Bacteria Is Not Always What You Think It Is
But, of course, when we hear the word bacteria we imagine something awful.
Disease. Contagion. Illness. Death.
Because mostly we associate bacteria with being very ill.
Theyre something to fight off the moment we get them.
We buy products from our supermarket that boast how quickly and effectively they kill bacteria.
But bacteria are just single-celled organisms that can be found just about anywhere.
Some are dangerous. Some are highly beneficial.
It depends which bacteria they are. And it depends on where they are.
Those that exist within us within our gut microbiome are largely beneficial to us.
In fact, in a healthy human being some 95% of them are responsible for a number of vital body processes that either keep us healthy or keep us alive.
Yes. Theyre that important.
We are, in fact, extraordinarily dependent on the health of our microbiome.
So much about us on the surface our health, our moods, our body weight reflects whats going on in the gut.
Incredibly, scientists are now recognizing that the microbiome our gut bacteria is so vital to our general health that some think of it as an organ in its own right.
They regard it as important to our existence as the kidneys or the heart or the lungs.
In fact, scientists are able to transplant the gut bacteria from a healthy person into the gut of a diseased patient in order to cure disease.
Bacteria transplants whod have thought it?
Its really hard to overstate how important our gut health is to us.
Cold Therapy Treatment For Gout In Feet And Ankles
Gout is an often-painful affliction that can cause recurrent attacks of arthritis when gone without treatment. Gout generally occurs at the metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe, causing a red, swollen joint. This can also be accompanied by a throbbing sensation that leaves the toe both tender and hot. Though it is most prevalent in the big toe, gout can also be found in other joints such as heels, knees, wrists and fingers. The AnkleAid ice bath offers relief and treatment for gout pain in feet and ankles.
Ways To Deal With Painful Gout Attacks
Its difficult to focus on work or other daily activities when youre experiencing gout inflammation and pain. Symptoms can last for a few days or even weeks, with the worst pain usually occurring in the first day or two.
While the best thing to do is talk to your physician, there are several steps you can take right away ease your gout symptoms:
Excess uric acid in the bloodstream can lead to the formation of uric acid crystals in one or more joints, resulting in gout.Read:All About Gout – Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
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The Causes Of Gout And The Real Causes Of Gout
After my first encounter with gout my doctor gave me the standard explanation of its causes.
He said that gout was caused by excess uric acid in the blood.
Uric acid is a byproduct of the processing of certain foods.
The uric acid comes from the liver as a waste product. Its sent to the kidneys from where it is supposed to be removed from the body.
I had gout because, in a nutshell, gout is what you get when your body isnt expelling all its uric acid.
The excess uric acid forms tiny, spike-shaped crystals.
Those crystals get into your bloodstream.
From there, they find their way into your joints.
And from time-to-time the immune system attacks them.
And when the immune system does that the inflammation that results is experienced as a gout attack.
Also known as excruciating, awful pain.
If you suffer from gout then I truly feel for you. I know what youre going through.
Its been just over 2 years now since my final gout attack. But I still remember what it felt like.
Anyway, that was the doctors explanation of gout. So far, so simple.
Tips And Guidelines For Cryotherapy
If you have any conditions you want to treat with cryotherapy, make sure you discuss them with the person assisting with or administering your treatment. Its always a good idea to consult your doctor before using any type of therapy.
If receiving whole body cryotherapy, wear dry, loose-fitting clothing. Bring socks and gloves to protect from frostbite. During therapy, move around if possible to keep your blood flowing.
If youre getting cryosurgery, your doctor will discuss specific preparations with you beforehand. This may include not eating or drinking for 12 hours beforehand.
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If You Are Having Repeated Attacks See Your Doctor
Some patients can go a long time between attacks. In fact, for 62 percent of patients the next attack will be more than a year away, and some won’t have another attack in the next 10 years. However, if you begin to have more frequent attacks, talk to your doctor about escalating treatment. People think its normal to have flares every now and then, but its not. The gout can be doing damage to your joints. It means you still have too much uric acid, says Shakouri. In particular, ask about allpurinol. It wont help with an acute attack but will help prevent future attacks by reducing uric acid production.
How Cryotherapy Is Performed
Cryotherapy is a noninvasive treatment. The doctor begins by cleaning the wart and the skin around it a numbing agent can be used to reduce pain. The liquid nitrogen can be applied with a cotton swab, a spray, or through a tube. The freezing is uncomfortable and might cause a stinging sensation, but it is not unbearable, and the paint is brief. The wart will begin to turn white this is a sign that the skin cells are dying. A blister may also form at the site of the wart. It is important to leave the blister alone it will heal within a week.
The entire process lasts about 15-20 minutes and recovery is rapid. Cryotherapy does not leave any scars however, there may be some slight discoloration in the treated area. It may be necessary to repeat treatment to ensure that the wart does not return.
