Gout Treatment: Vital Help To Choose Right
For gout treatment to work, it has to be targeted right.
There is no point taking a standard gout prescription, or buying some natural gout remedies if you do not understand how they work, and why you need them.
It is crucial that you get the right gout cure to match your needs, or you could make your gout much worse.
Gout is an extremely complex disease. There is no such thing as a simple way to avoid gout, though some plans to manage your gout are simpler than others.
If you have studied my Understanding Gout section, it will be easier to make the choices between different types of gout treatment. Please note that you must make similar choices whether you are being treated with gout medications, or if you are seeking natural gout remedies. You must know which part of the Gout Pain Pathway you are trying to treat, then select the best treatment that matches what you hope to achieve.
Of course, what we all want to achieve is an end to gout pain. To do that you will need:
- Remedies to relieve immediate gout pain
- Therapy to avoid gout in future
- A plan to adjust gout treatments as you gradually fix your gout
The length of time to fix your gout will depend on how long you have had it, and how effectively you manage the treatment. There is no reason why all gout sufferers, unless there are other health complications, should not be completely free of gout symptoms in six to twelve months.
Do not simply rely on your doctor’s advice, or the instructions for a natural gout remedy. You have to take control by knowing how to assess your current situation, and how to set targets for managing your plan towards becoming gout free. I cover details of how to do this in the Understanding Gout Section. This Gout Treatment Section is to describe all the different gout medications and other remedies for gout, so that you can choose a package of treatments that suit you.
Types Of Gout Treatment
As I explained in the Understanding Gout Section, your gout management plan can include selected drug therapies, natural gout cures, and lifestyle changes, or a combination. I deal with lifestyle changes in the Gout Diet section. When considering non-medical remedies, there is some overlap between diet and certain foods that have been attributed with healing properties. In these cases I will cover nutritional properties in the Gout Diet section, and healing properties here.
In most cases, gout medications have a specific role, and I have classified them accordingly. You can select a treatment to lower uric acid, and perhaps add pain relief treatment to help you during the early stages of urate lowering therapy when there are still gout flare risks.
Natural and other alternative treatments are less specific. This makes them more difficult to manage, as results are less predictable, and vary widely between people. Nevertheless, you must still manage uric acid first. However, many natural treatments, despite strong anecdotal evidence that they help gout sufferers, have not been assessed for uric acid lowering properties. In this regard, you must look to your own test results.
Here I will deal with medications and natural products or techniques that can be used to treat gout. I have divided them according to how they affect the Gout Pain Pathway, those some may have additional positive effects in addition to the main benefit.
Medical Gout Treatments
| Treatment Type | Page | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Uric Acid Lowering | Avoid Gout By Uric Acid Reduction | Drugs that inhibit uric acid production, or encourage it’s excretion. |
| Urate Deposit Removal | Treatment For Gout | Lowering uric acid will cause most urate deposits do dissolve. Beyond that, tophi can be removed by surgery or draining. Kidney stones can be surgically removed, and have also been treated by sonic vibration. |
| Immune Response Treatment | Anti-Inflammatory Gout Cure | In addition to colchicine and a wide range of COX inhibitors, some treatments previously aimed at rheumatoid arthritis are effective at blocking different aspects of the immune response. |
| Gout Pain Blocking | Gout Remedies For Pain Relief | Various analgesics block pain signals reaching the brain. |
| Upcoming Treatments | Gout Medicine | As our knowledge of uric acid responses and pain pathways grows, new targets for gout treatments are evolving. |
Alternative Gout Treatments
| Treatment Type | Page | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Uric Acid Lowering | Natural Gout Cures | Natural uricosurics and xanthine oxidase inhibitors. This includes treatments that have been shown to lower uric acid where the mechanism is uncertain. |
| Diet Relief | Natural Gout Remedy | Foodstuffs and beverages that relieve gout. |
| Herbal Relief | Gout Relief | Dietary supplements and additives that relieve gout. |
| Other Non-Drug Treatments | Natural Pain Relief | Physical, electronic, and other medication-free pain relievers. |
| Upcoming Treatments | Gout Home Remedies | Natural substances that are currently being investigated for gout treatment potential. |
Please note that, as of December 2009, I am creating new summary pages, hence some of the links above are incomplete. The links below will take you to the old format pages.
Gout Pain Relief
Gout Prevention
Old gout prevention pages.
Other Gout Cure Articles
These are pages that relate to gout treatments, but do not fit neatly into one of the two main categories. Some explain why you need two different treatment groups, and others explain how the two groups work together, and the changes needed as your gout treatment progresses.
- Which Medical Treatment For Gout is Best For You?
- Every treatment for gout has advantages and disadvantages. Medicines can have side effects. Other conditions and drugs will affect you. Learn about gout treatments and see which suits you best.
- Gout Treatments – the Alternatives to Medication
- Regular gout treatments rely on drugs that can have a radical effect on body chemistry. Many people prefer the gentler options available in alternative treatments.
There are also articles that include references to gout treatments, but are not complete enough to be included in this Gout Treatment Reference section. I am tagging these, and I will add links here soon.
Next Gout Treatment Steps
Now you see that there is a wide range of gout treatments available, you need to plan what to do next.
If you are new to gout, you and your doctor will focus mainly on pain relief. Make sure you are aware of your options, and work with your doctor to see which is best for you. Sometimes combination therapies are most effective.
If you have had more than one gout attack, you must arrange with your doctor to start uric acid lowering treatment.
If you are still not sure, or if you do not understand your doctor’s advice, you can get more help in the gout forum.