"Emperor's disease" gout? Can even middle school students get it? Experts reveal prevention and treatment strategies: Just "improving diet" is not enough
“Emperor’s disease” gout? Can even middle school students get it? Which areas are prone to uric acid deposition?
Gouty arthritis was once regarded as a “disease of emperors” and a “disease of wealth”, but now it has widely affected modern people, and even junior high school students have begun to show symptoms. In fact, gout is not related to “wind”, but a disease related to metabolism. Purine is the original matrix of uric acid and is found in the nuclei of all cells. Therefore, when eating foods containing a large number of cell nuclei, such as seeds and offal, uric acid in the blood will increase. However, the source of uric acid is not just food. The body’s natural metabolism also produces uric acid, so there will always be a certain amount of uric acid in the blood.
Under normal circumstances, uric acid is dissolved in the blood. However, when the concentration of uric acid in the blood is too high and the body cannot metabolize it normally, uric acid will be converted into crystals to form “tophus”. Tophi is not like a “stone” as commonly imagined, but more like chalk, and its hardness is similar. When tophi is crushed, it looks like chalk dust and often settles in the joints. This is gouty arthritis. Often when a wound is opened, tophi will flow out like lime water.
So why are uric acid crystals so easy to precipitate in joints such as fingers, elbows, ankles, toes, and knees? This is because the body temperature of the joints is low, just like sugar cannot be dissolved even if it is stirred in ice water for a long time. Therefore, not only the joints, but also the distal parts of the human body where the body temperature is lower, are likely to be precipitated, such as the ears, soles of the feet, buttocks, etc. For example, one patient’s auricle was covered with white uric acid crystals, which looked like pimples.
Can gout without treatment lead to kidney failure? Experts reveal the key differences between 2 types of “gouty arthritis”
Gouty arthritis can be roughly divided into two types: “acute gout attack” and “chronic hyperuricemia”, and the treatment methods are also different. Chronic patients are usually given uric acid-lowering drugs, but when used in the acute phase, these drugs not only fail to solve the pain caused by acute inflammation, but may also make the uric acid value in the blood fluctuate more violently, which in turn aggravates the condition.
Therefore, when treating gout, one must first understand the nature of the disease before prescribing the right medicine. Otherwise, because the pain subsides temporarily, the severity of gouty arthritis may be misjudged, allowing this “chalk dust in the bones” to continue to erode the joints without warning. By the time the patient is diagnosed, it may have caused joint degeneration and even kidney failure, which must not be ignored.
The uric acid concentration changes at least 1mg/dL! The prevention and treatment of gout only depends on “improving diet” and it is not enough
The human body has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years into its current form and was not designed to withstand the high levels of purine in our modern diet. Therefore, dietary control is certainly necessary for the treatment of gouty arthritis. However, when people discuss gout, they often only talk about dietary control and ignore other factors.
In fact, diet control is only one aspect of changing your lifestyle. Some studies even believe that the change in uric acid between a general diet and strict dietary control is only 1 mg/dL. Therefore, a good lifestyle, such as drinking more water, not being overly tired, and avoiding excessive exercise or staying up late or eating and drinking suddenly, may be even more important.
In addition to patients with chronic diseases, for patients with acute diseases, although they can receive treatment after the onset of the disease, in order to avoid recurrence in the future or possible complications such as kidney failure and joint degeneration, they cannot ignore regular tracking of uric acid in the blood. value. The treatment of both acute and chronic diseases cannot be neglected. It must be done step by step and step by step. Only then can gouty arthritis receive complete medical care.
The prevention and treatment of gouty arthritis should be viewed from multiple aspects. A light diet, drinking plenty of water, and exercise must be the first priority. For patients with long-term hyperuricemia, long-term use of urate-lowering drugs may need to be considered. During acute attacks, colchicine and anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to improve short-term quality of life. Early detection, early treatment, continuous treatment with professional doctors and changes in lifestyle can prevent joint degeneration and kidney failure.
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