Imagine you’ve been suffering from colds for the past few days. You’ve been drinking a lot of fluids and taking some rest but nothing seems to work. You still can’t get rid of the colds. You started taking antibiotics like what you’ve always done in the past. But after days of doing so, you still aren’t feeling well. Then you decide to pay your doctor a visit. After a couple of test and physical examination, he tells you that your cold is caused by a virus. I can only imagine you regretting how much of a waste it was to take antibiotics. Since the cold was viral in nature, taking such meds will have no effect.
This is what happens when you try to assume things. This experience is very similar to many people suffering from gout. They assumed they are just having the usual arthritis. But when they try to self medicated, nothing works. They spend a lot of efforts and resources in treating their “arthritirs”. But they end up disappointed when they finally discover that they have gout.
You must acknowledge that in any kind of disease, the first step is always to accurately identify what the disorder is. Early detection and diagnosis is necessary in finding the appropriate treatment for any type of disease including gout. An article on khaleejtimes.com explains this in further details. The succeeding section are excerpts of that said article.
According to Dr Rakesh Kumar, Specialist Physician at DM Healthcare’s Aster Medical Centre, Al Barsha, one out of 20 arthritis patients is afflicted with gout. The common cause being the accumlation of higher than normal uric acid in a person’s body.
Dr Kumar said excess uric acid in the body is converted into crystals which then get deposited in the joints. “If not detected early, the size of these deposits will harden causing pain and discomfort.” The body’s immune system considers these crystal deposits in joints as unwanted and resists it leading to extreme pain and inflammation.
“It is generally seen that diets containing excess purine like prawns, red meat, liver, kidney and brain generate more uric acid in the body. In case of vegetables, it is seen that excess consumption of green peas and beans can cause production of uric acid in the body,” Dr Kumar said. According to Dr Kumar, it is important that gout is detected early so that timely treatments can be initiated.
As mentioned on the excerpt above, one out of twenty arthritis patients is suffering from gout. Since gout is a unique form of arthritis, its cause and treatment differs greatly from other forms of arthritis. This only goes to show that proper detection and diagnosis is the first step to ensuring the effectiveness of any form of treatment. Any treatment directed to other forms of arthritis is not guaranteed to be effective towards gout. Since gout has recurring natures, gout attacks will be experienced every now and then if it is not treated accordingly. In other words, early detection and proper treatment must go hand in hand to improve a gout sufferer’s condition.