Meat, rich, foods and alcohol
My initial thoughts about this question of peoples attitude to goutsuffers was that I can now have lots of sex. After all if gout iscaused by MEAT, RICH, FOODS, and ALCOHOL (as per Arnold’s comments)that still leaves me with SEX. OK so meat, rich, food and alcoholhave lead me to gout after 53 years but I’ve had a bloody good 53years and now I can look forward to plenty of sex in my old age.
But is this not just denial ? The fact is that I love meat, I lovebeing rich (by any sort of world standard), I love good food and Ilove alcohol lets face it I’m addicted to effete western society !
I take point about curing uric acid at source withallopurinol primarily to get me back to meat, rich, food andalcohol - but this might be a bit of a cop out. The real point isthat “90% of people with high uric acid levels never get gout”. Welllots of people who smoke cigarettes never get heart disease YEA BUTSOME DO and so it is still worth cutting out the fags.
I remember my grandfather used to buy tins of 50 cigarettes at a timeand used to smoke about 70 a day, it never seemed to do him any harmand he died in his 80’s of something totally unrelated. Yet I can’tsay that I am unhappy that my daughters don’t smoke.
Also although I am not (very) obese (I am six foot and weigh 85kg)and I don’t have symptoms of chronic alcoholism (in that I canabstain for the last two months without any craving) but I do Imean did - drink beer regularly. The fact is that I am a typicalrich (by my parents standards) under-exercised middle-aged man who,amazingly, has never skied at all and therefore I am probably afairly typical gout sufferer.
If 90 percent of people with high uric acid levels never get goutthen 10 percent do and that 10 percent apparently includes me !Maybe I should face up to the fact that that’s just the tough shitway things work out in life.
Maybe gout sufferers like me can’t expect much sympathy andtherefore not the investment in medical research that this diseaseobviously calls for - unless we first face up to that fact the meat,rich, food, alcohol do actually play a big part in this. In factmore and more (especially as I read Walter’s post), I am beginning tosee this as a liver dysfunction (crazy enzymes) and that the kidneysand those white cells have just got a lot of bad press.
But hay, drugs weren’t on that list either ! I still get sex anddrugs that can’t be bad.
Jonas Laramore on May 2nd, 2007
I did read somewhere that regular sexual activity was somehow good forgout…at least that’s what I’m telling my wife!
So much information is out there about gout and like Arnold postedearlier, most of it is outdated thinking. I get a good chuckle when Iread lists of foods that infer you have been a fat glutenous pig andthat’s why you have gout now. Then I think of the people (like Arnold)who are physically fit (be there soon myself), well monitored, but yetstill have gout. Maybe that falls in line with another article I readabout gout being hereditary, who knows. I came to this group thinkingI had pretty much all the information I needed to know and justifiedcarrying my big bag of snake oils around all the time. Fortunately,there are people here who have been dealing with this far longer than Ihave, tried all the quick fixes, and have done much more homework.Thankfully I am open minded enough to realize I really didn’t knowsquat about this disease and threw my so called “knowledge andunderstanding” out the window and started from scratch.
Sorting through good advice and not so good advice I changed myallopurinol dosage and frequency and also started dieting andexercising(to lose weight, not restrict purines). I’m happy to reportall is going well and against all traditional gout thinking. I eat likea ravenous pig(my diet consists of high protein), exercise til I falldown, and screw like I’m 22! (when the wife allows it LOL) The bag ofsnake oils has turned into just multi-vitamins, fish oils, fiber, andmy holy grail…allopurinol. Life is good again and I fit back in withall the so called “normal” people. I am a little nervous to betaunting the Lords of Gout Pain, fearing retribution, but whatever I’mdoing seems to keep them at bay for the time being.
So to you, I raise my glass and say, “Here’s to eating meat and richfoods everyday!”
Columbus Luthe on May 3rd, 2007
Excellent post! There is a segement of society who will point their fingers at ANY malady and say “That is the hand of God smiting you for your sins!” I have a favorite finger I point back at those types. Alcohol does aggravate my gout (particularly wine and beer- they are a guarantee to gout hell). I still drink, and have found that I can tolerate clear liquors like vodka, but if I drink too much too many days in a row I WILL have a flare-up. I expect the real trigger there is dehydration. In my case, there is a strong link to heredity and gout. I have five brothers, all of whom have suffered gout attacks to varying degrees, and my nephews have them too. My dad had/ has gout, and my grandfather. My dad says he remembers as a child watching his great uncle have his knee drained due to gout (and his description of that event was lived by ME two years ago when the doctor stuck that garden-hose sized needle under my knee cap and drained it). My grandfather smoked like a chimney (cigs all day and cigars all night), started each day with big grease puddled plate of bacon sausage and eggs, ate steak every night, and loved his whiskey probably as much or more than he loved his whores. He was an educated, successful “man’s man” of his day of the Teddy Roosevelt variety. He never let a doctor tell him what to do, nor anyone else for that matter, and he lived to be almost 100. Just like his father before him. He lived his life to the fullest his own way. People who do that generally piss off people who live restrained, conservative lifestyles. Especially when the “sinner” outlives the “righteous” (hee hee). This post is merely anecdotal, musing as gout falls in the same category as many other “sinner’s diseases”.Â
Terrance Molock on May 3rd, 2007
WELll..first of all..ANYONE that hasn’t/DOESN’T ski..perhaps thisis a trigger..punishment..perhaps even just..
This whole diet/trigger thing..is simply too anecdotal..not onlyis it anecdotal..even if it is even somewhat true..we have someone ONTHE THROES of a gout attack..and they get one..so they stop doingwhat they did..and the next time they do it..they get anattack/twinges..this is OK in theory..MAYBE even in practice..BUT ifit is true..just exactly what happenshistorically???..well..historically..they avoided gout..and we DOKNOW that it ONLY comes back..and with MORE fury..and when it DOEScome back there is all this head shaking..more than likely they endup not being able to control it by ANY means and end up onallopurinol..I’dno..myself,plenty of others,experts in the field tendto take the view that triggers..so what..the level of uric acid inthe joints is too high to being with..so lower it with allopurinol.. Digging FURTHER into the trigger thing..by discussingthis/reading/researching.I have come to the conclusion that thetrigger thing is dehydration..if anything.This comes up almost EVERYTIME..water,water,hydration..this is WAY more important that thetriggers..there is the sure we ate a lot of steak..drank a lot ofbeer..BUT we were WORKING OUR BUTTS off..sweating like pigs..or theplaying sports outside in the heat..or even just the drinking/eatingmeat..further on..”No..we..um..didn’t have ANY water todrink..er..um..no fruits..ahh..no I don’t drink water”.Not of courseto say that water fixes gout..pretty common knowledge that tomaintain hydration..you have 1 drink/beer,1 coffee..you need i glassof water to maintain MAINTAIN hydration..
There are a LOT of gout sufferers like me..LITTLE of the so calledbad stuff
I guess if they EVER found something in kidney/liverfunction..then that could be looked at too..