of gout, doctors recommend taking colchicine or nimesil, as well as NSAIDs - diclofenac, butadione, indomethacin, naproxen. How to treat gout on the legs should be decided by a specialist, he will prescribe the necessary drugs, tell the scheme of reception and warn about side effects.
In the use of food, it is better to restrict yourself, you can use liquid porridge and vegetable broth. It is recommended to drink enough water, green tea, you can also kissels, milk, mineral or plain water, but with the addition of lemon juice.
Treatment of gout
With gout, treatment is prescribed individually and includes medications, physiotherapy methods and diet. It is necessary to take into account all the side effects of drugs in the presence of other diseases, therefore, constant medical supervision is necessary.
The basis of therapy is a special diet, aimed at reducing the diet of patients with saturated foods purines. If the patient can adhere to the prescribed diet therapy, then the formed cones on the joints will begin to disappear, and the body will recover.
In the diet should include dishes boiled in water or cooked for a couple. Salt should be almost eliminated. Also contraindicated are fish and meat broths, cold meat. It is recommended the use of a large number of vegetables. They should be taken in raw form, for a variety of menus you can sometimes bake them or boil them.
To reduce the level of uric acid, anti-gouty drugs (sulfin-perazone, alopurinol, uralite and others) are used. In combination with physiotherapy and medical products, phytotherapy is also used. Gout should be treated by a doctor, he will say exactly what can be used at home to get rid of the disease.
Prevention
To cure gout at home, and reduce the number of seizures should be limited to a minimum of food intake, when splitting which forms a significant amount of uric acid: liver, beef tongue, mushrooms, sardines, fish caviar, beans, peas, beer. It is necessary to drink a lot of liquid - up to three liters a day.
Diet for gout
Patients with a similar diagnosis should be more careful about their diet, in particular, to exclude from the diet saturated with purine products. Here it is important to note that it is necessary to exclude both overeating and fasting, besides, one should not allow a sharp decrease in weight, this can lead to an exacerbation of the disease.
How to treat gout at home? The most correct diet for gout involves switching to a vegetarian diet or diet number 6.
It is desirable to eat:
- Vegetables, preferably in boiled form, steamed, baked in the oven with a little salt;
- dairy;
- berries, mainly currants of different varieties, watermelons;
- bran, bread from bran;
- nuts, fruits and dried fruits;
- mineral water.
Unwanted to eat:
- fat meat;
- by-products (kidney, liver, language of farm animals);
- red fish;
- it is important to minimize salt intake;
- alcohol, coffee;
- sweet fizzy drinks.
It is proved that strawberries, cherries, currants and other berries of dark red and blue colors cause a decrease in concentration uric acid in the blood, so patients with gout can eat them in any form and quantity.
How to treat gout with folk remedies
Since many are interested in the question of how to treat gout in folk remedies, let us dwell on this point in more detail.
- Fish compresses. Divide the fillets of any fish into 10 pieces, put them in kulechki, and send to the refrigerator. Before going to bed, pull out one packet, defrost, get a piece of fish on the affected joint and wrap it with polyethylene, then tighten the thick socks. Lie so until morning.
- Activated carbon. A handful of tablets should be ground in a coffee machine, bringing the amount of the mixture to less than half a glass. Add a small amount of water and one tablespoon of flax seeds to the powder. All is stirred up to pasty state. This mixture lubricates the affected skin areas at night.
- Buy Nowconventional fatand cut it so that you can put on each finger a small piece of fat. And now, each piece of rubbed into the skin until these pieces are not very small.
- Prepare the mixture: melt 250 g unsalted butter, after boiling, remove all the foam and add 250 grams of wine to the oil. Light the immediately obtained mixture until alcohol is burned. Warm the ointment with sore spots.
This treatment at home will not get rid of gout, but will take away for some time its painful manifestation.
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