Gout and pseudogout: The following video by Joshua Hedrick, MD of the Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital, gives a very good explanation of the difference between gout and pseudogout.
Gout and Pseudogout
For me, the key issue here is to get a proper professional diagnosis in order to determine whether what you have is gout or pseudogout.
This is very important because, apart from the use of NSAIDs to reduce inflammation, the treatment for each condition is markedly different…
With gout, both drug-based treatment and natural remedies aim to reduce uric acid levels in the blood to help prevent further urate crystal formation. And the existing uric acid crystals causing a gout attack can be dissolved and expelled from the body using either drugs or natural remedies.
With pseudogout however, treatment is essentially about relieving inflammation and pain and the ongoing management of such. The calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystals cannot be expelled naturally. If they continue to be a problem they can be removed along with fluid from the affected joint using a syringe.
