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i am a 37 year old male with hypothyroidism and just had my first visit to the docs for gout. I have about one attack a year. It was this site that made me go and get blood tests.
The doc gave me naproxen, which didn't seem to do anything for 3 days then the pain went overnight. I had just tried the black bean broth so really dont know whether it was the naproxen or BBB! I was just glad to be out of pain.
Just got my results this morning, my uric acid level is 0.61. (Dont know how to convert) The doc asked if i wanted to go onto alupurinol. She didn't advise against it nor did she advise it. She basically gave me the choice.
I metioned about raised uric acid causing other problems, but she said that there is not enough evidence.
I really dont know what to do next. Should i have gone onto alupurinol? Are my results really high?
I can cope with a flare up each year especially with the BBB. (If it was this that took my pain away)
3 days is about the normal time for a gout flare to clear up by itself, particularly in the early stages of gout. Of course, this does not prevent more attacks happening, so that consecutive attacks appear as one long continuous gout episode.
The longer your gout goes untreated, the worse it gets. More joints become affected, and attacks become more frequent. The buildup of uric acid crystals in the joints leads to permanent, crippling, joint damage.
.61 is a very high reading (this converts to 10.25 mg/dL using my uric acid level conversion).
It is important to get on the allopurinol as soon as you can to get your uric acid under control before irreversible joint damage occurs.
It is vital that allopurinol is introduced properly, and monitored frequently to ensure that uric acid levels are kept below .35mmol/L. I cannot stress this enough – doctors frequently issue allopurinol without proper backup, and if you do not take enough to get your uric acid down to a safe level, then you are simply wasting your time.
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