You still need to reduce the risk of acute gout while you are waiting for your serum urate to be corrected.
The Gout Remedy report (see the link to the review in the sidebar on my blog ==>) shows you how to reduce the risk and even eliminate the condition completely by changing a few of your lifestyle habits, and consuming some healthy gout foods.
If you prefer to take a pharmaceutical gout treatment, there are two drugs which can prevent acute gout, neither of which has any intrinsic effect upon the serum urate concentration. These are colchicine and the group of NSAID drugs. The dose used depends on the purpose for which they are used. When they are used prophylactically (preventatively), a low dose is used each day. When they are used to treat an acute attack, a large dose is used initially, tailing off fairly rapidly as the acute gout subsides.
A prophylactic (preventive) dose of colchicine ranges between 1 and 2 tablets (each of 0.5 mg) a day. This interferes with the response of the polymorph white blood cells to any urate crystals, reducing the potential for an inflammatory response. In acute gout the dose is usually sufficient to induce diarrhea, but the prophylactic dose should not produce any gastrointestinal side-effects such as abdominal discomfort, diarrhea or nausea.
If it does, the dose should be reduced until it produces no side-effects whatsoever. There have been rare cases of muscle pains and weakness in the lower limbs in patients with kidney insufficiency who have been taking prophylactic colchicine long-term. The value of prophylactic colchicine is sufficient to justify my continuing to advise patients to use it, even if they have some renal insufficiency, although they should be advised to stop the colchicine if they develop weakness or pain in the leg muscles.
Many of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs) are also useful prophylactics against acute attacks of gout. However, their side-effects are potentially more serious than those of colchicine.
Colchicine is therefore the preferred prophylactic agent and it is totally effective in 80 per cent of patients and ineffective in only 5 per cent.
The use of prophylactic colchicine is particularly valuable in: patients with hyperuricemia between attacks before urate-lowering therapy has been begun or during the investigation of the causes of hyperuricemia; during therapy to lower serum urate to within the normal range, a situation in which, as we have seen, there is an increased risk of precipitating acute gout; and in patients whose serum urate has been restored to the normal range either by lifestyle or dietary modification or by the use of drugs.
In this last group of patients, the risk of gout may continue for about a year of normal urate concentrations and can be reduced by continuing prophylactic colchicine. However, after a patient has had a normal serum urate and no acute attacks of gout for 12 months, the prophylactic colchicine can be stopped.
Some patients who regularly take large doses of NSAIDs to prevent frequent recurrences of gout can develop a very severe attack of gout with the formation of large tophi without warning. This is rarely a problem with colchicine prophylaxis (prevention).
Tagged as: colchicine, gout remedies, gout treatment
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