"At that time, I was wondering if I could cut off my feet." Unlike common foot pain, the pain of acute gouty arthritis often lasts for several hours or even a day. After rest, the pain will gradually ease and return to normal in about seven days, which is what we call "gout interval"; But after a while, maybe the pain will appear again.
Some gout patients will "learn from a painful experience" and think that acute gouty arthritis needs rapid anti-inflammatory and analgesia, just as Lao Liu said. Experienced gout patients will prepare non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as colchicine or ibuprofen, etoricoxib, voltarin and diclofenac sodium, and the inflammation will be eliminated quickly after timely use; Some gout patients may be blind, such as soaking their feet with pepper or putting pepper in their mouth to "relieve pain".
Regarding the "wonderful use" of pepper in life, I believe everyone has their own understanding; Liu has heard a lot about it, not only patients soak their feet with pepper when gout attacks, but also those who can relieve inflammation and pain; Some patients use peppers when lowering uric acid, or simply don't eat peppers when eating taboos. We know that pepper, pepper and pepper are collectively called "three peppers". Traditionally, this "three peppers" is a spicy food condiment. Is it impossible for gout patients to use it? Or can they all be used or used medicinally? Today we will talk about it one by one.
As for pepper, some people think it is a panacea, claiming that pepper has many medicinal values: for example, it can prolong life and prevent cancer, heart disease and diabetes; Can promote fat burning, and is a diet food; Can reduce hypertension and cholesterol; Can promote cell regeneration and relieve gastrointestinal dysfunction; Can resist bacteria, diminish inflammation and maintain skin vitality; It can relieve sinus congestion and fight migraine. Even without these functions, people will say that peppers can make people feel happy and take the initiative to attack-do you think Sichuanese, Hunan people, Yunnan people and Guizhou people who like peppers are afraid to fight?
So is Chili really that magical? In fact, none of the above statements has been confirmed. For food health therapy, both at home and abroad, there are ancient and modern; People believe in the "magical function" of food, mainly because ordinary people's family life is not rich. Any food that sounds "medicine and food are homologous", especially the food that is easy to get, can be recognized by people, and it is probably only the patient's psychology that can really work on the disease. Studies have shown that eating peppers will not bring any special nutritional value to the human body; There is no evidence that people who eat Chili live longer than those who eat a light diet.
However, for people who are not spicy and unhappy, pepper is as indispensable as salt. For example, gouty patients in Sichuan and Hunan contacted by old Liu Can can't eat without peppers. Sometimes I would suggest that when gout is acute, the joints tend to be red, swollen, hot and painful. At this time, eating peppers, especially spicy peppers such as millet and yellow lantern pepper, may lead to increased inflammatory reaction. This point is pointed out by many Chinese medicine practitioners in the diet treatment of gouty arthritis: "Avoid irritating foods such as pepper, ginger and mustard".
Dr. Liu wants to tell you here: for gout patients, daily intake of pepper itself can not have a significant impact on uric acid metabolism and urate deposition; On the other hand, the intake of capsaicin in pepper can not reach the interval level of supplementary nutrition and drug treatment.
So, is it excusable for gout patients to eat Chili? Lao Liu has always said: everything is too late. For food, whether it is low-purine food or pepper, eating too much is always not a good thing; If you like Chili, you should eat it in moderation. As for Sichuan people's favorite Chili sauce, bean paste, Chili oil, etc., my suggestion is to eat less or try not to eat: these condiments are high in salt or fat, and excessive intake of sodium or fat will hinder the excretion of uric acid in the body, leading to the accumulation of uric acid in the body, and may also induce acute gout attacks.
No, Sichuanese around us don't like Chili. A friend from Hunan came to treat him to an authentic Sichuan meal the other day. He asked him how he felt. He said: "I just feel the smell of hemp, but I don't feel spicy." To what extent do Sichuanese like peppers? Even if the hot pot is a "Yuanyang pot", there are a few peppers floating in the clear soup; Pepper will also be put in the fried vegetables. Asked the reason, the answer is: Zanthoxylum bungeanum is fragrant, which can stimulate appetite and increase fragrance, and remove fishy smell.
