Let’s be honest here; living with poorly controlled gout is miserable. With The Gout & Pseudogout Handbook you can get it under control.
The pain of a flare-up is exquisite, and between attacks, there can be constant joint pains. Even if you have relatively few attacks, if your gout is not well controlled, crystals are forming in your joints, kidneys, skin and other tissues, storing up problems for the future. Worse still, if your gout is poorly controlled, you have a 24% higher risk of dying. Your life is at stake. You need to do something about it now.
Gout has been described at the worst treated chronic disease
The diagnosis of gout or pseudogout is not always straightforward and is often made incorrectly – many other conditions give similar symptoms. You need ensure your diagnosis of gout or pseudogout is correct. In one study, half of all people being treated for gout didn’t have it.
Many treatment choices are available, each with pros and cons. Ensuring that treatment is working and not causing harm requires regular monitoring. Inadequate treatment means needless gout attacks, complications such as kidney stones and joint damage, and even the risk of premature death. Yet the vast majority of people with gout are not taking optimal treatment.
Information about the foods you can eat, supplements and alternative medicines is confusing and contradictory. It can be hard to know what to believe.
Reliable information is hard to find
We understand the problems of being diagnosed with a serious or complicated condition. It’s hard to find trustworthy information in books or online. The time you have with your doctor is too short to get answers to all your questions.
Designed with you in mind
We designed The Gout & Pseudogout Handbook from the ground up to provide answers to the questions real people have about their gout and pseudogout. We aim to answer all your questions and provide all the information you need to have detailed discussions with your doctor about your care.
Guiding you through the medical process
As many as half the people treated for gout don’t have it. Nine out of ten people don’t have the proper test to make the diagnosis, and two-thirds of people are not adequately treated. We help ensure you are one of the few who are appropriately treated.
Practical day to day advice
Stop eating a restricted diet because you’re not sure what’s allowed and what’s not. Find all the details here. There’s also advice on things you can do for yourself during a flare-up, preventing future attacks, and guidance on when you should see your doctor.
Going beyond business as usual
For many people, their gout treatment leaves them feeling that more could be done. We look beyond conventional treatment at complementary and alternative treatments, new medicines in development, and how you can take part in clinical trials.
Manage your health together with your doctor
A personal data record section lets you record all the vital details about your healthcare team, flare-ups, and lab results and lets you plan for and then summarise consultations with your doctor. Throughout the book, we suggest questions to ask your doctor at the appropriate visit.
In The Gout & Pseudogout Handbook you will learn:
- Who gets gout and pseudogout and why
- Twelve conditions that are often confused with gout or pseudogout
- What tophi are, and how are they treated
- Why only one in ten people get correctly diagnosed with gout, and why as many as half the people being treated for gout don’t actually have it
- Complete details of the strategies and medicines doctors use to treat gout and pseudogout
- Why you can’t rely on your doctor to prescribe the best treatment for you
- Why only 1 in 5 people receive optimal treatment
- How the safety and effectiveness of your treatment should be monitored
- How you will know if your medication needs changing
- How you will know if you have kidney stones, and how to prevent and treat them
- Which foods you can eat, and which you should avoid
- If twenty-five complementary and alternative therapies actually work
- Twelve new medicines and medical advances
- How you can take part in clinical trials to get the latest medicines
- How doctors think. Understanding this helps you make more effective use of your time with them
- Online resources from around the world
For some light relief, you’ll find:
- Chapters on gout in history and in culture
- Case histories and quizzes to test your understanding
- Crossword and word search puzzles to help you remember the key concepts
Plus, in the BONUS SECTION, you’ll find a logbook with specially designed tables, charts and forms that allow you to record:
- Contact details for your healthcare team
- Attacks and flare-ups
- Medication
- Tophi
- Blood results
- Plans and outcomes for doctor/clinic visits
We understand what it’s like to live with gout
Gout and pseudogout affect so many aspects of your life. Most people simply don’t understand what you have to deal with; that’s how they can joke about it.
We understand, and we wrote this book to help you take charge of your health and live your best life.
The person who understands their disease and how it should be treated is the person who gets the best care. That’s why we wrote this book, and why you need to read it.
The Pocket Doctors
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