Learn About Allopurinol
Allopurinol is a common prescription. It's going to lower the uric acid levels in your body, ladies. Most of the time, you will take it by mouth. That said, injections are out there for it too! When you get the tablets, there are a few doses available. They're in 100, 300, and 500 milligrams! When you have gout, you will take it at 100 milligrams each day to start. Maintenance doses are 200 to 300 milligrams! When you're getting chemo, though, expect an IV dose. This is likely between 200 to 400 milligrams, but can go up to a max of 600 milligrams every day.
It's clear: this is a common gout medicine! Ladies, many of you are going to get immediate gout pain relief from it. You will have alternatives to allopurinol for gout also, especially with gout inflammation medicine. However, this medication does more. It's a strong kidney stone treatment and helps chemotherapy treatment too. Ladies, you will also be able to be less reliant on it when you embrace natural remedies for kidney stones and gout pain as well. That said, you will benefit from understanding precisely how it works first!
How It Works
Ladies, allopurinol's a good XO inhibitor. This is a medication that's going to block xanthine oxidase in your body! This medication even works to lower how much uric acid you have. That acid comes from metabolizing purines! This medication helps stop your body from synthesizing more purines. It's because this medicine is similar to natural purine. The difference is in its function!
Expect to absorb this medication 2 hours after you take the tablet. Enzymes handle this for you! They will turn it into oxypurinol. This is when your kidneys take over and excrete it for 18 to 30 hours!
Common Uses
Ladies, this medication is really helpful for gout. This medication is meant to prevent gout attacks from occurring. It's not for treating the issues you get during an attack! This isn't the only common use for it, though. Ladies, this medication treats kidney stones too! Allopurinol is even helpful when you're getting chemotherapy to handle the uric acid.
You will even see this medication used to help seizures, certain infections, and pancreatic condition pain. Doctors recommend it for preventing ulcers from coming back too. If you're getting a kidney transplant, doctors prescribe this to prevent rejection! It will even help after heart bypass surgery for many of you.
Side Effects
Of course, ladies, you have to expect some side effects. You will see things like vomiting, nausea, headaches, and diarrhea the most. Other ones that appear a lot are skin rashes, drowsiness, upset stomach, and changes to your taste! This medication also triggers some abnormal results in your liver function tests. Ladies, you will need to call your doctor right away for severe drowsiness, diarrhea, or upset stomach! Do this when they don't go away too or when you have even a mild skin rash.
There are some rare effects on this medication too. They're tingling and numbness, and even issues when you're peeing. Ladies, when it comes to peeing, the rare effects are painful peeing, not peeing as much, and blood in your pee! You need urgent help for all of these rare side effects! Serious liver problems are rare, but they happen! The signs of them, ladies, are fever and chills, stomach pain, itching, and losing weight without trying. You are likely going to lose your appetite when you have an issue with your liver too! See your doctor immediately for these signs.
Precautions
You need to take precautions with this medication. Your doctor helps make sure it's a safe choice by going over your medical history. Mention things like a history of kidney or liver disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Congestive heart failure matters quite a lot too. All of these mean allopurinol isn't safe for you to take! Your doctor also needs to know when you're getting chemo, are pregnant, or are breastfeeding. Doses or alternate medications are considered for these cases. Ladies, you have to avoid driving since this medication makes your reaction time slower.
You have to be careful of bleeding when you take this medication. It's because this medicine means you have a lower white blood cell count sometimes! Your doctor will help you handle this with regular appointments and blood tests. The good news, you can drink water to lower your risk of this medication causing kidney stones. Aim for 64 to 80 ounces overall each day. You even have the choice to take it with or without food much of the time!
Medication Interactions
It's time to list all of the medications you take. Make sure you have prescriptions, OTC drugs, and supplements on this list. Ladies, your list is going to help your doctor avoid more than 50 medication interactions with allopurinol. There are about 16 major interactions here.
This medication interacts with antibiotics, like amoxicillin. Interactions happen with blood thinners, chemo drugs, diuretics, and immunosuppressants too! Talk about all of these with your doctor first. You will need a dose adjustment, at least. Switching to other meds is also an option! You need caution when you take other medications for gout too, so talk with your doctor.