Gout Pal Interactive

I not only suffer gout.

I endure gout misinformation.

I’m desperate to present clear, concise, informed gout news and views, so you do not have to be misled.

Now aspirin has driven me insane.

First, let me refer you to my article about aspirin and gout. I thought this was a great piece of news for gout sufferers who have been worried about low-dose aspirin, commonly taken to reduce the risks of stroke and heart disease.

I always intended to research this further, and add it to the gout research section at GoutPal.com. Today I learned that my link to the original presentation abstract was faulty. I decided to complete my review of aspirin and gout and improve my report.

That’s when aspirin started driving me mad.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: hyperuricemia, _aspirin

What is it about Mondays and Gout?
I just looked at a graph of site visitors to GoutPal.com - it looked like waves to me.
Every week so far this month, gout visitors have peaked on Mondays?

I wonder what’s so special about Monday and gout.

Is it due to weekend excesses?

More importantly (to me anyway) is will it repeat this week?

Is it a result of more diagnosis of gout on Monday as it’s the first chance that sufferers have had to see a doctor?

So if it’s still Monday, and you’re looking for gout information, why not let us know what’s so special about Monday to you.

Tags: gout day

This article has been deleted.

If you feel there is no hope for gout sufferers, or if you feel that there is hope, please discuss in the gout forum.

Today’s third, and final, short gout question is home cure for gout.

Strange that you don’t get many people looking for “home heart surgery” or “home laser eye treatment”. There’s something about gout that makes us want to cure it at home.

Let’s face it, if your standard of gout medical care is the same as that described in some messages I get from disgruntled gout patients, then I don’t blame you.

But, you know, you should never Read the rest of this entry »

The first of today’s short gout questions is graph uric acid level.

It seems a strange question. Graph uric acid level against what? A particular gout treatment? A particular gout diet? Let me explain uric acid levels in general terms, then you can interpret your data against particular aspects of your own gout treatment or lifestyle.

The most important thing about uric acid level graphs is Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: graph uric acid level, _gout triggers, _uric acid, _uric acid crystals

Somebody asked me the other day, “Can I stop taking allopurinol?”
The short answer is, “Maybe.”
Not very useful, so read on for the long answer.

First of all understand how allopurinol works.

It is all to do with uric acid. Uric acid is a good thing, but, when you have too much, it can form uric acid crystals (commonly called urate). These crystals build up in and around your joints causing gout. The only way to get rid of them is Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: can i stop taking allopurinol, _alipurinal, _alipurinol, _allipurinal, _allopurino, _allopurinol, _allopurinol side effects, _alopurenol, _alopurinal, _urate lowering therapy

Fruit or vegetable juices are great for providing hydration we need for gout and a good supply of alkalizing antioxidants.
As many gout sufferers also have high blood pressure, low salt tomato juice is a quick and easy snack food that ticks many good for gout boxes.

Some fantastically tasty fruit and vegetable juice recipes are heading for my website as I write. But, sometimes, a simple tomato juice drink is all we want, as one of our fellow gout sufferers explained:

I love to have a glass of tomato juice at breakfast, but I’m having difficulty in finding tomato juice products that are low in sodium, maybe close to zero.
Hope you can help.

Oh, yes - I can help. In my fridge lies a lovely litre of delicious tomato juice containing a mere .4g salt (.2g sodium) per 150ml. The recommended daily amount of salt is 6g, so this stuff certainly qualifies as low sodium. Just nip down to your local Co-op.

Now I suspect that the person asking about low sodium tomato juice is not UK based, home of the historic Co-operative Wholesale Society. No worries (at least if you live on US mainland). I have found a source. And you thought Amazon was just for books.

Make your selection from the two offerings on the right, and we will both be happy. Both these low sodium juices contain 140mg per 8oz serving. This is less than a quarter of the sodium in standard tomato juices.

It would be nice, if your try either of these juices, if you let us all know how good they are.

If you are not in the UK or USA mainland, please let me know if you need a low salt tomato juice source (I’ve always been a huge fan of tomato sauce).

Similarly, if you know of a good place to buy low salt tomato juice - or anything else that gout sufferers might enjoy, please share.

One final idea that you might like to consider - make your own. I’m not sure how easy this is, but my friend Sara from Juicing-For-Health.com is bound to know. I’ll ask her for some tips, and in the meantime, you might like to learn some juicing lessons for yourself.

Yesterday, somebody asked me “What is the protein and uric acid connection?”
I can sum it up in two words.
Very complex.
But you want more than that, don’t you?

The simplest explanation is that certain proteins (purines) get broken down in the human body to uric acid. Most other animals produce other enzymes (uricase) that continue to breakdown uric acid further, so that it is easier to excrete. Humans do not have that enzyme because we want to keep some of the uric acid. It neutralizes free oxygen radicals in our body that would otherwise cause extensive cell damage. That is why normal human lifespan is greater than many animals.

From that, we can see that the protein and uric acid connection is a simple one:
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: protein and uric acid connection, _gout, _gout diet, _purines, _uric acid

Gout and antioxidants are closely related. Uric acid is an antioxidant that we produce to help protect our bodies from free oxygen (free radicals) that can harm our bodies. Though we need this antioxidant for life, too much of this particular good thing can lead to gout.

Gout research tells us that food high in antioxidants can help reduce uric acid. My logic tells me that it makes sense for our bodies to produce less of our own antioxidant, uric acid, when we can absorb what we need from our food. One pillar of my gout diet plan is that food rich in antioxidants will help lower uric acid.

Up to now, I have simply advised you to increase antioxidant rich foods. Many of you want more than this, and so I will shortly be publishing a series of free gout recipes that will help you plan your own gout diet. In my next newsletter, I will also introduce a more detailed gout diet planning service for those who want to be told what to eat. As gout affects everyone differently, I will also show you how you can see for yourself, which foods raise or lower your own uric acid.

