What Is Allopurinol?

Allopurinol seems to be a strong medication. It may help lower uric acid in an individual's body. Patients may be able to take it orally, though injections also appear to be available. There seem to be several oral doses out there, including one, three, and five hundred milligrams. One hundred milligrams seems to be the starting dose for most gout patients. Maintenance doses for this may be two to three hundred daily milligrams for mild cases. Intravenous doses appear to be common for chemotherapy patients. They may receive a typical dose of two to four hundred milligrams. However, the maximum each day seems to be six hundred milligrams.

This appears to be a common gout medicine. Certain individuals may experience immediate gout pain relief when they take it. However, there also seems to be other gout inflammation medicines out there. This may offer patients an alternative to allopurinol for gout. Some individuals may take it as a kidney stone treatment. It seems to help in chemotherapy treatment too. Natural remedies for gout pain may help patients reduce how much they rely on this medication. Ultimately, individuals should consider getting a full understanding of this medication first.

How It Should Work

Allopurinol seems to be a xanthine oxidase inhibitor. This type of medication may be able to block the effect of an enzyme called xanthine oxidase. This appears to lower how much uric acid is in the patient's body. This acid may be the result of purine metabolism.

This medication may also act quite similarly to a natural purine. This purine appears to be called hypoxanthine. It may stop the synthesis of purines. When patients consume this medication, their body seems to metabolize it in two hours. After this point, their kidneys should excrete the result for about eighteen to thirty hours. This result appears to be oxypurinol.

Learn about the potential uses for this medication next.