Gout Diet Blog

I would like to know if there is a listinganywhere of the benefits of uric acid.

I know that previously there have been postsabout uric acid being a ‘trigger’ for the immunesystem.

I also know its serves as an anti-oxidant in therespiratory system.

I remember what happened when I had my first attack. I was in myearly thirties and my ankle started hurting real bad. I thought maybeI sprained it but I didn’t remember doing anything to cause thispain. It kept getting worse and worse, I finally went to the doctorwhen my ankle became so swollen that I couldn’t put my shoes onanymore, and walking was just horribly painful! When my doctor toldme that she suspected I had gout I thought “Man, what a quack!” Iwent ahead and took the perscriptions she gave me and eventually thepain went away. I still didn’t believe I had gout, I thought I wastoo young.

After a while I would keep getting attacks and I’d just take 4ibuprofen pills to get rid of the pain. Eventually my new doctor rana test and said my uric acid was too high, and that I did have gout.He said that what would cause attacks were alcohol and foods likeliver. I still remained skeptical because I rarely ever drink alcoholand I don’t eat liver. It wasn’t until later when I was told that anykind of red meat would do this.

My dad had arthritis so bad that he could no longer work anymore. Hewas always grouchy from the pain he had to go through and now I seewhy. I just read online that it’s not just red meat and alcohol thatcould trigger an attack. I found out that eggs, fried foods, caffeineand sugar can increase the uric levels and cause an attack. Lastnight I was in so much pain that my kids had to grab crutches just soI could get inside the house from my car. I just came home from thedoctor today, apparently I not only have gout but I have a real majorbone spur on my heel.

I hope to learn more about gout and how to avoide these extremelypainful attacks. I am just bummed that I have to go through this atsuch a young age. My doctor said that if I lost some weight it wouldhelp me out, but how can I lose the weight when I can’t evenexcercise? Not only do I have gout and bone spurs, but I have torndiscs in my spine and the impact from walking will keep me awake allnight with back pain.

I have been diagnosed with osteo-arthritis in both knees, worse in left knee. During the past year or so, I took “ordinary” doses of glucosamine chondroitin (one w/MSM) with no change in arthritis symptoms — no improvement. So I stopped taking it and even have some left over that I’ll probably wind up throwing out. Then, after a severe bout of gout in my right knee nine months ago, my arthritis seemed more pronounced — more stiffness and pain and restriction of movement/limberness. It could be that I just became more aware of the stiffness and pain after the horrific gout attack that essentially crippled me. At any rate, I had seen all these ads for “Osteo Bi-Flex” and decided I’d give the glucosamine another chance. I got the more expensive formula of “Triple Strength.” Almost immediately, my knees felt better, taking two per day. Most of the time they feel “back to normal” and when I walk, the knees, knee caps feel the way they used to before I developed the arthritis, primarily no stiffness and pain. (I have had two bad falls; the last one, in Dec. 1998, landed me on concrete on both knees from the top of my front porch; the right kneecap is still somewhat numb from that fall. I attribute the arthritis to these events.) This good effect from Bi-Flex has been the case for over a month. I have had a brief episode during that time of a little of the old stiffness and pain — what I chalked up to the proverbial “bad days” — but even at that, it was a lot less painful than before Osteo Bi-Flex. Now, the caveat. I also have back pain and when it got worse I went to the dr. and she told me to take Aleve. I did and swore by it at first because it helped alleviate the back pain so much. But after a few months, the pain started coming back and even though I still usually take two Aleve tablets a day, it’s less effective than it was at first. So I’m afraid that this might be a pattern that repeats itself with everything. Nevertheless, I will have to replenish my supply of Osteo Bi-Flex in the next few days and plan to buy the highest formula — quadruple strength –which is about $80-$90. I will continue taking Bi-Flex until it stops be effective. I can’t praise enough the effect it has had so far on my arthritic knees. I think there must be a difference in the formula or ingredients or processing of Bi-Flex compared with the previous brands I tried. All I know is Osteo Bi-Flex worked whern the other brands did not.

Any recommendations on things to eat to pad the stomach when taking indocin? IatePad Thai last night thinking the starchy noodles would be a nice base, but endeduphaving a hell of a time last night with stomach pains.

I am a 58 year old woman. Recently I got a lot of bug bites on myankles and up my legs. All over a 2 day period. They itchedhorribly. I took aspirin for them and smeared on some anti-itchlotion, which helped. I was also taking Alka Seltzer at the time.

A few days into that, my big toe joint on the most affected legswelled up and is extremely painful. I almost can’t walk. the bitesare healing fine, no problems.

I’ve been healthy otherwise. I’m wondering if the bug bites couldhave done something to cause a bout of gout. I’ve never had itbefore, this is the first time.

I don’t know what kind of bugs they are. The only bugs I saw in myhouse were some tiny spiders near my computer desk. I cleaned allaround it, and have not gotten any more bites since.

My husband got no bites.

Oh, also I have a bit of arthritis on my fingers of my left hand.

Anyone suffered with hives while taking allopurinol, and if so how to stay on the allopurinol and keep hives at bay ?

