What Causes Gout Arthritis?
Gout is a form of arthritis, a severe one I must say when compared with the other variants. Once known as the most dreadful disease, Gout has been under study for a very long time now, starting from the times of Hippocrates. It causes excruciating pain and leads to a very painful suffering for the rest of your life. Even with such advancement in the field of medical sciences, Gout is still in the unconquered territory. Here is little insight to the symptoms as well as the treatments plans for the same.
There are several reasons associated with Gout but primarily it is caused by the excessive Uric acid in the body. The reason for the presence of excessive uric acid could be several. One of reasons could be due to malfunction of the kidneys which could result in the excessive uric acid content in the body. The other reason could be due to excessive intake of substances which further metabolize to uric acid. It is known that substances which contain purines, which include certain types of meats, seafood, dried peas, and beans when taken in large quantities, will result in such cases. Due to all these reasons, when the uric acid level in the blood increases, it starts getting deposited under the joints, skin, turning into kidney stones and many other places where it is not suppose to be present leading to gout.
The general diagnosis of Gout includes mainly a blood test to determine the uric acid level along with the examination of joint fluids for its presence. With these two test results; one can determine the disease and the severity of it as well. Often Gout surfaces with swelling and severe pain in the toe, known as podagra. While Gout generally attacks a single joint and there have been cases of slow development of Gout in multiple joints as well. This could be misleading at first making to believe that it is Rheumatoid Arthritis, but detailed tests will lead to the right diagnosis.
While there is no complete cure for Gout, there are several treatment plans which will reduce the pain to a great extent. Since 1800s, the drug Colchicine is being prescribed for Gout. This should be monitored by a specialist along with the I.V. Without this, it is known to have different side effects which include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Non Steroids Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NASID) is often prescribed for chronic cases of Gout. While these also might have severe side effects, one must not prescribe Aspirin and related drugs for Gout as it will worsen the situation.
Another course of treatment for this could be to reduce the uric acid content in the body. This can be done either by normalizing the body fluid with the usage of Probenecid or by stopping the body from further producing the uric acid. This can be done by the appropriate dosage of allopurinol. This mostly prescribed for people with multiple gout attacks. Associated often with obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes, Gout occurs at a very young age and it is shocking that 8 out of every 100o people in this world are victimized by this disease.