GOUT. When The Pain Hits -- It Floors You. "How Could This Happen To ME?" --The Genetic Predisposition
Wow! Although I'm not the "poster boy" for GQ or even reasonably "fit", I never expected to be hit by an ailment like gout. hyperuricemia! GOUT!
Note: As a Hyperuricemia (aka "gout") sufferer, I do NOT endorse the products displayed on this site as cures for this ailment! I have a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, so I understand the basics of this ailment. However, I am not a doctor. After reading this lens, if you'd like more comprehensive information (which you should!), please contact a professional medical practitioner--a doctor--for more assistance!
Yeah, I am a tad overweight and could stand to lose 40 pounds... When I was in college and working at the Marine Laboratory--and even when I was a high school science teacher--I exercised regularly. I was either scooting about on my 10-speed bike, or swimming and snorkeling on the coral reefs around Guam. Even when I worked briefly as a daily newspaper staff writer and photographer, I was always out and about... hauling my camera and other gear from shooting site to shooting site.
But when I got a "traditional job"--as a technical editor-writer--the health started to go downhill.
You see, most jobs require you to park your butt in a chair in a cubicle for 8 hours a day. If you commute for an hour in and an hour back home, you add another 2 hours to your sit-down day... for a total of 10 hours parked on your butt. To make matters worse, when you get home, you are most likely stressed, so you spend another hour or two or three watching the tube to "relax"... before hitting the sack for the night. All this combined inactivity (from a muscle point of view) leads to serious weight gain and reductions in cardio-vascular health.
So... as my doctor described to me when diagnosing my *second* bout with gout. The combination of being overweight, plus the severe stress of serious deadlines at work, plus a lack of sleep (probably due to being overweight and staying up watching too much TV)...PLUS a genetically inherited trait that makes one more susceptible to gout -- all combined to create a "critical mass" just waiting to pounce.
Gout Symptoms -- sometimes they sneak up on you.
One morning I woke up and my lower foot was extremely painful. I thought I had inadvertently kicked something at the karate studio. I went to work, but as the day went on, the pain was increasing such that the trip home was excruciating. I had never experienced gout before, but since I have a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry ... and after doing some searching on the web with the symptoms, I sort of figured out that I was having gout.
One of the references I found on the web recommended eating dark cherries and blueberries and drinking apple juice and cherry juice. It also recommended drinking a lot of water. I stayed home the rest of the week and ate nothing but cherries and blueberries and drinking the juices and water. Sure enough, by about 4 to 5 days, my symptoms were over with and I could return to work. I continued with karate, but made sure that I drank more water. I thought I was being more careful, but the "perfect storm" was forming. I felt good, however, and as one feels good, one starts to take risks again.
Histopathology of Gout--A Doctor's Analysis and Illustration
Not very pretty--but it makes the point. (If you have a weak stomach, don't watch this)
Histopathology Interphalangeal joint of toe --Gout
Histopathology Interphalangeal joint of toe --Gout
curated content from YouTube
"Trigger Foods for Gout"
What to Eat? What to Avoid? Seems Like it's Different for Everyone!
It's almost universal belief that BEER is a BIG no-no! From a biological standpoint, beer is loaded with the brewer's yeast and the barley and hops... these are high in purines--which, turn into uric acid, which is the nasty thing that causes the pain in your joints when it crystallizes there. A subtle distinction should also be made. Alcohol kills cells. Dead cells make their way to your bloodstream. The dead cells break down into proteins and then purines--and again, uric acid is the result. And, here's the big topper--alcohol causes one to become dehydrated, which is another thing to avoid if you have gout.So... this being said... most folks with gout are well-advised to AVOID ANY KIND OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE and in particular, BEER!
Back to My Story
Unfortunately, after my first bout with gout, I sort of got lax with watching my diet as well as I should have. I started to enjoy more meat in my meals and after a week of good eating, I went to a Mexican restuarant (I love Mexican food!), and ordered a combo plate--bean burrito, pork tamale, with a beef enchilada and brown chipotle sauce--and washed it down with a nice beer.
The next morning, my knee was sore--I just thought that I had strained it while moving some furniture. By the next day, however, it was really tender. I managed to make it to work, but I was in pain the whole day. That evening, I could barely walk. The next morning, it felt like someone was pulling my knee out of the socket and jamming a knife in there simultaneously. My wife raced me to the doctor's office--where I got the inevitable diagnosis: Gout attack. The doctor prescribed Allopurinol and Colchicine... he also recommended drinking lots and lots of water and mostly fruits and vegetables.