Hi..I feel so terrible/awful..not guilty..just sosympathetic..for ANYONE who does not have/get the best in medicalcare..ESPECIALLY with a horrid affliction like gout..

If any of you were nearby..I’ld just reccomend my Dr.s..I’m surethey’d see you..and treat you WELL!!like you deserve to be treated!!

I gotta tell ya..I know..lem’ee see..4 people in the medicalprofession..see 3 specialists..a g/p..and have seen..communicatedwith A LOT of people in the medicalprofession..including .pharmacists..

Maybe it is where I live?Toronto,Canada..Maybe it’s our freehealth care..Maybe it’s the way the medical profession sees me..I amVERY knowledgeable/well read/researched/about gout..and am also veryhealth concious..I’m fit and quite athletic..Idno..perhaps they seethat I am a hopeless case..in that I just have to take allopurinoland hope..I have had Dr.s tell me..jokingly..that they cannot evenlecture me about..ANYTHING..I have been told jokingly that I havethe “perfect” case of gout..I have also been told by EVERY singleperson in the medical profession that there is NOTHING I cando..NOTHING..short of allopurinol..I have been told withoutasking..that I can drink..do anything..eat anything..and nothing willmake it any better or worse..

BUT..in each and every case these people were tripping overme..gushing sympathy..I DO NOT LIKE THAT..to put it mildly!..true Ihave been broken with gout..I had an e/r doctor tell me that if Ineeded to..just come back..and find him..don’t even sign in..I canget pretty much whatever drug I want/need with a phone call..AND getit deliverred for a small fee..my g/p and 2 of the specialists saythat if I need to..just go see them..no appointment..they’ll fit mein.. This used to scare me a bit..in that maybe there was somethingelse wrong..they didn’t want to tell me..

Maybe I’ve just lucked onto a whole bunch of great people..

It sure ain’t my personality..I can tell ya that..

I had a very long conversation..and a zillion tests..and thisspecialist..asks me if he can tape record it..I was in a VERY badgout way..and just snapped..”Whatever”..this taped conversation endsup at the rheumatologist..in audio and print..and he ever sodelicately asks me if he could submit some of it forresearch..Idno..I feel a bit bad..I WAS in a very bad gout way..4out of 7 months in bed for 20 hrs a day..ONLY colchicine didANYthing..and when I stopped..back to hell..back to the colchicine..Isnapped at him too..”Why are you even asking me this..when gout isnow in my brain..I’m crippled..like my health information isprivate..sure..I don’t believe that..use my real name too..why wouldyou not just go ahead and do it..doing whatever is possible to endthis scourge!?”..He was very polite/gracious..YIKES!..I couldda endedup with no doctor..at that stage I had had so many drugs..and justdidn’t care..

Sooo..you can see it ain’t my personality..

I just wished ALL others had this kind/quality of medicalcare..and or there was something I could/can do to help…

Take care..

I am in the process of reading as much as I can about gout and alongthe way I will come across things that I believe are important to us.I will post two today.

1) http://www.utah.edu/umed/courses/year2/pharm/study/rx04.pdfSodium Acetyl salycilate, the sodium salt of aspirin, competes withSodium urate for the receptor site that transports uric acid acrossthe membrane in the kidneys and “may exacerbate acute gout attacks.”In other words stay away from aspirin to relieve gout pain. It iscontraindicated and could lead to very serious side effects becauseit can cause coagulation in your renal tubes which can lead to kidneyfailure.

2) Yesterday I posted that high uric acid is associated with heartdisease. Here is one of the references. I found about 12 that suggestit but this seems to be the most comprehensive.

High Uric Acid Linked To Heart Disease DeathsThe Journal of the American Medical Association May 10, 2000;283:2404-2410 http://www.mercola.com/2000/may/14/uric_acid.htm

People who have high levels of uric acid in their blood have anincreased risk of dying from heart disease. The presence of elevateduric acid identifies a sign of greater risk of cardiovascularmortality. The power of that effect — the effect size — is greaterin women than in men and considerably greater in African Americansthan in whites.

Previous studies have suggested that high levels of uric acid in theblood might be linked to heart disease, but the current study is thefirst such study to involve a nationally representative sample ofpeople. In this very large study, uric acid levels were measured innearly 6,000 people aged 25 to 74, who were then followed for anaverage of more than 16 years.

Researchers divided the participants into four groups based on uricacid levels. The lowest group’s level was below 5.4, the secondbetween 5.4-6.1, the third between 6.1- 7 and the fourth was above 7.They found that women who had the most uric acid in their blood werethree times more likely to die from heart disease than those with theleast.

Among men, the risk was 77% higher in men with the highest levelscompared with those with the lowest levels. The risk of dying washigher in blacks than in whites, with black women having the highestincrease in rates, the researchers report.

But in both men and women, the relationship between uric acid andheart-related deaths was only present in people aged 45 and older.People aged 45 to 54 who had high levels of uric acid appeared tohave the highest risk.

