Ways to prevent or reduce gout....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 8-16-2011

Last week I found an article that had some useful information about ways to prevent gout or reduce it if you once get it.

Excess uric acid causes it and chronic inflammation makes it worse and hurt more.

Eating a LOT of fatty red meat, particularly grain fed, and drinking high amounts of alcohol, particularly beer and hard liquor and bar drinks seems to cause it. For some reason, eating a LOT of shellfish can make gout worse also.

So following the suggested things many of our posts have had about more health protecting ways to eat protein will help prevent gout and help reduce it if you use them.

Processed meat is the one kind to not eat or eat least of all. It’s extra fatty, usually from grain fed animals, often very salty, and has other preservatives. Processed meats such as bacon and sausage do taste good. But eating them more like once or twice a month is far better for your health in every way than eating them once or twice a day. If you have gout, never eating these meats at all until you become gout free also makes sense.

Hamburger is a very similar meat and I include it with processed meats. Except for the preservatives, it shares the other characteristics of processed meats.

The much better news in the story, “Prevent and Treat Gout Naturally,” last Friday by Sylvia Booth Hubbard is that beans and lentils that were once thought to make gout worse not only do not do so, they may help get rid of it if you eat them many days a month instead of fatty or processed meats.

Wild caught salmon once or twice a week is an excellent idea since it seems NOT to boost uric acid and has inflammation lowering omega 3 oils.

Moderate amounts of lowfat dairy, red wine, eggs, and skinless poultry also seem helpful. The article had this: “Low-fat dairy. A study of male health professionals found that men who consume the highest amounts of low-fat dairy reduce their risk by 50 percent. “

She quotes Dr Ray Sahelian as saying that a DASH II style diet with a lot of green and nonstarchy vegetables and onions tend to fight gout. And, “Parsley, thyme, and peppermint are especially high in a flavonoid called apigenin which helps control uric acid.”

He also says that keeping off or removing excess bodyfat helps, I suspect by lowering the pressures on the joints in your feet, legs, and hips. Eating a lot of these vegetables most days every week helps to do that.

The article also said that drinking enough water to stay well hydrated helps. The uric acid crystals that cause the problem don’t form if the ratio of uric acid to water is favorably low. When there is too little water in your system and a bit too much uric acid, that is NOT good. Drinking enough water gives you a bit of extra leverage.

But the best point in the article is that “The king of gout-fighting fruits are cherries; some experts recommend eating six to eight cherries each day to prevent gout and 20 to 30 during an acute attack.”

You can buy canned, pitted, sour cherries without added sugar. This is relatively inexpensive. And, it’s much less time consuming than buying cherries and de-pitting each one as you eat it. Even better, sour cherries actually taste really good despite their name and are a quite low glycemic treat. The only two downsides are these.

There are often a few pits that didn’t quite get removed. So you need to eat the canned and mostly pitted cherries carefully or cut each one in half to check for pits first if you are going to eat them fast.

The even better news is that you can get similar phytonutrients from blue berries, black berries, raspberries, and strawberries. The organic berries in this group have very high levels of health benefits in many other areas from keeping your mind sharp or restoring it to some degree to helping prevent cancers.

There are cherry extract supplements, black cherry extract supplements, bilberry supplements, and elderberry supplements that all can be helpful.

The antioxidants in coffee may also help if you can drink it without problems otherwise. “According to a study at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, drinking at least four cups of coffee each day lowers the risk of gout by 40 percent. Six cups lower risk by 60 percent.”

Also avoid eating too much sugar or any high fructose corn syrup. “Sugar, especially high-fructose corn syrup, is linked to an elevated risk of gout. One recent study found that drinking just one serving of sugary soda a day raised gout risk in women by 74 percent compared to women who drank less than one serving each month.”

Other supplements the article listed as helpful include:

“Vitamin C. A study at the University of British Columbia found that men whose intake of vitamin C was at least 1,500 mg a day reduced their uric acid levels and their risk of a gout attack by 50 percent when compared to those whose daily intake was less than 250 mg. High levels of vitamin C may even prevent gout from ever developing. “

“ Quercetin. Take 1 gram of this flavonoid daily to reduce the formation of uric acid. “

“ Turmeric. An essential ingredient in curry, a 300 mg capsule of this natural inflammatory herb three times daily reduces the swelling and pain of gout.”

Since turmeric or the curcumin in it also helps prevent cancers and does tend to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, this one is great idea. Taking it with black pepper seems to enhance turmeric or curcumin’s anti cancer effects according to the book, Anticancer. And, taking it with 4,000 to 8,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 enhances its ability to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Taking omega 3 supplements and eating extra virgin olive oil and NO cheap omega 6 oils such as corn and soy and sharply minimizing fats from grain fed animals all also lower chronic inflammation. So does doing a good job of flossing and brushing your teeth each day.

And, celery seed extract the article did NOT mention, has been found to lower inflammation in general and quite a bit if gout is present.

I like the ending of the article that began my interest in doing this post.

"Gout is a disease you have control over," says Sahelian. "Maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet, and taking helpful nutritional supplements can help you reduce the risk of a gout attack."

In fact, it sounds to me as if doing these things well and consistently can prevent you from ever getting gout or even making it go away if you get it.

Important note. If you have a flare up of severe gout, it might make sense to see a doctor immediately for drugs to lower your uric acid levels quickly.

In that situation, it not only feels as if you have shards of broken glass harming you, the uric acid crystals are coming close to doing exactly that.

But why let yourself get there or stay there? Avoid harmful foods, eat health supporting foods, and take the supplements that prevent it or at least turn it way down! Each of these 3 steps will keep you healthy in many other ways too!