Herbal gout treatment

At the Traditional Medicine Hospital of Ho Chi Minh City, on average, each month, 450 patients with gout come for examination and treatment with traditional medicine.

Currently, the City Traditional Medicine Hospital has herbal remedies and medicines that effectively treat gout as well as hyperuricemia (increased uric acid in the blood but no symptoms in the joints).

Dr. Diec Kha Han examines a patient with gout - Photo: L.TH.H.

Reduce uric acid

On September 11, Mr. LNH (61 years old, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) went to the Ho Chi Minh City Traditional Medicine Hospital for a follow-up examination for chronic gout as scheduled by the doctor. Mr. H. said he had gout for more than 10 years and it had recurred many times. Each time it recurred, the pain lasted for two or three days, sometimes for a whole month.

When he was in too much pain, the doctor had to inject medicine directly into the painful joint to relieve his discomfort. Especially when the weather changed or he drank too much with friends, ate too much seafood, or animal organs, his illness relapsed.

There was a time when his blood uric acid test was higher than 500 micromol/l (normal in men is 180 - 420 micromol/l).

In early 2015, friends advised Mr. H. to go to the City Traditional Medicine Hospital for examination and treatment and saw a clear reduction in his illness. Here, the doctor instructed him on a diet to reduce uric acid, such as not eating seafood, kidney, liver, eating lots of vegetables, and using vegetable protein.

The doctor also gave him some medicine such as luc vi, diệp hạ châu, cao rau meo, and tea (including sa kê leaves and black beans) to drink every day. He saw that uric acid had decreased significantly, the duration of illness had been extended, and he had less acute gout attacks than before, especially when the weather changed seasons.

Meanwhile, Mr. TS (44 years old, Binh Duong) had very high uric acid after more than two months of continuously eating stewed pork leg with octopus.

“In April 2015, I built a house and my father-in-law came to help. Because my father-in-law loves cooking and he especially likes stewed pork leg with octopus, he cooked this dish every day. I ate this “favorite” dish with my father-in-law continuously for two months.

In mid-June 2015, I felt pain in my leg, so I went to the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Traditional Medicine for a check-up," said the doctor.

After the examination, the doctor ordered a blood test for the doctor, which showed that the uric acid in his blood was high (510 micromol/l). After taking medication to lower uric acid in his blood, taking traditional Chinese medicine to strengthen his kidneys, and changing his diet as instructed by the doctor, the uric acid test result had decreased to normal, only 399 micromol/l.

Gout treatment

According to Dr. Diec Kha Han - Department of Musculoskeletal System, Traditional Medicine Hospital, traditional medicine calls gout "thong phong", which is in the category of ty syndrome. The cause of the disease is caused by three evils including wind, cold, and dampness that accumulate over time in the body, while the body already has insufficient liver and kidney.

Therefore, when the liver is weak, it cannot control the tendons and meridians; when the kidney is weak, it cannot control the bone marrow; when heat is weak, it is combined with stagnant qi and blood stasis due to accumulation of evil qi, causing blockages, making the joints swollen, hot, painful, and unable to stretch, causing the patient to have severe pain at night, and the pain increases when it is cold.

Traditional medicine classifies gout into three clinical forms: cold gout, heat gout, and kidney yin deficiency. For the cold gout, patients are treated with cold dispersal, wind-dispersal, dampness-reducing drugs, and warm-relieving drugs, with the main prescription being Duhuo Tangjisheng.

Heat in the body is treated by clearing heat and eliminating dampness with the herbal remedy Bai Hu Gui Zhi Tang. For Yin deficiency in the liver and kidney, the treatment is to nourish the yin of the liver and kidney with the herbal remedy Liu Wei Peony with added Polygonum multiflorum, Cassia seed, and Saposhnikovia root.

Currently, many research projects have proven that traditional medicine has effective methods and remedies to treat gout.

Specifically, some medicinal herbs have the effect of lowering blood uric acid such as Desmodium styracifolium (diuretic and increases uric acid excretion through urine), mugwort (strongly inhibits xanthine oxidase to help reduce uric acid synthesis), Morinda officinalis leaves (antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, effective gout treatment), Hi Thiem (lowers blood uric acid, anti-inflammatory, pain reliever)...

In addition, gout can also be treated with other non-drug methods such as acupuncture, physical therapy, and nutrition.

According to Dr. Han, gout is a joint disease that responds well to treatment but requires continuous, long-term and comprehensive treatment. To prevent gout and prevent recurrence, it is necessary to combine treatment and prevention from the beginning, combining non-drug treatment and drug treatment.

Specifically, patients need to adjust their diet and lifestyle so that the body does not produce more uric acid by reducing animal protein intake (meat no more than 150 grams/day), abstaining from alcohol and stimulants such as chili and coffee.

Eat foods low in purines such as fruits, green vegetables, dairy products, eggs. Drink plenty of water, especially alkaline mineral water (soda), and boiled water from the leaves of the breadfruit tree. Exercise daily, avoid obesity, overexertion, stress, and sudden cold.

Good control of associated diseases such as high blood pressure, lipid disorders, diabetes.

According to Alobacsi.vn