The pain that gout causes is way ferocious. And managing the pain and the inflammation that it gives is so hard. However, there is this sense of urgency to us when we experience these symptoms. We feel the need to get rid of it and relieve the symptoms the best way we can. As what I’ve said, it is to challenging to manage the symptoms of gout. There are some gout sufferers who can manage thru mind-over-matter all alone, just relying on the aid that the uric acid lowering medications give. One of these kind of medications is the allopurinol. Most cases of gout, however, don’t have the capacity to manage the condition without others help. May it be an NSAID or the colchicine in treating the inflammation and pain that gout cause.
In this article, you will get to know about one medication that may be of a great help for gout. This is Voltarol. Will Voltarol for gout be good, or not? Let’s find out!
Voltarol…
Upon reading the name itself, isn’t it cool already? I mean the sound of it is really fascinating, right? Well, this actually portrays the image of a superhero medicine. However, is it really a superhero? Can it really do a lot of wonders? I guess, this mainly depends on how frequently you take it.
Voltarol is actually a brand name of the medication, diclofenac. This Voltarol has sodium salt on it, unlike any other diclofenac brands that contain potassium salt. There is almost no dissimilarity between the potassium salt and the sodium salt. Except that the sodium salt has much slower analgesic effect than the potassium salt.
This is why the diclofenac sodium is commonly marketed simply as diclofenac, not like its marketed counterpart, which is the diclofenac potassium. Furthermore, the sodium salt is way more tolerable for some other sufferers, while some are sensitive or allergic to the potassium ones.
Are you on doubt if taking Voltarol is really worth it? Then you must first understand what really is the mechanism of it, or the diclofenac in general.
Diclofenac: Its Mechanism
The major factor of the diclofenac in comparison to the other NSAIDs is actually the reduced damage that it causes against the lining of the stomach or the gastrointestinal tract. What the good thing is that this particular reduced damage doesn’t actually diminish the helpful effects of the Voltarol, and the diclofenac in general.
The Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs gets rid of the inflammation and pain by way of getting rid of the capability of the body to feel the symptoms.
In the actual fact, the inflammation and pain are the body’s reaction or alarm systems. Additionally, the inflammation as well as the pain happens only to say that there’s something on that particular part of the body that must not be in there. This is a part of the survival mechanism of the body. Who would like to have the feeling of pain? No one, I guess!
And to be able to activate that very mechanism, the nociceptors step in. These nociceptors will then send signals to the brain and that’s it! The pain settles in and then the gouty joints will get inflamed all at once.
Remember, the signals that are being sent by the nociceptors does not always deliver the signals. This mainly varies on the strength of the pain signal which is being transmitted. Furthermore, the nociceptors have thresholds for each of the pain signals. This means that the nociceptors may stand up to a specific signal strength. And when the pain signal finally breaks into this certain threshold, the gout attack will then begin. This is now where Voltarol comes in. If you take Voltarol for gout, you will be impairing that particular mechanism.
The Voltarol helps in disrupting the cyclooxygenase enzymes for the arachidonic acid to not get converted. Therefore, the pain threshold will not reduce and then the inflammation will stop. What’s more amazing with Voltarol is that it almost discerningly prevent the cox2 rather than inhibiting both the cox1 and cox2 cyclooxygenase enzymes. This is a good thing, since the cox1 is the sole responsible for the maintenance of the stomach lining, the diclofenac does lesser damage.
Conclusion
In relation to the other Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs, taking Voltarol for gout is actually not that bad. Aside from it is effective, it also does lesser side effects and it helps in the management of pain. However, you must remember that it just temporarily relieve the pain and the inflammation. It cannot address the root problem, which is the uric acid. So think before using it.
