Minor side effects of allop
I am now coming to six weeks on AlloP. In the last couple of weeks Ihave started to feel some relatively minor side effects that othersmight be interested to know about.
Feet feel like lead when I wake up. I started to get this feelingafter about 2 weeks. The experience is not painful - and the feelinggoes away as soon as I start to walk about. It just feels as thoughthe muscles of my feet are very tired (both feet both feeling thesame).
Pain in the muscles of my legs (both sides top front) and my buttockswhen I walk a distance (say about a mile). I started to get thisfeeling after about 4 weeks. I have an exercise routine which is todo 30 sit ups, 20 press ups and some other exercises each morning assoon as I get up and then to walk a couple of miles in a round abouttrip to my office. As far as the pain in my legs is concerned itfeels like what you hear athletes going through on a long distancerun. As soon as I stop walking the pain goes away in about 5minutes. The pain goes away if I simply remain standing withoutexercising. The pain is quite severe and I can’t walk more that mycouple of miles but, as I say, as soon as I stop the pain goes awayand I feel fine for the rest of the day.
However I was getting a bit worried when I started feeling lower backpain so I went to have a back massage. Sure enough I had one musclein spasm, which the masseuse was able to get rid off in one half hoursession.
I think that what is going on is that my body is trying to sort outmy metabolism under a new regime of lower levels of blood uric acid.I think that this is a good thing so consequently I will try toextend my walking and live with the pain a bit longer each day. AlsoI will continue to have massages when necessary. Hopefullyeventually a) I will get fit enough again and b) the pain will goaway. I should point out that since having a severe gout attack atthe start of the year I have not been doing much exercise (and Inever was a serious exercise enthusiast anyway).
Indications of near-gout. I feel that I am teetering on the edge ofgout all the time and have felt this way ever since starting my dailyregime of one 300 mg tab of AloP and 3 small tabs a day of Colchicinetaken six hour apart (when I started I was also taking one tab a dayof Diclofenac (Voltaren) but I have stopped the Diclophenac for thelast three weeks). Mostly in the evenings I feel I am teetering onthe edge of a gout attack but it never actually turns into anything(each morning I flex my feet around and give a little prayer ofthanks to the great Gout god, who as we know is a very difficult godto placate!).
This teetering on the edge thing is a real motivation to stay off thebooze but it has also given me a chance to experiment. I am tryingto see if there is something that I am specifically allergic to whichwould cause a real flare up (I appreciate that this is a clear signof Gout madness!). So far nothing dramatic but I have chickened outof the anchovies test so far. Shrimps, hot curry, fish and chips,tinned tuna, do cause classic visible signs of reddening of my bigtoe joints (interestingly both feet at once), but not pain. Meat andall other foods have no effect. Interestingly the reddening effectoccurs very quickly, before I could have properly digested the food.I call this a trigger effect and I personally do not believe that itis much to do with purines.
However, apart from stress, the one thing that I now know to be asignificant influence (though not a trigger effect as such) isalcohol any form of alcohol, beer, wine, whatever. I promised myspecialist complete abstention from alcohol for the first 8 weeks ofAlloP but, as I say, I have been experimenting. Truthfully I startedhaving a couple of pints of beer every two or three days startingabout three weeks ago. I had taken to drinking a pint of water withthe two pints of beer but I find that it doesn’t make any difference,within a couple of hours of drinking either two glasses of wine ortwo pints of beer I see some reddening of my big toe joints and feelsome twinges of pain on some parts of my feet or ankles. Now that Iknow what is going on I can “feel” that my blood uric acid has risento a dangerous level. This is a shame but there you are.
However I have found a solution literally a “solution”. I havetaken all of your advice and I am drinking lots of water. I havefound a brand of acetic acid supplement (available here in the UK atleast) called PLJ (PLJ stands for pure lemon juice). It takes a bitof getting used to but my favourite tipple now is simply water lacedwith PLJ. I haven’t found that I have a craving since having givenup regular beer drinking at the start of this year but (and thissounds sad) I do have a habit of regularly lifting a glass to mymouth and hanging round pubs with low company (OK maybe the companyonly lowers when I turn up!). But I really don’t like sweet drinkslike orange juice and nor do I like alcohol free beers. I can tellyou that PLJ and water has now rendered me sociable again, it is muchcheaper than beer and I feel a lot better for it. I wish that I hadfound this drink earlier.
[For reference: I am 53 years old, not overweight, otherwisereasonably healthy, but not a health faddist, regular beer drinker,genetic predisposition to gout throughout the family. I experiencedvery major gout attack at the beginning of this year after five yearsof minor attacks that went largely untreated].
