Gout Pal Interactive

The second pillar of my better gout treatment campaign is urate lowering therapy. If you are subscribed to my gout newsletter, you probably know this – if you are not, subscribe today!

Without good procedures for frequent testing of uric acid levels, and treatment to lower them below 6mg/dL, you will continue to be plagued with gout.

Yet many patients do not get tested, or treated. Of those that do, many do not complete their treatment, and others do not get the correct dose to lower uric acid enough to get rid of gout.

This topic is strictly for telling us about good uric acid testing and lowering procedures.

How often was your uric acid tested? How confident were you with the results of urate lowering therapy? What explanations about uric acid did you receive?

Please share your good uric acid lowering experiences here.

I got a new GP several years ago and despite my having taken 300 mg. allopurinol for YEARS and getting consisten readings of 5.0- 6.0 mg./dL uric acid he keeps yammering about my going to 200 or 100 mg. allopurinol becasue they are finding “all kinds of problems with long term allopurinol use.”

He bases his recommendation for the lowered allopurinol on the fact that my gout is well controlled. I many have actually said “Well, DUH!” to him after he said this. Against my better judgement, I went to 200 mg. for a month and saw my uric acid go to 6.5 (which his lab CHART says is in the “normal” range….”DUH” again)

THEN I began to get those certain ankle pains in the morning and the tophus on my pinky began to ache when it got cold.

I put myself back on 300 mg./day.

Yes, doctors can be VERY detrimental to gout! What I need my doctor for is to draw my blood, order the tests I want, and write me the Rx that I ask for. Once he realizes this our relationship will be perfect.

(After I trained my OLD doctor to do precisely what I want we were fine…and then the bastard retired!)

I have stockpiled enough allopurinol that I can take 400mg./day for the foreseeable future and this my my current (1 month so far) self-prescribed dosage. I hope that the little extra allopurinol will give me the <5.0 that I desire but I haven't had it confirmed with a recent serum uric acid asssay…I'll go as soon as I can decide who I want as primary provider with my new insurance.

Adjunctive to  my treatment is the use of 50 mg. losartan (for hypertension but uricosuric as a bonus…the ONLY BP drug that is) and mildly uricosuric atoorvastatin for cholesterol.

I have heart disease and REALLY would love my uric acid below 4.0…and I may arrange for proper agents to get that.

Here's a WONDERFUL but HUGE read on the tie-in between uric acid and heart disease…you'll find it interesting:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/472684_1

Post edited 5:13 am – May 7, 2009 by GoutPal

Try extract of black cherries, found at holland and Barrett taken as a drink throughout the day works and I find Apple cider vinegar mixed with raw honey as a hot drink at night works wonders. But just a tea spoon of the vinegar.

I refuse to go down the tablet route.

My research has shown one antihypertensive regimen that lowers uric acid.  I will repeat it here.

It involves the use of two antihypertensive drugs, furosemide and losartan, (Lasix and Cozaar) but they must be taken in a particular way: first take the Lasix (which causes brisk diuresis) and then several hours later, take the Cozaar which causes uric acid elimination. Dosage of both drugs is titrated to get reasonable blood pressure control. Needless to say, people with NORMAL BP should not use this regimen.

The study confirming this regimen is small but rather convincing, but studies showing the uricosuric effect of losartan are all over the net. It;s the ONLY antihypertensive with this capability but used alone its effect is not large.

http://www.life-enhancement.co…..sp?ID=2089

Interesting article shows how diuretics, though an easy fix initially, eventually can lead to loss of pottassium (K) and hence then contribute to  more heart problems in old age.

Acidification of the body is no help to a gout cure either!

By way of explanation of my attitude to diuretics (apart from it precursoring gout imo) is the remarks of a nurse customer, a few years back, who said “No one should be on Diuretics for as long as 7 years!”

This article supports Zips' contention that K is low in Western diets and illustrates that less than half of PotBi Carb is elemental K in the process.

Luckily,I've been Fishertarian for many years- or I would really be in the s**te- no messing!

Diet is so important in keeping healthy and gout free. Drugs are not the same and our forebears didn't have to fight for their health like we have to now.