It is important to follow-up with your physician to monitor regrowth of the wart and address any complications that may arise from treatment.
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How To Treat A Gout Flare
Different medications can be used to address gout, but when youre in the midst of a gout flare, the number-one goal is pain management. Because the pain is so severe, its really important to try to bring it under control quickly, says Dr. Saag.
Even though gout is caused by uric acid buildup, now is not the time to start a drug thats specifically designed to lower uric acid levels.
Instead, your doctor will likely prescribe a higher dose of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug , such as naproxen, or a steroid medication like prednisone. Your doctor might also inject a steroid directly into the affected joint, or, if the pain is bad enough, start you on an intravenous version of it, says Dr. Saag.
Colchicin is another medication that is sometimes used to manage gout flares. This drug is not a traditional pain reliever, since it doesnt seem to relieve pain caused by other conditions. According to a Cochrane Review, about 40 out of 100 people who use colchine during a gout attack rated their pain 50 percent lower than those who took a placebo, but theres also a high risk of side effects like vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea, especially when taken at high doses.
If youve had gout flares before and are now seeing a new provider or are being treated in the emergency room, be sure to tell the doctor about the treatments youve previously tried during an acute episode and how well they worked for you.
What Are The Risks Of Cryotherapy In Cranberry
- Cryotherapy in Cranberry is often a safe and great alternative to invasive surgery. In most cases, there are less risks or complications following cryosurgery than open surgery. However, there is the risk of mild infection , scarring , and in very rare cases, mild sensory damage to the foot at the site of the neuroma. For any concerns, please contact our office at to speak with any of our medically trained staff!
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Supportive Evidence On Pain Reduction And Adverse Effects
Chronic pain is a multidimensional experience, and it is important to focus not only on pain measurements, but also on range of motion and function in order to determine cryotherapys overall impact on chronic pain . Chronic pain can limit range of motion and decrease function of the affected area by increasing pain with movement . For this reason, the outcomes in this review will primarily focus on pain measurements, such as the Visual Analogue Scale for pain , with supplementary evidence including range of motion and disease activity, such as Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index and Disease Activity Score 28 among a few others. For example, the BASDAI has six questions for patients with AS regarding fatigue, spinal and peripheral joint pain, peripheral swelling, tenderness, and morning stiffness and the DAS28 includes parameters such as swollen and tender joint count, global visual analogue scale measuring overall patient health, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate . With these disease activity scores, a more generalized conclusion can be made as chronic pain can affect almost every aspect of a patients life.
Fig. 1
The End Of Gout Quick Start Plan
Shelly Mannings The End of Gout is not only a fascinating read its also refreshingly practical.
Shelly gives you two simple quick-starts:
Eat more of these
Eat fewer of these
This simple adjustment can correct years of gout-causing errors in your eating. And you can start on this straight away within minutes of receiving the program.
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Gout Has Dangerous Risk Factors
Things get a tiny bit worse.
During that first visit my doctor told me two other things. And I didnt like either of them.
First, he pointed out that each gout attack makes another attack more likely. Once youve had a few attacks thats about it get ready for gout as a regular thing.
Some people that have had attacks of gout over a longer period can end up developing a more chronic, or persistent, form of gout.
Its called chronic tophaceous gout and the pain and loss of mobility is life-altering and disabling.
Then he told me this.
Gout is a risk factor for other conditions some of them even more serious than the gout itself.
In other words, because I had gout it was more likely that Id get at least one of those other conditions.
And those other conditions included heart disease particularly heart failure and strokes.
He added that gout was also a risk factor for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, stress and a number of unpleasant other conditions.
And there isnt a limit on which of those afflictions I could find myself suffering from.
It might be that, in time, I contracted just one of them.
But it could be two of them. Or three.
The possibility of my gout being a risk factor for me suffering those all at once did shock me quite a bit.
I felt like I was just waiting for something else to go badly wrong with my health.
Thousands Of People Are Now Gout
No meds, doctors or procedures three years of pain gone in weeks
I used to have gout.
The attacks came just about every month and they were simply awful.
Now, I havent had an attack for more than 2 years. I dont think Ill ever have another one ever again.
At their worst those attacks were disabling. I couldnt move, I couldnt go to work.
I was literally unable to get up because even the slightest movement of the affected area was beyond unbearable.
I couldnt sleep properly with bedclothes which, in cooler weather, meant turning the heating up in the house.
Not comfortable for my wife, not good for our energy bills.
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Gout Causes & Treatment
Gout is a unique type of arthritis that is caused by needle-like crystals forming in your joints. We say unique because its disease process is very different from the wear-and-tear osteoarthritis, or any auto-immune arthritis types like rheumatoid arthritis where the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks its own joints.
