Truly, it is not difficult for the pain caused by gout to lead an individual to despair. Imagine the pain. Something within your joint hurts, but you can not just cut your knee open and grab whatever is causing the pain, because it will lead to more pain. Because of this gout sufferers seek help jumping from one doctor to another, then to a homeopath, then to Google and find an alternative treatment for gout, and sometimes, they end up improvising by taking multiple medications.
This article will answer the question “Can I take Colchicine and Ibuprofen Together?”
Colchicine and Ibuprofen
Two of the most common medications being taken in order to reduce the pain and inflammation caused by gout are ibuprofen and colchicine. However, the sad thing is that both of these medications are not really designed to get rid of the condition once and for all. In fact, you may take them every time you experience gout attack and then repeat the whole process during the course of your lifetime, but it’ll not remove gout itself. They’re actually both momentary masks that are designed to just hide the pain.
There can be some who may be tempted to take both colchicine and ibuprofen at the same time to reduce the inflammation of gout. Even though this can be ok, the pain relief may not hoard, in a sense that the relief of taking ibuprofen alone is similar to the relief of taking both colchicine and ibuprofen. Then again, the side effects may pile, hence taking both of them can be more dangerous than taking only one. The side effects will certainly occur, this is because the pain relieving capacities of these medications mainly rely on its side effects
Colchicine May Cause Impotency
The statement above can be a bit of a shock. But yes, this is true by all means –colchicine has the capacity of causing impotency. This particular side effect of the medication comes together with some other side effects. But how does this really happen?
The colchicine, as a mitotic inhibitor, has the capacity of disabling the process of mitosis or cell division, the reproduction of the cells. This will leave the body with much fewer neutrophils, therefore, there will be a lesser force to combat the foreign substances. As only a few neutrophils will be there to fight the uric acid crystal in the joint, there will also be only a few pain signals that’ll be sent if they fail in destroying the crystal. In addition, the colchicine mutilates the cytoskeleton, thus leaving the neutrophils incapacitated and incapable of fighting back, hence leaving much fewer neutrophils to release the pain signals.
The downside is, colchicine is not selective, thus destroying the mitosis process all throughout your body thus causing hair loss, low blood counts, impotency, immune suppression and many other severe side effects.
Ibuprofen May Cause Peptic Ulcer
Ibuprofen is an NSAID, a drug that overwhelms the prostaglandin production through the inhibition of cyclooxygenase enzymes. The prostaglandins are the ones that are responsible for sending the signals, which cause pain and inflammation. Therefore, with no prostaglandins, there will be lesser pain and inflammation.
The disadvantage is that the body will be left with no defense against the invaders like viruses and bacteria. It’s the pain signal that may summon the neutrophils to fight the invaders, so without the pain signals, the neutrophils will be much useless. Moreover, the prostaglandins sustain the stomach’s mucus lining. Thus, if they’re absent, the peptic ulcer and even the gastrointestinal bleeding may take place.
Conclusion
Basing on their own mechanism of action, taking both of them may just cause more and more harm than benefit. What’s the use of damaging the cytoskeleton, if they cannot attack really? Henceforth, it is not recommendable to take them both at the same time. If you aver, it’s better to take some other NSADs, which may damage the cytoskeleton as it inhibits the pain signals, at the expense of more and more side effects.
Always bear in mind that all of these medications aren’t designed to treat gout, yet, they are simply designed to mask the pain that comes with gout. If you really want to treat gout, get rid of the uric acid first.
