Gout Diet Blog

How high in purines are potatoes?

I think I have found a small glass-like crystal between a joint inthe article in New England Journal of Medicine.

Under the heading “Results” it states that

“Only 11 percent had undergone arthrocentisis, and of these, 65percent reported having urate crystals in their joint fluid.”

Well that’s not good enough

In Brian Emerson’s book <> it states on page 15

“Because the human body is so complex, nothing in medicineapplies invariably. However, one can work on the basis that crystalsare ALWAYS present in the joint fluid in an acute attack of gout andthat, provided an adequate sample can be obtained, urate crystalsshould be detectable in the joint fluid!

Well in my opinion club rules are club rules. I don’t care how muchpain you have, no crystals no gout - so hop it !

Professor Emerson also states (same page) that

“Ninety-five percent of people who suffer from acute gouthave high urate concentrations in the blood serum for many yearsprior to the first acute attack.”

I note that the New England JofM article found that of the new goutcases 72 percent reported hyperuricemia [high urate concentrations inthe serum].

My take on this is that crystals and hyperuricemia are not asabsolute as factors as they had appeared to be, although they areobviously still the most important ones.

Walter’s information about the build up of uric acid in the fattytissue for [presumably as long as] 10 to 15 years before an attack,makes lots of sense to me. For most of us getting the secretionlevel right in the kidneys and getting the uric acid out of thesystem, over time, must be the answer.

But all of this seems to me to point to (at least) two controlmechanisms at work, hyperuricemia and an unknown factor (or maybemore than one). The unknown factor can cause acute gout even inpatients with low hyperuricemia and even with no crystal formationbut it is rare. Without the unknown factor patients can havehyperuricemia and crystals and yet no gout.

This is a typical problem in engineering it’s the over temperatureswitch AND the lubrication but everyone hayes that, they alwayswant a nice simple solution.

That is probably all that is confusing us in the technology led lobbyin this debate.

But the fact that just because the influence of my theoreticalunknown factor is rare does NOT mean it should be ignored. Raremeans that it is there. And I wonder if it is not related toDIGESTION (and stress) rather than to DIET as such.

I’ve been reading about a number of studies being done on the positiveeffects of Omega-3 (fish oil) in treating gout. Apparently they seemto reccomend 3000mg/day. Does anyone have any feedback and or tried this?

On one of my lists it says lunchon meat, does this mean all delimeats and cold cuts or just things like bologna and peperoni,(liverwurst, I know is a do not eat)? Is there a type of vegetablethat is good, I know asparagus artichokes and beans (legumes) are notgood for me, are string beans in that class?

We visited out Dr and he would not put my husband on alpunirol. Hegave him some pain meds to take if a flare up happend and said don’ttake asprin. The very day we came home from the Dr we received ourfirst shipment of Cherry Rx that we ordered from cherrycure.com Hewas still having trouble with his great toe…swollen, purple,painful! This was two weeks ago Thursday. Prior to this, he wouldstart feeling brave enough to have a beer and by the next day or twothe “twinge” and swelling would return. He began taking the juicetwice a day and within a week was walking like a normal person(haven’t seen that in a while) He is now back to his normal beerroutine, eating peanuts (they always set him off) and has no pain. Iknow some of you are going to dispute that something can work as wellas a natural product can, but we are keeping out fingers crossed thatby using this on a daily basis can keep him pain free. I spoke to acouple that purchased this product in July and he has been pain freesince. He has had gout since his 20’s and is now 36.(ok attack away!)

Concerning “soup diet”.

My recollection is that bouillon should be avoided ifyou are a gout sufferer.

I know water is the best thing to drink. But what else is good orbad. I drink alot of Gaterade or Pepsi. I was told the Gaterade wasbad because of all the minerals in the drink. I drink the gateradeto get away from the pepsi. Anyone know the good or the bad thingsto drink, or where I can find a good list of common foods.

I have found a miracle solution for my gout which has gotten worse, with morefrequentand incredibly painful bouts. It even moved from my feet to my elbow recently.

I’ve had all the drugs from my doctor, and I’ve eaten cherries until I couldn’tstand another.None of it worked.

My wife brought home a flat of strawberries from the school where she teaches,and theysat in the fridge for a couple of days. Everytime I’d open it, they’d be sittingthere, going towaste. I had read somewhere that strawberries might actually exacerbate thecondition, soI was reluctant. But I was in real pain, so I tried it. As God is my whitness, Iate a half of abox of fresh strawberries and two hours later I was a new man. After takingAlipurnol,colchicine, and vicadin when it got really bad, strawberries have proven to bethe goutkiller. It doesn’t just give me relief, it I feel like I barely have gout now. Ieat a handfullevery other day, and have smoothies, and I haven’t had a bout or even a threatof one inthree months. This week I decided to really test it. We had a party and therewere friendsfrom Puerto Rico here. The last time they were here they brought a bottle offine rum. Ibroke it out and we had a fun time. I also ate chocolate, ice cream, red meat,and drank 3beers, all within 2 hours. This cocktail combination would have proved deadlybefore Idiscoverd strawberries to be my saving grace. But the only thing I was feelingwas hungover!

If you are suffering from gout, try strawberries. Eat a whole box, every day fora week. Youcan scale back as I did. The anti-oxidents in strawberries seem to have given mea psudocure, not just immediate relief!. I am a new man. More invigorated. My head ismore clear.I have much more energy.

The only thing I’ve done is I’ve gotten off the pills and am eating lots ofstrawberries. I’vealso not had coffee for two months. But I’d been wanting to give that up for along time I want to know if it’s just working for me, or forothers too.

Has anyone ever heard of vitamin supplements triggeringan attack?

I’ve been taking a lot of care not to eat any trigger foodsrecently (I’m also drinking lots of water and religiouslysticking to my allopurinol scrip). The only dietary changehas been an increase in vitamins to supplement the lackof protein and trace minerals, etc. that many of theaforementioned trigger foods provided me in the past.

Sure enough, the ankle blew up like a weather balloontoday, and I’m hobbled like a one-legged mule. Can’tunderstand it for the life of me. Follow the rules, losethe game… any ideas?

The food list I got said chicken up to 4x weekly, or other foods on thatlist, and beef once a week or less. Cod is on the beef list, Finnanhaddie (is that similar to haddock?) is on the chicken list. Most beansare on the chicken list, lentils are on the beef list, as are carp,halibut, pike, turkey, veal. Tuna & salmon & bluefish & trout are chicken.Bass, flounder, whitefish, pollock don’t show up on the lists at all,so the dietitian assumed they were low in purines and thus OK.