Shira Colon on July 23rd, 2007
Although I have no significant advice or help for your situation (justan average Joe hehe) I wanted to ask you why you are taking so muchcolchicine? Are you not running to the bathroom constantly other thento pee? I wont bring up the stomach cramps but I’m sure you know whatI mean if you have taken colchicine before. Anyway, what I wasgetting to is that your body maybe getting drained of vital nutrientsbecause they might be going in one end and right out the other. Just athought. I don’t know what your diet consist of, as far as making sureyou get enough potassium etc for those muscle cramps/spasms. I don’tknow if this even is related in anyway to what you are going thru butI’m sure we will get some feedback/insight from our resident expertsArnold and Walter.
Possibly another way to conduct a test on yourself would be to loweryour dosage of allopurinol to 200mg(if they make that strength, onlyseen it in 100 & 300) or 100mg for a while to build up to the 300mg.
Not to bore you with my all too common story but when I was firstdiagnosed with gout or should say first started takingallopurinol(different time frames) I started with 100mg, just didn’ttake it regularly so I had somewhat of a buildup phase. Since I’vebeen on the 300mg daily, bout 8 months now if I’m guessing right, Ihave not taken any colchicine or anything else related for that matter.
Sabina Shamel on July 24th, 2007
If you are on allopurinol you should take culcchine and nsaid’s if,and only if, you are in the middle of a gout attack. If your gout hassubsided, even if it is still twinging but clearly going away, stopthe culcchine.
Absolutely stop taking it.
The culcchine should only be used as a last resort when the NSAID youtake has failed to stem the tide of a gout attack and the pain isincreasing.
I repeat, do not take any culcchine at all, ever, unless you areunder attack from gout.
It should not be used as a daily dose to keep the gout monster away.That is stupid medical practice and I will challenge any physician,anywhere, who says different. In my opinion, there is sufficientinformation available from the long term deliterious effects ofculcchine, taken every day, to allow for legal action for those whostill perscribe it as a daily suppliment rather than perscribingallopurinol. In my opinion it amounts to malpractice.
Culcchine is a very dangerous drug. Just because you do not sufferfrom the usual problems that people usually have with culcchine doesnot, in any way, suggest that you are not being dammaged just as muchas anyone else. In fact, if you do not react to it I would think thatit is more dangerous to you because your body does not know that itneeds to react to the poison.
If you happen to be someone who cannot take allopurinol and you haveto rely on culcchine then by all means you have to do what you haveto do but for those on allopurinol, culcchine should only be used ifyou are under attack from gout.
Do you knoe what the main use of culcchine is?
It is used to induce mutations in biology and botany labs.It makes mutations happen. It is one of the most effective mutagensknown and it is dangerous to take too much of it. I don’t want toscare you off but at the same time understand what it is need forwith gout. It is there for you to stop gout from progressing but itis not something to take every day when you are not having a goutattack.
Columbus Luthe on July 24th, 2007
I had similar problems, though the leg pain was accompanied by extreme fatigue. I was on three colchicine per day as well, and it caused me to become quite anemic. It was probably a combination of cutting the foods from my diet that were richest in iron (because they happened to be gout triggers) and the actions of the colchicine (most notably chronic diarrhea). I started taking an iron supplement, and in a few days I was fine.
Shira Colon on July 25th, 2007
hat is very interesting. I felt sure that I could not have been the only one.  I might try cutting down on this Colchicine now since I have rather come to the end of my experimentation.
Terrance Molock on July 26th, 2007
The fatigue..i/e muscle weakness/pain? issue is a HIGHLY complexone. Uric acid is good!..AND the bodies regulatory mechanism keeps itin check..and it’s balance.Between the amount produced during cellbreakdown/the amount produced during food metabolisation..THEN theamount regulated for disposal.PROBLEM for gout sufferers is the bodyin gout sufferers allows too much into the joint area..this is simplyunknown how/why.Uric acid is a scavenger..traveling in the clear(plasma) part of the blood..picking up waste,free radicals otherstuff for disposal.Even at the VERY last stage of disposal the bodysays HEY! wait a minute..don’t throw that out..and some uric acid isreclaimed..no known explanation for this.
The general cause of muscle soreness,exhaustion is the lactic acidbuild up..and the bodies inability to deal with it fast enough.
The body ALWAYS deals with lactic acid FIRST!..THEN uricacid..again this is unknown why.
I think that the allopurinol affecting the bodies own productionof uric acid..yes..really throws things out of wack for a while..
Whether at the time there is insufficient uric acid for cleanup..OR that the extra uric acid is somehow needed? to help clear outthe lactic acid..I do not know.