Have you ever been woken by a swollen toe in night? The name is ‘Podagra’. It is the initial attack of Acute Gout. You can imagine the intensity of pain that can wake you from deep sleep. The great toe is affected in over 50% of cases. It is characterized by- extremely rapid onset, reaching peak severity between 2-6 hours, which the patients describes as ‘worst pain ever’, equally terrifying is the look of toe which is swollen, red &shiny as if telling ‘touch me not’. It may be accompanied by fever & malaise. Few other joints which may get affected are the ankle, mid foot, knee, smaller finger joints. It is usually self limiting, resuming complete normality within 2 weeks. Usually, what we all do? Start popping in the pain killers all time through, but do you know how effective can Homeopathy be here? Ever considered this safer option?
People have grown this false notion that Homeopathy works well only in chronic cases. Its time to rethink. In Homeopathy we have wonderful medicines to alleviate your pain.
Lets have bit elaborate overview of this painful condition where it turns chronic and also studied as primary & secondary gout.
Do you know Gout is termed as ‘true crystal deposition’ disease? Now, these crystals are formed by Monosodium Urate Monohydrate(MSUM), which is a form of uric acid; and these crystals get deposited around the joints which gradually leads to this painful disease. The presence of high serum uric acid is termed as ‘Hyperuricemia’. However, ironically 95% hyperuricaemic subjects never develop gout. It is basically the body metabolism and balance that contributes to these crystal deposits. Once, gout developed then one has to refrain from highly purine rich food that worsens the disease. About one third of the purine comes from our dietary sources while rest 2/3rd is endogenous metabolism in our body.
‘Primary gout‘ is exclusively male disease and commonest cause of inflammatory arthritis in men over age of 40. ‘Secondary gout’ is caused due to renal impairment or drug therapy, mainly affects people over age of 65 yrs and usually seen in women.
The chronic cases usually present with the swollen joints and tophus formation, it develops over the years gradually and is very painful due to the pricking crystal deposits, in extreme cases, these tophus may start ulcerating & oozing crystalline discharge. These tophus are also seen in older female patients who are having Osteoarthritis.
We need to understand that no disease is simply local or just a part of body is diseased, its all co-related. For example in Gout itself, alone high uric acid is not responsible, barely 5 % get affected, why? Very clearly, it’s the individuals metabolic activities which do not involve the joint primarily. All purine that is metabolized in our body forms uric acid of which some is broken down in intestine and rest is excreted through urine, so here we can see- already our digestive system is put to work and so is the urinary system, isn’t it? Uric acid is being carried through blood so circulatory system is involved as well. So, how come only treating the joint complain is going to help? We need a proper holistic approach to deal with the disease, and the holistic approach is best offered by none other than Homeopaths. We at the Chikitsailaaj are dedicated to this holistic method of treatment.