Avoid Purines!
Other foods that are high in purines include things like sardines and anchovies, mushrooms, shrimps and other seafoods. Organ meats--such as liver, kidneys, tripe, and so on are also "trigger foods". You may be able to play with a little bit (a *TINY* bit), but you are playing with fire if you do. It might not take much to set off a gout episode. For me, gout is so excruciatingly painful, that it's not worth messing with.
You have to limit the amount of protein you eat. So, if you like meat, a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards is about enough. (Yah, that sounds limiting, but again, is the pain worth it?)
I've learned to always have bowls of dark cherries, dark grapes, blueberries, celery sticks, carrots, and jicama available in the fridge when I get the urge for a snack. It took a while to train myself to go for these things... but I feel healthier. I've also learned to keep various fruits well-known to contain protein-breaking enzymes around to snack on. These fruits include pineapples, papayas, and mangos. I also eat bananas more frequently than I used to.
Explanation of Gout--A Doctor's Presentation
Gout: Most Important Points To Remember
For more videos, visit http://usmlevideolectures.blogspot.com/
curated content from YouTube
The Best Way To Combat Gout is Education and Preparation!
Read Up on This Ailment So You Won't Have to Be in Agonizing Pain!
After my second gout attack that had me in a wheel chair for two weeks of excruciating pain, I decided I better attack this thing that was making my life miserable. I wanted to PARTNER with my doctor (who is a GOOD doctor and who has seen many, many cases of gout), so we could have a combined effort at getting rid of this thing.
So that I could have an educated understanding of this ailment and so I could converse intelligently with the doctor, I got as many references to gout as I could find. (I've collected them here for your convenience!)
I figured that if I were going to have to live with this darn thing, I'd better UNDERSTAND it well enough to fend it off before it becomes worse. The way to do this is by reading everything you can get your hands on about the disease and making sure you know what you're doing when you eat something, or drink something, or don't get enough rest, or don't get enough exercise, and so on. Please help yourselves to the wonderful references here. Let me know which ones were most beneficial for you. If you know of any others, you are welcome to add them... send me a note about them... so we can help others who are suffering from this same thing.
One thing that frustrates gout sufferers is that they think that they'll be stuck eating bland veggies and none of the "good stuff"... well, after getting some of the "Gout Hater's Cookbooks" (listed below), my wife and I have become pretty decent at making some meals that are safer for me to eat but yet taste pretty darn good. I've lost quite a bit of weight since my last gout attack--(lose it SLOWLY! - If you lose weight too quickly, you can trigger a gout attack from all the bad stuff accumulated in your bloodstream as a consequence of losing those fat cells!), and I'd say that some of this weight loss can be attributed to the new foods and meals we've learned to prepare from the "Gout Hater's Cookbooks".
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Beating Gout: A Sufferer's Guide to Living Pa Free by Victor Konshin
Beating Gout is the most comprehensive and up-to-d more...0 points
Getting Rid of Gout by Bryan Emmerson
Anyone suffering from this traumatic arthritic con more...0 points
Gout Hater's Cookbook I by Jodi Schneiter
Gout Hater's Cookbook I, Recipes Lower in Purines more...0 points
Gout Hater's Cookbook II: The Low Purine Diet Cookbook by Jodi Schneiter
The perfect addition to the Gout Hater's Collectio more...0 points
Gout by Roy Porter, G. S. Rousseau, Roy Porter G.S. Rousseau
Gout has interested medical writers and cultural c more...0 points
Gout Hater's Cookbook III by Jodi Schneiter
Restricted purine diet, complies with modified and more...0 points
Gout Hater's Cookbook IV by Jodi Schneiter
Gout Hater's fans will love to see this wonderful, more...0 points
Gout and General Health Helpful Links
- Detailed Listing of Body Alkaline/Acidic Forming Foods
- This is a great comprehensive list of different foods and what they do to your internal chemistry. You should compare this to what your doctor has told you and use common sense when doing a diet or exercise. What is sort of distressing is how there seems to be a lot of contradictory information in this table (and in most books and other references on gout). This table/website was not developed primarily for sufferers of gout. It's for general "healthiness"... so, although for normally healthy people, eating beans would not be a problem, for someone with gout, it could cause all sorts of problems. Again, study ALL the literature out there before making a decision to try some of this stuff. (Also, contact your doctor for more information!)
- Protein Calculator...
