Mary Welling has been over enjoying the Christmas Holidays. It happens! We enjoy and enjoy all the goodies, the large meals and especially the great variety of lamb, beef, chicken, duck and seafood. The stomach expressed its moments of disturbances but self resolved rather quickly. But to Mary’s surprise she began to develop right knee and left big toe pains. The great toe was especially painful after visiting the malls and after walking back home from Sunday church.
Whenever we feel pain in our feet we always assume we have gout. But what is gout, and how does it affect us, and how can chiropractic help? Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis that develops in some people who have high levels of uric acid in the blood. The acid can form needle-like crystals in a joint and cause sudden, severe episodes of pain, tenderness, redness, warmth and swelling. Episodes usually happen after consuming alcoholic beverages, and/or foods high in purines.
There are several stages of gout:
Asymptomatic hyperuricemia is the period prior to the first gout attack. There are no symptoms, but blood uric acid levels are high and crystals are forming in the joint.
Acute gout, or a gout attack, happens when something (such as a night of drinking) causes uric acid levels to spike or jostles the crystals that have formed in a joint, triggering the attack. The resulting inflammation and pain usually strikes at night and intensifies over the next eight to 12 hours. The symptom decreases after a few days and likely goes away in a week to 10 days.
Interval gout is the time between attacks. Although there’s no pain, the gout isn’t gone. Low-level inflammation may be damaging joints. This is the time to begin managing gout – via lifestyle changes – to prevent future attacks or chronic gout. This is what happened to Mary.
Chronic gout develops in people with gout whose uric acid levels remain high over a number of years Attacks become more frequent and the pain may not go away as it used to. Joint damage may occur, which can lead to a loss of mobility. With proper management and treatment, this stage is preventable.
If you consult your medical doctor they will certainly prescribe medications for gout. We happen to know that the Wellings have become rather conservative about taking drugs so easily. There are a few natural remedies or options available. As always, with natural methods, the advice is to stop doing two things for very one good thing you add.
- ADD Papaya: cut green papaya into cubes and boil it with green tea. Drink everyday for two weeks.
- STOP eating so much meats, in fact cut meats out entirely for 1-2 weeks, then add back slowly and of course then eat more reasonable amounts.
- STOP consuming alcohol during the same period of time.
Co-author, Jonathan Goins, DC
Associate at Mabuhay Chiropractic Manila
Yours in Health,
docMIKE
Follow
No Comments