Apparently its caused by chronic high uric acid levels. How do you fix that? I got some meds from the doc, but its only for flare ups. Need to address the long-term problem.

Jordan

which med?

Not well known, but gout is related to hydration issues ( to an extent). My Doc told me that - since I obviously won't give up my beef and/or beer - to at least drink a lot more water. It flushes out the uric acid crystals.

Mark

Also if on High BP meds get doc to take you off of diuretics and try another variety, worked for me and no longer needed allipurinol to control uric acid levels and no gout since switched.

Mike

Fun isn't it! I just love a flare up nothing like it in the world.

I'm on Allopurinol, it flushes the uric acid out of your system. I've been on it a couple of years and it's been a lifesaver, the gout attacks were getting so frequent for me that it was severely impacting my quality of life. Since I've been on the allopurinol I rarely have an attack, and if one does start to come on a small dose of indomethacin takes care of it quickly, whereas before I'd have to take it and colchicine for a week to get rid of it.

There are a couple of other drugs that do the same thing as allopurinol but it's the most commonly used gout preventative. When you first go on allopurinol it actually makes the gout worse for a few weeks and a lot of people stop taking it for that reason. The reason it makes it worse is that it flushes the uric acid out of all your muscles, and it goes straight into your bloodstream where it is then excreted through your kidneys. During the period where the drug is "cleansing" your body of the uric acid the levels of uric acid in your bloodstream is raised and some of that extra uric acid ends up in your gout prone joints. You just have to gut through those first few weeks, taking the medicine you have for the flareups, until your uric acid levels come down and then you'll stop having the flareups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Allopurinol

I've heard playing on freeways cures gout. I wouldn't know 'cause I ain't gouted.

http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/gout.html

Friends said the baking soda, alfalfa pills , ACV really help and lots of water

I have figured out that when I'm laid up trying to control pain, my sense of humor becomes more rascally. But chronic pain's a bitch.

I have never experienced a flare up but I take 40mg of Uloric daily.

my Neph yanked me off alloPurinol: says it's a nephrotoxin < shrugs >

that damn Uloric is $160 with insurance but it keeps me in the 6-7 range

It might be a good idea to have a nephrologist evaluate your condition for more specific causes. Might be more than just dietary.

Damn Dudes, dont know what this gout is, but it sounds like it sucks, kinda like my damn broke foot right here in bow season.

Gunner

No problem....had to shoot off 3 toes but I'm doing much better now!

I will tell you one thing when you get a flare up I would not wish it on my worst enemy! Damn air blowing across it is agony let alone putting a shoe or weight on it/

Gout hurts much more than a broken foot.

My "surrogate Dad" had it and his Doc told him to have more sex. He said that would lower the uric acid levels without meds.

My friend told the Doc to write out a prescription to give to my friend's wife.

BTW, he's on meds...

Ed

Oh damnit, that do suck, even a broke hoof they wont cast?

Gunner

LMAO.

Gunner

I have had good luck by drinking black cheey juice. You can get it in most grocery stores or the concentrate in health food stores.

Thanks guys. My right big toe thanks you all!

Is cheey juice Asian?

Gunner

Smart ass Okies....sheesh..

Ed

LOL, it's the Vicotin Bro, dat chit makes me dizzy.

Gunner

I have it real bad all over my body due to my bad (Late stage- Polycystic) Kidneys. I cannot take Uric Acid reducing meds because of those kidneys. I was relying on high dose Hydrocodone pills and Lydocain patches = pain shots until the doc decided to try Cymbalta with Prednisone. I will be weaning myself off of the Prednisone starting tomorrow but WOW! What a difference so far! I am hoping that the Cymbalta by ittself will have me feeling this good. Instead of 10MG/325Acet Codeine Norco pills every 4 hours I am down to 2or3 7.5MG Codene/500Acet Lortabs, and I feel better and am more functional even with the lower doses.

If anyone here is suffering form bad all over Gout or Sever Artritis, please try Cymbalta.

A med I take called Cholchrys (sp?) at the onset eneds the problem usually for 6 months or more.

1B

80 mg of Uloric daily for me.

Ive had over 10 broken bones and one gout episode. I think the one gout episode hurt as bad as all those bone combined! Thankfully no more attacks. Lemon juice, acv, baking soda and anything else I could find with a high ph rating has kept me out of that agony again.

I have had several flare ups in the last year or two. I thought I broke my toe so I went to the doctor and he touched my blood red skin and I screamed like a girl and knocked him off the stool. He grinned and said, "you have gout".

He gave me steroids and a pain reliever but neither really helped at all. Heat did not work, ice did not work, aspircream did not work....hell, pain killers worked for my kidney stones but not for the gout.

I had dreams of cutting my toe off.

I did notice that after light-footing around the house for a few days, if I walked hard on my foot and bent my toe both directions as far as my toe would bend by hand, the pain brought tears but it felt better for a few hours.

I have no clue why, maybe it was grinding up the crystals.

I have no solutions but misery loves company.

For acute symptoms indomethacin and colchicine.

For maintenance life style changes as in losing weight, lowering blood pressure, and exercise.

Allopurinol to lower uric acid levels long term. Forget the holistic approach until you lower your uric acid levels.

I have been fighting gout for 15 years and in January of this year I finally hobbled into a rheumatologist's office. He gave me a steroid injection in each ankle and prescribed allopurinol. It took 3 months to get the dosage correct, and now I take 400 mg daily. No negative side effects at all. After about 3 months I could actually feel my joints becoming more flexible. Unfortunately I was a hard head and waited too long and now have damage to some joints that will never go away. But I am now back in the gym lifting, riding the stationary bike, and elliptical. I have lost weight because of the increase in activity, and blood pressure is down. Do yourself a huge favor and see a rheumatologist asap.

