Your Guide to Choosing the Right Gout Treatment Medication
Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis that affects as many as 9 million Americans. It’s an incredibly painful and recurring condition that can seriously hamper your quality of life or ability to perform daily tasks.
Gout symptoms include intense pain, tenderness, stiffness, swelling, and redness. Fortunately, it’s easy to treat this condition when you’ve got the right gout treatment medication to hand.
Here’s how to find the ultimate fix for treating inflammation related to gout.
What Causes Gout?
Gout results from a build-up of urate crystals around the joints, usually the knees.
It stems from an excess of uric acid in the body. This could result from excessive production of the acid, or your body’s inability to excrete it.
The following things can help you control the levels of uric acid in your body and help prevent gout:
- Exercise
- Eating a balanced diet
- Drinking enough water
- Avoid sugary drinks and alcohol, especially beer
- Eat less meat
- Eat low-fat dairy products to get your daily quota of protein
A gout attack comes about suddenly and usually lasts between seven and ten days.
How to Treat Gout
There are two kinds of medication used for treating inflammation caused by gout. The first kind addresses the symptoms of acute gout, while the second helps you avoid future attacks.
You can get over-the-counter gout medications, but these rarely bring lasting relief. Rather consult your doctor and get a script for gout medication containing colchicine, which works best to alleviate the pain and swelling.
It’s not the cheapest way to treat gout, but it can stop it in its tracks if you take a tablet within 24 hours of the onset of gout symptoms. The usual dosage is one tablet, three times a day, for a week, and twice daily after that until the pain subsides.
Some of the more popular medications used to prevent the build-up of uric crystals include Allopurinol and Febuxostat. Not only will these medications reduce the incidence of gout attacks, but they’ll protect your joints and kidneys from damage due to gout.
Find Affordable Gout Medication Treatment
Chronic conditions require ongoing treatment, and this gets expensive over time. Don’t miss out on the medication you need because you can’t afford it, you can cut down the Allopurinol, Febuxostat, and Colchicine price in a few ways:
- Ask your doctor for a generic alternative
- Shop online
- Taking advantage of pharmacy loyalty cards or discounts
- Buying medication in bulk
It only takes a little effort to find the relief you need within your budget. So there’s no reason to avoid getting a prescription for the most effective treatments available.
Stay Prepared
It’s vital to keep adequate stocks of gout treatment medication for when the pain strikes. So make sure you restock your medicine cabinet in preparation for the next attack.
When you act fast, you can avoid days of suffering from this painful condition.
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