Gout is among the most painful forms of arthritis and tends manifest along a person’s hands and/or feet. It’s caused by a build-up of uric acid, which can occur due to a variety of reasons. While a healthy lifestyle diminishes your chance of contracting gout, even the healthiest human being alive can wake up to gout pains simply by chance. That’s why we’re going to go over your treatment options, like gout therapy, to ensure you know what to do should you start to experience gout pains.
How Do I Know If I Have Gout?
A sudden sharp pain in your hands, feet, ankles or wrist is usually a sign that you may be experiencing gout, or at the very least should see a doctor. Most people first experience symptoms in their big toe before it begins to spread, and the pain is often bad enough to wake people from sleep.
Common symptoms include:
Redness
Swelling
Joint Stiffness
Heat
Pain
It’s best to see your doctor as soon as these symptoms start to manifest. The attack may go away on its own after a couple days, but almost always comes back. Gout is only thoroughly diagnosed by a licensed physician.
What Are My Treatment Options for Gout?
The good news is that gout is easily treatable. Most doctors will prescribe nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids and/or colchicine.
That being said, gout is often triggered by an unhealthy lifestyle and will often reoccur if someone continues down the same road that led them to feeling gout pain in the first place. In order to prevent later uric acid buildups, many doctors will attempt to have their patients take preventative precautions.
The following steps will help you keep gout away once and for all:
Take any medicines your doctor prescribes as directed.
This should be fairly easy to follow and go without saying, but your doctor went to medical school and probably knows how to keep you healthy better than you do. So it’s always in your best interest to listen up and follow doc’s orders.
Tell your doctor about all the medicines and vitamins you’re taking.
Something usually causes gout to occur. Telling your doctor about everything you’re taking will better equip him/her to help you avoid gout altogether.
Keep a consistent, healthy diet.
A healthy diet will help you avoid a lot of health issues as you get older, especially gout. This doesn’t mean you can’t go out and have fun, but be sure to do so responsibly – and I’m not just talking about alcohol.
As always, should you find yourself in Long Beach, feel free to give us a call. Dr. Aslmand and our staff will be happy to see you and talk all about gout therapy at our office.