- This is an interesting website--University of Maryland Medical System--a protein calculator. Just be aware that protein intake requirements for those who suffer from a tendancy for gout may need to be adjusted. Protein is incompletely broken down in human metabolism into purines and uric acid (the cause of gout).
More Comments and Added Information!
--One suggestion said that putting "Preparation-H" on the swollen joint would help to alleviate the swelling. Yeah, right. Like I could bear to touch the joint that is swollen with gout? I don't know, but I'll keep a tube of the stuff around, just in case--maybe it will come in handy, eh?
--I, too, have noticed a lot of "contradictory" information on ALL of the gout sites. Some say citrus fruit is okay, then others say they are a no-no. One website said that drinking high-fructose beverages (like sodas and other highly-sugared drinks) would increase chances for gout. They even went so far to say that fruits such as oranges and apples contain fructose, and thus should be avoided. Yet, another site says that lemons and lemon juice are good for making the blood alkaline (but my chemistry background says that lemons are highly acidic! And... they contain fructose--just like oranges).
--And... aspirin. Many of us are on the "low-dose" aspirin for the prevention of strokes and heart-attacks. But aspirin reduces the kidneys' ability to eliminate purines and uric acid. However, there are also studies that show the low-dose isn't the problem--that it's okay. Studies also show that large doses of aspirin cause the kidneys to dump purines and uric acid. It's the middle-range doses of aspirin that are the nasties for gout sufferers. --But before you gallop out there for big doses of aspirin --DON'T (unless a doctor has prescribed it with understanding your total medical history)--aspirin can cause stomach ulcers and bleeding.. Be aware that all drugs have side affects that may not be what you expected--especially when they interact with other drugs and ailments in your system!
--My sister has two knee replacements (and now is working on a hip replacement)... and I'm afraid this may run in the family. She hasn't hit menopause yet... at which time she might find herself at risk also for gout/hyperuricemia. She found out that celery is an alkalinizing vegetable--and that the celery seeds and celery seed extract may be good as supplements to keep gout away. I don't take the supplements, but I DO try to keep freshly cut stalks of celery in the fridge. When I'm wanting to gnosh on something, I get a piece of cheese and follow it with some celery. It keeps my hunger pangs down as well as I'm hoping it will also keep the gout away.
As someone with the ailment of Gout, I'm now always on the lookout for resources and references that can help me keep the pain away. I've adjusted my diet, and I don't eat as much red meat as I used to (I'm not totally "vegetarian", but I'm moving in that direction). However, I do occasionally pick up and incorporate good recipes from some of the great resources out there for our family's meals. Surprisingly, many of the recipes are great--they look and taste great... and at the same time, they are helping me to loose weight and prevent the pain of gout. Here are some great references:
Negative Calorie Foods: A Weightloss EBook--Popular weight loss program. Three Diet Plans, 150 recipes with "negative calorie" foods. Pictures of "negative calorie" foods.
Amazing and Delicious Raw Vegan Recipes--Desserts, Entrees, Soups, Salads, Sides, Snacks, Smoothies, Juicing, Holidays, Dyhydrating, and tips for adopting the vegan raw foods lifestyle. Recipe books includ intro to raw food for beginners.
Low Glycemic Diabetic-Safe Desserts--Twenty delicious, mouthwatering, low-glycemic, all-natural, diabetic-safe desserts with baking tips, information on sweeteners, and more. Includes twelve gluten-free desserts.
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Gout Information and Support Materials
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What's Your Experience? If You Have Gout, You Understand the Pain! Say "Hi" and Know That You Are Not Alone!
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- etftrendtrading etftrendtrading Aug 6, 2009 @ 5:02 am
- My grandparents suffer from gout I'm going to recommend this lens to them (they are about 80 but still up with technology). Interesting to read about the trigger foods.
Great lens
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- What-is-turbulence-training What-is-turbulence-training Jun 11, 2009 @ 10:57 am
- I am lucky to not have Gout. I do have a few friends who suffer from this terrible condition and it is extremely painful.
Thanks for the info great lens!
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- goutfreak goutfreak Feb 3, 2009 @ 6:22 pm
- Thanks for the great read. I just returned from the doc, popped a couple of indocin and a vicodin about an hour and a half ago and right now don't feel like asking someone to shoot me in the head, as I did for most of the day today. This episode snuck up on me with a different onset of pain than all the others, in the arch of my foot. I liked your description of the pain - and can attest to its accuracy. Nine years of attacks mostly in the knees and ankles before I finally had it diagnosed a year ago during an episode in the second toe of the right foot that I KNEW I hadn't injured. It's so amazingly painful and frustrating. I can't determine what brings my attacks on, thought it was over-exercise at a high intensity, but this one started 3 days ago during a walk, for God's sake. I wish the literature wasn't so contradictory - it's so bleeping hard to figure out what to eat and how to manage my life. Gonna see an internist to see if we can determine what's going on. Be well.
