i have bin taking allpurinol 300mg once a day for gout.i am still getting flare ups in the base of my big toe and ankle.how long does this medicine take to work?and is there anything better?thank you
I have a friend you has gout and swears by tart cherry juice concentrate. She has 2oz per day and swears since taking it has not had any issues. In reading about it, apparently that is one of it's uses.
I now get it for my husbands knees (arthritis) and he says it helps a lot. I get it at gnc and it is about $10 per bottle and we just do a straight shot each night (also helps with sleeping) or you can mix it with water to dilute.
I have also heard of the tart cherry juice for gout. One of my coworkers was having her second go around with gout and I told her I had heard about the cherry juice. She got some that day and when I saw her 2 days later she said her gout was 95% improved. Can't hurt to try it out I guess!
The first question you have to ask is "Is it gout?". If a medication that is used to treat gout does not improve the symptoms, it may not be gout. Something very similar to gout is psuedo-gout. Although similar in symptoms and presentation it does not respond to Allopurinol. How was your gout diagnosed? What other treatments did you try?
If you do have gout, Allopurinol is used for long term treatment of gouty attacks. It is not helpful in acute gouty attack situations. It may take upwards of 6 weeks to see the full benefit of Allopurinol. This is because its actions are to decrease the formation of uric acid (the crystals seen in gout). It does not remove any uric acid that is already there.
