Stop Gout Pain

I am using the technique I describe in my ebook Freedom from Gout Pain that keeps me functioning in a normal way in spite of my gout. This is keeping my gout pain at bay and my life has been fairly normal. Of course, that means I got a little too lax.

My blood pressure has once again crept upward. Hypertension often is associated with gout. Even worse, the medications for high blood pressure can help trigger gout attacks. I do not want to go back on that medication, so I am diligently exercising and dieting to reduce my weight and lower my blood pressure.

I have an easier time losing weight when I eat a lot of rice and beans instead of other proteins. I also eat lots of vegetables and fruits. I am not calorie counting, just reducing portions and skipping fattening foods like ice cream.

This plan worked once before when my blood pressure went up. I was able to bring my blood pressure back down to a safe range so my doctor stopped the medication. I am hopeful I can do it successfully once again.

I feel much better when I am more fit anyway!

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Gout sufferers are eager to find solutions. At first changes in diet look promising. For many of us these changes do not bring the full results we want, but we do our best anyway.

The usual recommendations are that the diet be changed to reduce foods high in purines. The reasoning is that the body uses purines to make uric acid which in turn makes those needle-like crystals in our joints. Those crystals make gout hugely painful.

High Purine Foods to Avoid

Foods high in purines include red meat and seafood, alcohol, dried peas and beans, asparagus, spinach, and pretty much any food that has protein. Seafood may be the most difficult food on this list for provoking gout attacks.

Obviously it would not be wise to eliminate all protein, so we have to try to avoid the worst ones and eat more of the beneficial foods.

Beneficial Foods

Beneficial foods include bananas, red/blue berries, tomatoes, and vegetables such as kale and cabbage. Foods with a lot of Vitamin C such as oranges and red cabbage are particularly recommended. Low fat dairy products are also supposed to be helpful.

Pineapple is often recommended for the bromelain, but unhappily commercially grown pineapple often lacks this ingredient due to depletion of the soils.

Overall, the American Medical Association suggests a diet in which most of the diet is whole grains, vegetables and fruits with no more than 15% of the calories from meats and soy. They further suggest no more than 30% of the calories come from fats, and that no more than 10% of those be animal fats.

Trying to Stop Gout Pain with Diet

Personally I have a hard time with all of those math calculations to figure out what I should eat. The problem is aggravated by the fact that diet alone does not seem to solve my gout pain. This reduces my motivation to run a calculator with my meals.

The difficulty is that gout can be unpredictable even with the best dietary efforts. I am not alone in facing massive frustrations in this regard.

The long search for freedom from gout pain has brought many disappointments.

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I remember when I first learned I had gout. I thought I had broken or badly sprained my foot and I did not even know how I did it.

My foot was so painfully sore I could not walk on it and the slightest touch sent me into agony. The big toe was swollen, shiny, and red.

I felt so bad I finally agreed to go to the doctor. My wife and her brother made me a crutch with a towel used for padding on the top of it. That enabled me to hobble out to the car and be driven to the clinic.

At the clinic I was told I had gout, and this began my education about the disease I had ignored all my life.

Gout often goes hand in hand with hypertension, psoriasis, diabetes, and obesity. It is considered to be a particularly acute and painful form of arthritis. No kidding!

Gout is aggravated by dietary factors. The root of the problem is a build up of uric acid in the body. Either too many foods high in purines cause the uric acid level to rise or, more likely, the kidneys are not doing well at filtering uric acid from the blood stream.

When the kidneys do not filter enough uric acid out of the blood, the levels in the blood supply can go high enough to start forming crystals in the joints, which is where the pain begins.

These sharp needle-shaped crystals create inflammation and often occur in the feet, particularly the big toe. One theory is that the cooler temperature of the foot allows the crystals to form.

The affected joint swells and the skin becomes shiny and red. The whole area becomes exceeding sensitive to the least touch. I certainly know that one very well!

Gout attacks are extremely painful and pose numerous challenges for treatment. Treatment usually involves anti-inflammatory drugs and drugs that either inhibit production of uric acid or that help remove uric acid from the blood stream.

The gout patient needs to alter his diet to assist in reducing gout pain. The whole process of treatment can fluctuate with unpredictable results.

Alternative remedies are often touted as the answer. In my case I drank many gallons of black cherry juice, which is supposed to be one of the best natural solutions for gout. I never noticed any results from it at all, to my dismay.

A diagnosis of gout set me on a course of frustration trying to find relief from the pain of gout.

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