Gout Sucks!

Despite all the time extra free time I have lately, I still have not been disciplined enough to sit down in front of computer to blog about a specific topic. I’m not sure if I lack the motivation to type something, or just can’t come up with ideas to write about. Since I have some time to spare, why not write about something that’s going on with me currently at the moment.

Gout. It’s painful, it’s annoying, and it flat out sucks! For those who do not know what gout is, and without too much scientific or medical jargon; it’s basically a condition similar to arthritis that attacks your joints due to high levels of uric acid in your bloodsteam. Gout is caused when you consume food with too much purines. It’s also knows as “rich man’s disease.” The purines are broken down in you body and then turns in to uric acid. The uric acid levels settle in your joint and then being to crystallize. As they crystallize, it caused pain and swelling in the joints. In my case, it attacks my toes.

There are numerous articles online and I’ve done tons of research. Unfortunately, there are no cures for gout at the moment. The only way to prevent another attack is to change your diet. Changing your diet involves not consuming food that has high purine content and maintaining a healthy diet with exercise. Also drinking a lot of water.

This is definitely a HUGE impact on my eating lifestyle. I’m your typical carnivore, especially when it comes to eating beef. Love beef! Love steak! But now that I have gout, I have to think twice before I consider consuming foods that will cause a gout attack.

It wasn’t until this summer that the doctor diagnosed me with gout. They thought I just had some joint inflammation from being flat footed. A podiatrist made custom foot orthotics for me, and somehow I was getting foot swelling to often. It’s probably safe to say that I probably had about five swelling attacks within the past year. My doctor really didn’t rule out that I had gout from her first diagnosis, but it wasn’t until after several attacks that they decide to do some blood tests. Sure enough, blood tests proved that my uric acid levels were high.

Gout suffers are usually prescribed Allopurinol which is a drug that helps reduce the uric acid levels in your body. I was told that people who watch their diet along with taking this drug usually have a less chance of having another gout attack. With me, I changed my diet, cut out high purine food items, and surprisingly still had another attack! I’ll be honest, I did have a slice of prime rib only once, then within a few weeks later, I had another incident. It’s really hard to determine which foods I consumed because even some vegetables have high purine content! Who would think that vegetables can be dangerous to gout suffers.

There have been numerous natural cures for gout that I’ve found on the internet. Natural remedies are regarded as better alternatives to taking prescribed medication that do have any long term side effects. I have tried some of these natural alternatives (none FDA approved), but it’s really hard to find out if they are effective considering the fact that I’m still taking the prescribed meds. One of the most interesting is consuming cherries or cherry concentrate juice. The 100% cherry concentrate is hard to find and it’s usually found at specialty grocery stores or heath stores. There are tons of success stories from other gout suffers that consume cherry juice in their diet.

The other remedy while I had an attack was consuming ½ teaspoon of baking soda mixed with 8 ounces of water taken every 2 hours. I tried this alternative cautiously since I have high blood pressure and I’m being medically treated for it. The sodium content in the baking soda does elevate your blood pressure, and in this case, it increased mine. So I decided to forget this self test and just took some pain killers prescribed by my doctor instead.

So I’ve decided to try a test. I’m going to try turning semi-vegetarian. Turning 100% vegetarian will be a bit extreme for me, so I’m going to add a small amount of chicken and eggs to get some protein in my system. That should be efficient enough to hopefully prevent another attack.

Over, I think this change in diet will help me have an overall better healthy lifestyle. I am a bit bummer out when I see my peers eating a succulent steak or burger, but I have to remind myself of the consequences I have to face later.

Wish me luck!