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Every week I hear about a new gout remedy.
Many are just an excuse to lighten your pockets.
This one is simple - stop snoring.
Well, not quite that simple, but read on…
When we think of gout remedies, we usually think of pain killers and uric acid lowering drugs. Many people look for natural remedies, but these are only alternatives to the standard “treat the symptom” medicines.
What if we could find a gout remedy that treats the cause? Somebody has.
Burton Abrams has shown, conclusively, that sleep apnea is a common cause of raised uric acid levels and gout. As he says at Curing Gout - My Personal Discovery: -
reduction of oxygen in the blood, which results from sleep apnea, has been shown to cause the cells in the body to begin to disintegrate and generate an excess of uric acid in the blood. Also, the percentage of carbon dioxide in the blood increases, which makes the blood more acidic and increases the likelihood of uric acid precipitation in the form of monosodium urate
I won’t repeat everything on the site. It’s a concise summary of sleep apnea with well researched links to gout, including personal experience. I urge you to go and read it now, then come back here and tell me what you think.
You can comment below, or let me know with a private message. Better still, please join the debate on my gout forum. I’d love to here about your experience. I’ll summarize experiences and opinions on GoutPal.com.
Sleep apnea is not always easy to diagnose, but it’s a lot easier to treat than gout. If your gout is caused by sleep apnea, then curing it is a surefire gout remedy.
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While most people who have suffer from gout are classified as hyperuricemic, but a substantial minority are normouricemic (normal uric acid levels). Sleep apnea might very well account for many of these people having gout attacks. Dr. William Dement is one of the leading researchers in the field of Sleep Science for over forty years. Before his team renamed Sleep Apnea, it was referred to as Pickwickian Syndrome after a character by Charles Dickens. Together with Christopher Vaughan, they wrote the book The Promise of Sleep which became a national bestseller. In the chapter on sleep disorders, they describe obstructive sleep disorder as a life threatening condition that is totally treatable after it has been diagnosed. They painted a pretty frightening picture. Not only does the breathing stop with the lungs completely empty of air but also the heart virtually stops as well. The authors describe the systolic blood pressure going to 300. The change in the blood oxygen levels are like you were suddenly transported from sea level to the top of Mount Everest. These episodes can last happen several hundred times a night with each episode using lasting from ten to sixty seconds each. They believe the number of Americans having some degree of sleep apnea is in the tens of millions. Their book is worth getting just for that chapter alone. They also pointed out that you do not have to be obese, thin people get it as well. Also, the air passageway is very small and something like tonsillitis or swollen adenoids can lead to apnea until the swelling subsides. If you do have it, you won’t know you have it. Most cases aren’t diagnosed unless the person that you are sleeping with sees that you have stopped breathing. When you read their description, it will make you think twice before going to sleep.
It is tied to some people having gout, but compared to apnea and all of the other conditions it leads to, the gout is the least of that person’s problems. The rise in the uric acid level and the fall in the ph level for someone with sleep apnea, is more than enough to bring on a gout attack even if you are normouricemic. If you are hyperuricemic and have obstructive sleep apnea, you are doomed to get the attacks.
Gout and sleep apnea are both familial. Both are generally nocturnal. The gout attacks happen long after the person falls asleep. The rising uric acid levels and falling ph levels build as the night goes along. The two ailments favor the same population of overweight, middle-aged men and postmenopausal women. Alcohol makes them both worse. Obviously, you can’t blame all gout on sleep apnea, but having the sleep apnea makes you very vulnerable to gout.