Different from pepper, pepper is really a traditional Chinese medicine. Its main functions are: pungent dryness, entering spleen, stomach and kidney meridians, low toxicity and strong medicinal properties. Good at warming middle cold, dispelling cold and relieving pain, drying dampness, and treating abdominal pain and vomiting caused by middle cold; It can kill insects and treat abdominal pain, eczema and itching. In other words, pepper has the functions of warming the middle warmer, dispelling cold, eliminating dampness and relieving pain. Does that sound familiar? Yes, the symptoms of rheumatic immune diseases are mainly wind-cold, damp-heat, qi deficiency, invasion of pathogenic factors and phlegm and blood stasis. So can Zanthoxylum bungeanum treat gout, an arthritis that belongs to rheumatic immune disease?
Some people say: "The treatment of gout is to reduce urate deposition and avoid urate crystallization to form tophi. Feet are easy to form tophi, so soaking feet with pepper can stimulate feet and promote blood circulation of feet, thus alleviating pain symptoms. " Some people will soak their feet with similar Jiang Shui, thinking that it can also remove moisture. However, during the clinical diagnosis and treatment, Dr. Liu found that if you soak your feet with pepper in the acute stage of gout, it is likely to aggravate the severity of the pain, and even lead to swelling and skin ulceration of the affected joints. Why is this?
Because the acute attack of gout is due to the immune response of white blood cells and neutrophils in the body caused by urate crystallization, which leads to inflammation. In the acute phase, it should be to reduce the inflammatory response. At this time, soaking feet with irritating pepper will aggravate local inflammatory reaction: because of the stimulation of pepper, blood vessels will dilate, blood vessel permeability will increase or cell exudation will increase, and the temperature of local skin of joints will further increase; As a result, the swelling of the affected joints will be more serious, and the recovery of redness, swelling and heat pain will be slower. Like hot pepper soaking feet, acute gout is not suitable for hot compress.
So can you soak your feet with pepper during gout remission? Dr. Liu thinks it may be beneficial, but it is not very beneficial. If you really want to soak your feet with pepper, my suggestion is to protect the parts where acute gout has occurred and control the water temperature below 37℃ as far as possible when soaking your feet. However, Artemisia argyi, Lycopodium, Radix Clematidis, Ramulus Cinnamomi, Radix Saposhnikoviae, Glycyrrhrizae Radix, Cortex Phellodendri, Ramulus Uncariae cum Uncis, Radix Angelicae Sinensis, Radix Angelicae Dahuricae, Radix Aconiti Lateralis, Radix Puerariae, etc. There is a certain basis for treating gout with Chinese medicine, and foot bathing can be used appropriately under the guidance of Chinese medicine.
Pepper is an interesting plant. Fresh peppers are yellow-red and turn into black pepper after drying. It becomes white pepper after peeling. Pepper is also an indispensable condiment in life. Compendium of Materia Medica holds that the medicinal function of pepper is: "pungent, warm and non-toxic. Indications: expectoration when the temperature is low, except for stroke and visceral cold. " In foreign countries, 400 years ago, people thought that the function of pepper on health was to moisten the lungs, relieve fever and relieve various pains.
But at present, the research on pepper is mainly used as "anti-inflammatory bactericide, anticancer agent, preservative, insecticide, antioxidant, analgesic and treatment of abnormal skin pigment". The main feature of pepper is that it can be used as a promoter of drugs, that is to say, piperine in pepper can inhibit the activity of some enzymes in liver and intestine, increase the dosage of drugs in blood, prolong the time of drugs staying in the body and improve the bioavailability of drugs.
But can pepper reduce uric acid? Some people say that piperine in pepper can enhance the activity of curcumin, a natural curcumin product, so mixing pepper with turmeric can reduce uric acid. But at present, the function of curcumin in reducing uric acid has indeed been studied by scientists, and curcumin itself is not easily absorbed by the human body. In other words, pepper itself does not reduce uric acid.
So, can pepper inhibit inflammation and be used for gout treatment? At present, there are not only piperine used for inflammation, but also more than 800 compounds that can inhibit inflammatory factors and immune processes, and whether pepper can relieve the pain of acute gout is still unknown.
Dr. Liu is here to tell you that soaking feet with pepper can't relieve pain, and pepper itself can't reduce uric acid. Gout patients can eat Chili. However, this does not mean that Chinese medicine has no effect on the treatment of gout, because there are a lot of experiences in treating gout since ancient times, and appropriate Chinese medicine treatment programs can also relieve the pain of gouty arthritis and reduce uric acid; However, Chinese medicine treatment should also pay attention to syndrome differentiation and treatment. Patients should not blindly seek medical treatment, especially should not blindly use "folk remedies" to avoid serious consequences.