Many, but not all, epidemiological studies have suggested that serumuric acid is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Increasedserum uric acid levels are linked to obesity, distorted cholesterollevels and high blood pressure (when all three are present this isknown as syndrome X), all of which are also associated with increasedrisk for cardiovascular disease.

Uric acid is a byproduct of the continual process in the body whereold cells are broken down and new ones are formed. Normally, the acidis eliminated from the body in urine. Uric acid is the major productof purine metabolism and is formed from xanthine by the action ofxanthine oxidase.

After menopause, values for women increase. In adults uric acidlevels vary with height, body weight, blood pressure, kidneyfunction, and alcohol intake. Uric acid concentration is influencedby the rate of production on the one hand, and the rate ofelimination on the other. The changing level of serum uric acidconcentration in women at menopause suggests an interaction with sexhormones.

Besides gout, elevated uric acid is related to a variety of otherconditions including increased alcohol consumption, obesity,diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, kidney disease,heart disease, and water pill use.

More recently, it has been noted that the main reason uric acid iselevated is due to insulin resistance. The increase in serum uricacid levels may be an expression of an insulin-resistant state. Thisis supported by evidence that increased uric acid levels correlatewith decreased insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and increased plasmainsulin response to oral glucose loading.

Original Article

DR. MERCOLA’S COMMENT:

I am enormously impressed with the practical utility of this study,which is why I included so many details of it. The data is taken fromsix thousand people over 16 years. It took quite a while to compilethis association. The reason it is so valuable is that thisinformation is basically free on all chemistry profile tests. Yet,very few people recognize the clinical importance of even a slightlyelevated level.

I have done over 5,000 chemistry profile patient in the last threeyears on patients and am sad to say that I have neglected thisimportant test. Any of my patients who are reading this may want toreview your old tests to find out if in fact your uric acid level isabove 7. This would indicate a much higher risk of heart disease.

Fortunately, the amazing observation is that the same factors thatcause one to have increased weight, cholesterol, blood sugar andblood pressure problems is the same one that causes uric acid toincrease. That factor of course is increased insulin resistance, andregular readers of this newsletter are quite familiar with how tocontrol that. An 1996 study confirmed this quite clearly.

The solution of course is to drastically decrease foods that causesone’s pancreas to make insulin, and that would be all grains, sugars,and underground vegetables (all cereals, rice, breads, bagels, toast,potatoes, chips, pretzels, popcorn, etc.)

The bottom line of this report, backs up with overwhelming statisticsthat a sensible and prudent diet to reduce body weight should be animperative for us. Second and this will require more research, butthere is a secondary connection suggested to pancreatic function, i.einsulin production and uric acid levels. In other words, gout may bea less understood deviation, related to but not the same as, beingassociated with similar metabolic breakdown mechanisms as–DIABETES.My jump to conclusions brain sees this relationship with flashingletters only because of the co-incidence of the two phenomenon andtheir responses in humans but it would make a lot of sense too. Wegout suffferers have a slightly less defective system that adiabetic. The gain in weight relationship is the one that fascinatesme.

One of the most precious things gout has stolen from me is mymartial arts ability. I have trained in numerous arts for overtwenty five years and hold several black belts (my highest being a3rd degree black in Kenpo). I used to train and teach daily, andcompeted on a regular basis (I have a room full of trophies that nowjust stand as monuments to a love lost).

In Texas, we have concealed handgun permits available to those whopass the tests and pay the fees. I have done so, and I do carry asidearm. What bothers me is that before gout ate me up, I coulddefend myself in most any situation with non-lethal force with myhands and feet- now if I am faced with a threatening situation myoption is draw and shoot, which I must admit I have moral problemswith- not to mention the nightmare of legalities.

Gout takes away more from our lives than just mobility.

I would like to throw my pennyworth into the discussion: about ten years agoI wasthrashing about in the garden in gum boots and felt a twinge in my right bigtoe. Laterthat night it became sore and by morning I had a red lump on the END joint ofmy toe. The doc diagnosed gout and prescibed Piroxicam (Feldene) 20mg twice aday.The inflamation responded within 24 hours and in about 3 days I was virtuallyback to normal. I then recalled that some 50 years before I had sustained asporting injury inwhich I had intended to kick a ball but instead had rammed my toe into arock. Itswelled up then but being young I didn’t take too much notice of it and itnow seemed to me that it had lain dormant for half a century until I had somehowdisturbed itgardening. It has recurred perhaps a couple of dozen times in the last tenyears andwhen I suspect that it may give me trouble I merely take two Piroxicamcapsules perday for the first two or three days and they work (for me) every time. Inbetween attacks, apart from a permenant lump on my toe, I am completely back tonormal.

My conclusion has been that I never actually had gout at all and that thediagnosismade by an excellent, widely experienced doctor was wrong. Thetreatment,howeverwas just right so I reckon if you have any joint injury it will attract uricacid crystals.ie they will always target any damaged or arthritic joint. In my case nofluid wasdrawn off the joint for examination so nothing was proved and the Piroxicamworkedso well (for me) that no investigation was pursued.