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This is a common type of inflammatory arthritis. It usually has a sudden onset with severe pain, swelling and red hot appearance of the affected joints. Men are more affected than women. The disease usually manifests at the base of the big toe at the foot and recurrent attacks are very common. When the condition become chronic, pain may felt in other joints also during the acute attack. This condition and pain is due to the urate crystal deposits in the joints.

The reason is excess uric acid in the blood. Consumption of food rich in purine like red meat, organ meat, nuts, shell fish, alcohol etc., leads to accumulation of extra uric acid in the blood during purine metabolism. This excess uric acid forms urate crystals and gets deposited in the joints leading to gout attack. If untreated may lead to frequent flares with multiple joint involvement and joint erosion. It may also lead to complication like kidney stone.

Ayurveda consider this as a type of vataraktha (Pitha pradhana). Acute stage is managed usually with medicated paste application (lepa), pouring of lukewarm herbal decoction (dhara) and purgation (virechana). Appropriate internal medicines are also given to reduce the inflammation. Drinking of water boiled with herbs with diuretic property will flush out the excess uric acid from the body. Chronic cases are treated with internal medications and external therapies flush the extra uric acid from the body and will also help correct the purine metabolism. So the treatments will prevent relapses and complications like formation of kidney stones.