Antioxidant measuring is a new part of nutrition. Better measurement techniques and new research studies are adding to our knowledge daily. I focus on a simple list of foods that have been generally accepted as being high in antioxidants.

TABLE 4 The 50 foods with the highest antioxidant contents per serving size¹

Product Antioxidant content mmol/serving Blackberries 5.746 Walnuts 3.721 Strawberries 3.584 Artichokes, prepared 3.559 Cranberries 3.125 Coffee 2.959 Raspberries 2.870 Pecans 2.741 Blueberries 2.680 Cloves, ground 2.637 Grape juice 2.557 Chocolate, baking, unsweetened 2.516 Cranberry juice 2.474 Cherries, sour 2.205 Wine, red 2.199 Power Bar, chocolate flavor2 1.875 Pineapple juice 1.859 Latino beverages, guava nectar 1.858 Juice drinks, 10% juice, blueberry or strawberry flavor, vitamin C�enriched 1.821 Cranapple juice 1.790 Prunes 1.715 Chocolates, dark, sugar-free 1.675 Cabbage, red cooked 1.614 Orange juice 1.510 Apple juice, with added vitamin C 1.462 Latino beverages, mango nectar 1.281 Pineapple 1.276 Oranges 1.261 Bran Flakes, breakfast cereals3 1.244 Plums, black 1.205 Pinto beans, dried 1.137 Canned chili with meat and beans 1.049 Spinach, frozen 1.045 Canned chili with meat, no beans 1.040 Whole Grain Total, breakfast cereal4 1.024 Chocolate, sugar-free 1.001 Kiwi fruit 0.987 Molasses, dark 0.980 Potatoes, red, cooked 0.956 Cheese lasagna, frozen and cooked 0.942 Potatoes, white, cooked 0.918 Sweet potatoes, baked 0.900 Iced tea, brewed, unsweetened 0.881 Potatoes, russet, cooked 0.862 Baked beans, pork and beans in brown sugar sauce 0.852 Condensed tomato soup, one brand 0.826 Broccoli raab, cooked 0.823 Peppers, red, cooked 0.820 Broccoli, cooked 0.780 Latino beverages, tamarind nectar 0.761

¹ The antioxidant content per serving size was calculated as indicated in Table 6. Mean values are provided for products for which different brands are comparable.

² POWERBAR Co, Berkeley, CA.

³ Ralston Foods, Battle Creek, MI.

⁴ General Mills, Inc, Milwaukee, WI.

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Remember, antioxidant content varies widely with many factors including season, method of cooking, and variety. Do not get bogged down in the numbers, just use the list to try and improve what you are eating now.

There are several methods of measuring antioxidant values, and many different studies. These foods are only a selection, and do not cover all high-antioxidant foods. Another good list is the table of best sources of antioxidants in foods.

If you like a high antioxidant food that is not listed here, but you think it might help your gout, then add a comment, or, even better, discuss it in the gout forum.

Tags: gout and antioxidants, _gout diet, _uric acid

Each day I get a new question about gout in my inbox. Gout is very complicated so you keep asking questions about what causes gout, how gout attacks are triggered, and treatments for gout.

I love getting these gouty questions. Many of them set me off to research new ideas about gout.

One of my most recent gout questions is:

Question about gout: A month ago my right ankle was quite red and very warm. But the pain I had was terrible. I woke up with this and did not know what I did to get this. I could not even put a sheet on my foot.

Advil worked wonders and in a few days it was like nothing happened. That is until today. Now my left bit toe although not showing any redness or swelling the pain in my big toe feels like my big toe is not in it’s socket.

When I move it a certain way when I walk oh boy what pain.

I have not seen the doctor regarding this as it does go away. Is the pain in big toe in which I feel like the toe is not in it’s socket sound like gout to you?

I’ve removed a little personal information, as I do not want to make the writer identifiable. I may quote from interesting gout messages occasionally, but I will never reveal personal information. If you write to me, you can mark your message confidential, and I will not quote from it.

Please note that Advil is a particular brand of ibuprofen. I spent a few minutes responding:

This does sound like gout to me, though the only way to be absolutely
certain is to have fluid drawn from the affected joint and analyzed
under microscope. Some family doctors do this, but many are not up to
speed with the latest developments.

I recommend that you see a rheumatologist. If you look at my article
at http://www.gout-pal.com/gout-treatment/2007/01/ you will see a link
to a listing of rheumatologists. You should be able to find one near
you.

It is important to get some treatment as soon as you can, because gout
is a progressive illness and your condition is bound to get worse if
you do nothing.

Whoever you choose to consult about your suspected gout, the most
important thing is to arrange a plan to keep your uric acid level
below 6mg/dL. You will also need some pain relief for a few weeks
until the uric acid crystals that are causing the pain in your joints
gets completely dissolved.

If there is anything that you don’t understand, please contact me
again and I will try to explain it. Gout is a complicated disease, but
it is treatable with the right approach.

And added some personal comments. A minute after sending it I got the message back from AOL saying that the address would not accept messages from me.

Can I beg you, if you write to me, to make sure that replies from goutpal.com are allowed through to you. Most email systems that have spam filters call this whitelisting. Most of my message forms send out an automated reply before I answer the message personally. If you don’t get this automated reply within a few minutes of sending your message, then the chances are that you are blocking messages from me. I will never be able to reply to you if this happens.

The best way to avoid this is to ask your question about gout in your gout forum. Messages appear there as soon as you post them so you have 2 important benefits:

1. I usually check the forum every day - my inbox often takes longer if it is very full.
2. Other people see the forum messages and you might get an answer from them

So please keep the questions about gout coming - but make sure I can answer them.