We know that gout is a group of diseases caused by purine metabolism disorders caused by increased blood uric acid, this disease is more special, a bit of "son preference" feeling, most of the patients are middle-aged and elderly men, women even if they are sick, are mostly postmenopausal women. The onset of gout can be due to family history or overeating, high-purine diet. The main lesion is urate deposited in joints or connective tissue or even kidneys.
Tophi, gouty chronic arthritis and joint deformities, glomeruli and tubules and other substantive lesions and uric acid stone formation are characteristics, gout disease most of the course is longer, and easy to damage the kidneys, later complicated by renal failure, arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases are also compared. For gout, there are big differences in the understanding and treatment of Chinese medicine and Western medicine, so how do Chinese medicine and Western medicine view gout? Today, Lao Chen will talk to you in detail.
Western medicine treats gout this way
Gout has existed since ancient times, but in history, gout is called "imperial disease" is more popular among dignitaries, why are dignitaries prone to gout in ancient times? Because of the limited living conditions at that time, only those with status had the opportunity to eat mountain and sea delicacies, birds and animals, and most of these foods belonged to high-purine foods, such as animal offal, beef and mutton, seafood, alcohol and so on. When high-purine food enters the human body, abnormalities in excretion will cause hyperuricemia.
At that time, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his son Philip II were once plagued by gout, among foreign celebrities, Bacon, Darwin, Martin Luther, Newton, Franklin, etc. were gout patients, among the ancient Chinese, Tang Taizong Li Shimin, literary scholars Liu Yuxi, Bai Juyi, Lu Zhaolin, Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, etc. were once troubled by gout.
Because gout has the characteristics of sudden onset of pain, and the dignitaries at that time did not know the pathogenesis and causes of gout, but they were often tormented by pain, Westerners at that time called gout "the devil bites the foot".
Although gout has a long history, but the medical means at that time were effective, Western medicine did not know how to treat gout, with the development of modern medicine, gout has a treatment. For acute attacks of gout, modern medicine often uses colchicine or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce inflammation and pain, and uses allopurinol, febuxostat, benzbromarone and other drugs to lower uric acid and reduce the deposition of urate on joints or other tissues.
For patients with tophi, Western medicine will use drugs to dissolve the litholith or surgical cleanup to remove tophi. However, whether it is colchicine or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or glucocorticoids, there are certain side effects, which may cause damage to the liver, kidneys, spleen and stomach, and patients also need long-term medication, so there is no particularly effective method.
How gout is viewed in Chinese medicine
There is also the name "gout" in traditional Chinese medicine, and the "Ten Books of Dongyuan" and "Danxi Heart Method" in the Jin Yuan period juxtapose the pain and paralysis in paralysis as "gout" or the white tiger festival wind. As Zhu Danxi said: "Those who have gout are most likely heated by their blood, and they have boiled themselves, and then they either wade in cold water, or stand in wetlands, or fan to cool them, or lie down in the wind, and fight cold, and their blood is cold, and they are dirty and condensed, so they hurt, and the night hurts very much, and they walk in the yin." "Gout is described from the etiology and pathogenesis.
Later generations of Chinese medicine, why does gout occur? How to treat has been discussed in depth, and Zhang Jiebin of the Ming Dynasty said in the "Jingyue Quanshu", "Wind paralysis is a testimony, and the so-called gout of today's people, cover the paralyzed, closed also." Closed by the blood and qi as an evil spirit, it is not allowed to pass and become sick. ”
From these discussions, gout belongs to the category of paralysis, and it is mostly related to wind and cold, sputum obstruction, blood stasis, etc., and it is also very different from Western medicine in terms of treatment. TCM can use a combination of internal and external treatment according to the type, which not only reduces the onset of pain, but also stabilizes the condition.
Lao Chen once treated such a patient in the outpatient clinic, Jiang, the patient's left ankle joint appeared red, swollen, hot pain, taking colchicine and uric acid-lowering drugs, there is still a gout attack, examination of blood uric acid 599μmol/L, diagnosed as gout. The patient reported that he had a sore waist and knees for a long time, and was upset and anxious, and his tongue was fat, moss white and slippery, and his pulse was heavy. Guizhi peony medicine Zhimu decoction was given to add and subtract, and the disposable injection needle of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine was used to quickly prick the red, swollen, hot and painful area several times, and squeezed about 3mL of bloodletting. The pain is relieved. Acupuncture and moxibustion of the four acupoints of the large vertebrae, the life gate, the middle neck, and the Guan Yuan, start as a whole, harmonize the yin and yang qi and blood, and treat the condition for one month continuously.