Gout occurs when a high concentration of a substance called urate, or uric acid, accumulates in our blood and crystallises in the joints. Uric acid is a natural waste product in our body, but if our body cant clear it from our bodies fast enough or if were creating more uric acid than normal due to factors like our diet then the concentration in our body can spike.
If the crystals develop in the joints most often the joints in the feet and most commonly the big toe joint this is known as a gout flare and brings with it severe pain and swelling.
Does Whole Body Cryotherapy Actually Work
Good question! One website offering WBC services recommended that customers perform their own search of the medical literature. That doesnt exactly inspire confidence. Another provided links to dozens of studies that varied so much it was hard to know what to make of them. For example, the temperatures of the cold chambers varied, as did the duration and number of treatments across studies. Some assessed elite athletes or active adults who were generally young and fit, but still others enrolled people with chronic illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. And then theres the question of how to define success. Each study had its own way of assessing the response to treatment.
A recent review of the evidence found that WBC
- may lower skin or muscle temperatures to a similar degree as other forms of cryotherapy
- may reduce soreness in the short term and accelerate the perception of recovery after certain activities, though this did not consistently lead to improved function or performance
- could be helpful for adhesive capsulitis , a condition marked by severe loss of shoulder motion that may complicate certain injuries there are no long-term studies of WBC for this problem
- did not alter the amount of muscle damage after intense exercise.
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Discretionary Items And Supplements
Alcohol
The effect of ethanol on uric acid metabolism was reviewed in detail by Yamamoto et al.
Ethanol increases uric acid production resulting from acetate metabolism and enhanced adenosine nucleotide turnover,, and increases lactic acid level in blood, leading to increased serum uric acid in serum . Purines contained in beer also contribute to an increase in plasma uric acid.
Mechanism of Increased Uric Acid by Alcoholic Beverage Consumption.
Ethanol increases uric acid production resulting from acetate metabolism and enhanced adenosine nucleotide turnover,, and increases lactic acid level in blood, leading to increased uric acid in serum.
The effects of ethanol on serum uric acid and gout risk differ depending on the type of alcoholic beverage. In the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey , the relationships of beer, liquor, and wine consumption with serum uric acid level were studied using data obtained from 14809 participants , which showed that the levels of uric acid in serum increased with increasing beer or liquor intake, but not with increasing wine intake, suggesting that the effects of individual alcoholic beverages on uric acid vary according to type of alcoholic beverage. However, all alcohol beverages, even wine, are associated with increased risk of recurrent gout attacks. Therefore, gout patients should limit alcohol intake of all types to reduce the risk of a recurrent attacks.
Coffee
Vitamin C
The Hidden Dangers And Facts Of Cryotherapy: How To Remain Safe And Reap The Health Benefits Too
Cryotherapy has been used for centuries and is growing in popularity. Over the last several years, numerous cryotherapy spas have opened in the United States and, as of 2017, there were some 400 such spas operating cryochambers in 38 states.
Cryotherapy spas have come under scrutiny after a 2015 incident in which an employee, working at a cryotherapy spa in Las Vegas, was found dead after using a cryochamber unsupervised.
Learn more about cryotherapy, the reported health benefits, and the possible safety risks.
The Health Benefits of Cryotherapy
Advocates claim that there are many benefits of cryotherapy and that the treatment is highly safe when it is properly performed. The type of whole body cryotherapy in use at cryohealth centers today was developed in 1978 as a rheumatoid arthritis treatment. While this treatment is often covered by health insurance in other nations, the U.S.healthcare industry does not recognize cryotherapy for insurance purposes or much regulate the field.
Unlike immersion in an ice bath, the chill of cryotherapy is dry so it does not feel uncomfortable, like submersion in an ice bath would. Exposure to chilled air can treat sports injuries, muscle soreness, joint pain, pain and inflammation associated with health conditions like arthritis or fibromyalgia, and immune function. Some even claim that cryotherapy can help with weight loss or delay the aging process.
Is Cryotherapy Safe?
What is an Oxygen Monitor?
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Types Of Heat Therapy For Pain Relief
There are different types of heat therapy that can be done at home and which can be useful for reducing gout pain:
- Hot bath: A hot bath or emersion of the affected body part in hot water can help in improving the blood circulation.
- Hot water bottle: Bottles made of PVC/rubber are filled up with hot water and are used to provide hot compression to the affected areas.
- Heat wraps and patches: Wraps and patches that provide constant warmth can be worn or placed over the affected area.
- Heated gel packs: Packs filed with hot gel can be placed over the affected areas.
- Electric heating pad: These electric pads are filled with a gel and have a battery to heat them up when you plug the pads into an electric supply. Just like hot water bottles, these electric heating pads can be placed on the affected area to give hot compression.