I wouldn't wish gout on Pelosi or Reid.

I had a visit from the gout a few years back. Most incredible pain I've ever experienced. I would wish it on Pelosi & Reid and few others, come to think of it.

I found that drinking Black Cherry juice, when I felt the gout coming on, would keep it from developing into a full blown case.

I can't remember the brand, exept that it was pure black cherry juice. It came in a quart bottle. I'd drink a quart over the course of a day or so and the symptoms went away.

I swear that I could feel the weight of sunlight falling on my gout.

Along the same lines, any help for Plantar Fasciitis. I suppose that is what my problem is. Started all of a sudden with pain in the heel like I had bruised it, but had done nothing to cause a bruise. Dr. x-rayed it and said no bone spur but I have not been back. I do have an appointment this week. Pain has lessened but is still there. miles

Have you recently gone on or off of a "statin"?

Go to a foot specialist and get 1) a custom foot insert made, and 2) some steriod shots yesterday. I let mine go and eventually tore it sompletely loose from the heel and THAT hurt like you cannot believe and crippled me up for many months.

I ended up on Allopurinol after having to crawl downstairs, if I get a bad flair up I also use the indomethacin and it has been a godsend.

Hate to be the continual dummy in the room but, what causes gout? Looking like something I want to try and avoid as I git older.

Gunner

yup........the real stuff....got that info rite here on the fire....never had it since.

rich mans sickness!....back to back prime rib....shrimp....coeflower..... = gout

Several years ago I decided to eat a can of sardines. Hadn't had them for a long time. Developed a case of gout and went to the doc who prescribed a med. He also gave me a list of foods to avoid. Top of the list? Sardines.
The gout came back a while later and I saw a PA at the clinic. He prescribed Naproxen and it worked. He told me that naproxen is available over the counter in lower doses and if it flared up again just to take the dose he prescribed. Works great. Takes about three days to clear up.
As an aside I dropped a railroad tie on my right big toe and crushed it (quite literally). I would rather undergo that pain again than suffer from the gout.

my dad has something called psuedo-gout......all the same symptoms and pain as regular gout but the regular gout meds dont work took a couple years before the docs figured out what it was.....my dad is one of the toughest guys i know as far as pain tolerance but the attacks would cause him to scream if anything touched his foot

instead of uric acid crystals its caused by calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystals so if your having gout like symptoms but the meds arent working it could be this....

Yeah, I know a guy that has pseudo-gout and it sucks cause the normal remedies for gout do not work. Has he switched to distilled water only for drinking?

i forget what med he is on but it works, staying hydrated keeps the attacks to few and far between....think he has one or two a year.....there are meds that work, just not the same ones for gout which should be no surprise since the crystals are chemically very different...

Thanks ATV.

gunner

I take 400 mg. of allopurinol daily, and haven't had an episode in 5-6 years now. I'm grateful for that, like you wouldn't believe. I've had it in the toe, knee, elbow and wrist, it's not for sissies.................


Avoid seafood, especially shellfish, cut back on the red meat, too, and mushrooms can trigger gout, also. Google up "gout" and there will be several things that can help, mostly avoidance of certain foods that we all love............

Rah-Jah Ratsmacker Thanks Bro, I rarely eat anything from the oceans or gulf, dont fork with shrooms either, do have a nice steak bout 6/8 times a year, mostly live on deer, freshwater fish, chicken and such.

Gunner

Yeah it's painful!!!! I told the doc either fix it or amputate, I didn't care which and I wasn't kidding!!

Mike

man the "last" attack i got ...even a sheet pulled over it at nite in bed...had me ing! ...... better to remover "said toe" with a dull fire ax!!!

My hand doc also told me that the arthritis in my knuckles is also inflamed by/related to the gout issues. Wanted to replace 2 knuckles, where index & middle fingers meet the hand - said 30 years of twisting screwdrivers and wirenuts, and 50+ of squeezing pliers, and swinging hammers pretty well did them in! He also recommended staying well hydrated, and easing off the beef & beer. Since I raise beef, and love beer, I just try to stay hydrated.

PS Gout seems to be somewhat genetic, also - according to the MD's.

Mark

Where do you buy your deer and fish?

I get an attack about once in five years. It is the most pain I have ever been in. I'm supposed to take allipurinol but I save it for the attacks.

Allopurinol does nothing for an actual gout attack, except prolong it. Allopurinol is a preventative that rids your body of uric acid if taken on a daily basis. If you start taking it during a gout attack then it'll leech the uric acid out of your muscles and into your bloodstream, where it quickly goes to the affected joint and makes the attack worse. It's kind of like putting out a fire with gasoline.

Maybe I'll not take it if I get another one. They last about two days. Thanx.

Interesting. I eat a half can of sardines every morning. Apparently I need to stop that right away.

Jordan

I like sardines with mayo and bread or saltines but not for breakfast, hell no!

Honestly, drop excess weight slowly - crash diets or super low carb diets will exacerbate the situation! Limit the alcohol.

Allopurinol as Rx med can prevent attacks. Gout sux!

Gout is malfunction in the metabolism of the amino acid purine which leads to the deposition of uric acid crystals in varies joints. The big toe is the classic site. Uric acid crystals, when viewed under a microscope look like long glass needles, and inflame the surrounding tissue badly.

Gout can be crippling. When someone said they swore they could feel sunshine on their gouty toe, that is not a big stretch of the truth. It is a MF'er to be sure.

Dark cherry juice is the bomb for an attack. Clears it up in less than 24 hours for me. The moment you start to feel pain, drink about a half bottle and finish the rest up over the next day or two. JMHO YMMV TM