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- marianpopescu34 marianpopescu34 Jan 29, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
- A neighbour of mine has gout... and its pretty nasty.
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- MarcNorris MarcNorris Nov 5, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
- Well, I didn't know anything about Gout until I read this lens - so thank you for the valuable information. Definitely something I hope that I never suffer from.
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- bugwolf bugwolf Oct 7, 2008 @ 2:41 am
- Really a great lens! Thanks for your sharing us the information about GOUT! I think I must check if I have the GOUT symptoms.:)
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- hempnecklace hempnecklace Aug 24, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
- Thanks for teaching people about this.
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- MusicMadness MusicMadness Aug 22, 2008 @ 11:42 am
- Great lens mate. My father in law suffered from gout, but I never really understood quite what it was. This has answered a few questions for me.
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- -Rosemarie- -Rosemarie- Jul 24, 2008 @ 8:41 pm
- Excellent lens Dave! Excellent info, really enjoyed reading your personnal experiences. I'm featuring your lens on Gout attacks? Fight back with cherries.
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- MattIRC MattIRC Jul 15, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
- Gout??? I never knew something like Gout, would make a very interesting page. Thanks for sharing, I was unaware of the what Gout was in detail.
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- romyraut romyraut Jun 7, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
- Excellent lens Dave. I have never had gout, but have had my fair share of problematic health issues including shingles, psoriasis and acne. I hope that people suffering from gout are able to access your lens and benefit from he great information provided.
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- Daniel W Daniel W Apr 22, 2008 @ 10:32 pm
- I have had gout for about 5 years, and get about 1 bad attack per year. My trigger vs. non-trigger foods are not the same ones all the websites usually say. Tea (black tea, lipton, earl grey, iced tea) triggers gout for me. If I drink a cup or glass of tea every day for three or four days, I'll get a gout attack. Coffee is OK though. Even green tea will trigger gout in me, but takes more of. Beer, at the rate of 2 a day on average, has been fine. But if I take just one or two shots of alcohol, like whisky, vodka, or rum, it will trigger gout. Red wine seems to not be good either. But beer seems OK, which is contrary to what all websites describe.
Also, no one mentions MSG, but it triggers it big time in me. I can eat meat most of the time with no problem, but a really rich meal, thick steak with cream sauce, can trigger. Seems to make a difference how long it takes to digest. So, interestingly, diuretics are worse for me than prurines.
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- EricBadgley EricBadgley Apr 13, 2008 @ 6:39 pm
- I had no idea what gout was, now I do. It sounds like a horrible condition.
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- ZachG ZachG Mar 17, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
- Fascinating lens, I learned a lot about gout here. Seems like an awful condition, but it's good to know that it can be controlled.
By the way, did you know that Benjamin Franklin also suffered from gout?
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- Mar 4, 2008 @ 5:12 am
- I always thought Goute was something that happens to people who drink port.... Untill my Uncle suggered. He was a T totaller.
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- krisManuel krisManuel Nov 14, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
- Hey Dave, great information about GOUT! 5-stars. If you have time, stop by my lens. It will definitely help out :)
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- AlexMiller AlexMiller Sep 5, 2007 @ 3:34 am
- great with great information. like that part on symptoms.
tattoo sleeve
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- tbfrascone tbfrascone Aug 24, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
- Hi Dave! Thanks for visiting my lens helpful gout information. I had a hard time finding good gout videos on youtube, so glad to see your videos. 5 stars and I've lensrolled your lens.
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- Craig Craig Jul 28, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
- I have had (or had) gout for about six years now. It is as you all know one of the most painful things that you can go through.
I have learned how to control it or maybe even eliminate it. I drink a gallon of water per day with 1tsp Celtic Sea Salt mixed in. I also take a few celery seed capsules.
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- Tom Smith Tom Smith Dec 1, 2009 @ 3:58 am
- I have had gout for about 5 years, and get about 1 bad attack per year. My trigger vs. non-trigger foods are not the same ones all the websites usually say. Tea (black tea, lipton, earl grey, iced tea) triggers gout for me.club penguin
by EditorDave
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