| Causes and Symptoms: | | | | weaker than others. That is how chronic diseases are |
| Gout is a disease of the joints and is a form of | | | | born. |
| rheumatism. It is a constitutional disorder connected | | | | The real culprit is the type of food, which we are |
| with excess of uric acid in the blood manifesting itself | | | | addicted to. Our blood is chiefly alkaline and anything |
| by inflammation of joints with deposition of urate of | | | | that tends to produce acidity should be avoided. |
| soda and also by morbid changes in various important | | | | Treating gout in any other system is chaotic. The real |
| organs. | | | | cause of the disease is not attack and recourse is |
| Hippo crates in his Aphorisms speaks of gout as | | | | taken to painkillers or antidoting of the poison is |
| occurring most commonly in spring and autumn, and | | | | under taken. The Ayurvedic practitioners prohibit the |
| mentions the facts that women are less liable to it | | | | intake of fruits and vegetables on the plea that they |
| than men. Why the uric acid is found in excess is not | | | | may produce cold, which is supposed to be bad for |
| understood by the allopathic physicians. Uric acid is | | | | the gout and thus deprive the patient of the real |
| formed in the system in the process of nutrition and | | | | cure. Doctors have some times advised patients to |
| is excreted by the kidneys. In a patient suffering | | | | have their teeth or tonsils extracted under the |
| from gout, the quantity of uric acid is found to be | | | | misconception that the seat of the disease lays |
| much more than normal. In a paroxysm of gout, the | | | | there. But even the excision of these has never led |
| body appears to get rid of a lot of uric acid and | | | | to any relief to the gout patients. |
| there appears to be some relied but that is purely | | | | Treatment: |
| temporary. | | | | To real treatment of gout starts with ensuring that |
| Modern medicine believes gout to be hereditary since | | | | all the orifices of the body, which expel waste and |
| it has been found in 50 to 80 percent of the cases | | | | morbid matter, are activated to do their work |
| that the patient's parents or grand parents suffered | | | | properly. The patient should breathe fresh air, so that |
| from the disease. The disease affects the sedentary | | | | oxygen is available to him in larger quantities cleansing |
| persons more than those who lead active lives, but it | | | | his blood of poisonous humours. The gout patient |
| is not always true. On the other hand, inadequate | | | | must increase his intake of water to produce more |
| exercise, a luxurious manner of living, habitual | | | | urine. He should take lukewarm water in the morning |
| over-indulgence in rich foods and especially in alcohol | | | | and evening mixed with the juice of mine. The pores |
| is the precipitating factors in the onset of the | | | | of the skin should be activated by a cold bath every |
| disease. Some teetotalers and vegetarians are also | | | | day and drying of the body with vigorous rubbing |
| found to be victims of gout. | | | | with the palms of the hand. If the pain in the joints is |
| The disease is more common in mature age and in | | | | too severe and the patient is unable to massage his |
| the males than females. Persons exposed to the | | | | body himself, he should seek somebody else's help. |
| influence of lead poisoning such as plumbers, are apt | | | | Sun bathing should be undertaken to produce sweat. |
| to suffer from gout. Attacks of the disease are | | | | The head may be covered with a wet towel to save |
| readily excited by exposure to cold, disorders of | | | | it from excessive heat of the sun. Spending half an |
| indigestion, fatigue and injuries to particular joints. | | | | hour in the sun will activate the sweat glands. A cold |
| An attack of gout may appear without warning, or | | | | bath is recommended after a sunbath; if the patient |
| there may be premonitory symptoms. Among the | | | | does not feel equal to it, he would be better advised |
| most common of these are disorders of the | | | | to wipe his body with a wet towel. Sun bathing |
| digestive organs, with a feeble and capricious | | | | should be done no more than thrice in a week. If |
| appetite, flatulence, uneasiness in the right side in the | | | | there is no sun, sweat should be induced by a steam |
| region of the liver, and irritation in the urinary organs. | | | | bath or by merely soaking one's feet in hot water. |
| There is also irritability, numbness and coldness in the | | | | The food should consist of fresh fruits and |
| limbs. The attack comes usually at night, usually | | | | vegetables-substances, which do not stick to the |
| between two and three in the morning. The affected | | | | intestines. Fruits, which can be taken without peeling, |
| part is found to be swollen and a deep red hue. The | | | | should be taken. In the beginning of the treatment, |
| skin is tense and glistening and the surrounding veins | | | | the best course would be to live on fruit juices. That |
| are more or less distended. The attack lasts for a | | | | would give some rest to the intestines. Fruits |
| week or ten days during which the patient suffers | | | | recommended are: oranges, grape fruit, pineapple, |
| from constipation, dyspepsia and extreme thirst. The | | | | raspberry and pear. Vegetables like the various |
| urine is scanty and high coloured with a copious | | | | gourds, cabbage, tomatoes and greens are the best. |
| deposit, consisting chiefly of urates. The joint | | | | The more chronic the disease, the greater should be |
| affected may become swollen but if the disease is | | | | the period for which the patient should live on fruits |
| not attended to, the swelling spreads to other joints | | | | and vegetables. |
| and it becomes chronic. Joints also become enlarged | | | | After a five-day period during which only fruits and |
| and refuse to function without giving excruciating pain | | | | vegetables are taken, milk should be added to the |
| to the sufferer. | | | | diet. It should preferably be boiled and taken in |
| Naturopathy believes that like all other diseases, gout | | | | quantities of 250 to 500 millilitres at one time. Bread |
| is the result of inadequate excretion of the morbid | | | | should be taken only after a fortnight of living on |
| and poisonous matter from the orifices of the body. | | | | fruits and vegetables. Potatoes can replace bread |
| The bowels, the urinary tract, the skin and the | | | | with advantages as they contain more alkaline |
| nostrils---all must expel the waste matter from the | | | | matter. |
| body. If they become slack and do not function | | | | Hot fomentation should be undertaken to reduce the |
| properly, those substances accumulate in the body | | | | pain in the joints. About 75 grammes of salt should |
| and produce gout. Life depends on healthy blood and | | | | be added to one litre of hot water for fomentation. |
| nature has devised catarrh, diahrroea and fevers to | | | | The site of fomentation should be washed with cold |
| force the human system to expel the accumulated | | | | water later on. Those who suffer from a constant |
| waste matter. If these diseases are suppressed, as | | | | pain should apply a paste of raw potatoes ground |
| happens in most case when the patient takes to | | | | fine on the affected joints. The paste should be |
| allopathic treatment, the poisonous and morbid | | | | allowed to remain for some hours. |
| matter attacks the part of the body, which is | | | | |