What is your Gout trying to tell you?
April 16th, 2012 at 7:24 pm (Health News, Products, Science)
The five most common forms of arthritis are:
According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, gout is one of the most painful forms of rheumatoid arthritis. Gout affects approximately 3.9% of the US population and has been steadily rising as more and more American’s struggle with obesity and hypertension. Statistically, more men are afflicted with this condition than women because men have higher uric acid levels in their blood than women.
There are four types of gout:
- Asymptomatic (without symptoms) Hyperuricemia – Elevated levels of uric acid only. No other symptoms.
- Gouty Arthritis or Acute Gout – Often triggered by aggravating diet, stress, alcohol or another illness. Attacks usually happen at night and subside within 3-10 days with or without treatment.
- Interval or Intercritical Gout – The symptom-free time between acute gout episodes. These intervals tend to get shorter and shorter over time.
- Chronic Tophaceous Gout – Usually develops over a long period of time (like 10 years) with possible permanent damage to the joints or kidneys.
Purines are natural chemical compounds found virtually every type of food. Here is a short video on purines in relationship to gout. Usually the body eliminates uric acid via the kidneys by dissolving it into urine. When excessive uric acid builds up and the kidneys can’t keep up, urate crystals can form. These sharp urate crystals can develop in the kidneys, joints or tissue surrounding joints, causing severe pain and inflammation.
A 12-year study on foods related to gout recommended primarily avoiding high-purine foods like hearts, herring, mussels, yeast, smelt, sardines, and sweetbreads. Moderately-high purine foods are game birds, mutton, veal, bacon, liver, salmon, trout, haddock and scallops.
Risk factors for gout include genetics, obesity, excessive weight gain (especially during youth) moderate or binge drinking, high blood pressure, abnormal kidney function, heart disease, joint injury, chemotherapy, diuretics, some medications (including low-dose aspirin, steroids and immunosuppressive drugs).
Use of steroids and pain-killers may temporary alleviate symptoms of gout, but a diagnosis of gout is a good indication that systemic problems have been brewing for a long time and some lifestyle and comprehensive nutritional changes need to take place.
Improving kidney function and reducing C-reactive proteins (an indication of systemic inflammation) are two key aspects to preventing gout. If you’re a bit fuzzy on what kidneys do, here is a quick three minute video on the critical role kidneys play in filtering the blood and supplying vital nutrients to the body.
Reducing or eliminating high-purine foods would clearly be a smart way to reduce the burden on the kidneys. Supporting the body’s overall digestive health would also help kidney function and reduce uric acid imbalances. Drinking lots of fresh water and eating a high-alkaline diet full of fresh raw foods and fiber meets those objectives.
Studies have shown that many supplements can benefits gout-sufferers by improving kidney function, reducing systemic inflammation caused by free-radical damage and aiding in digestion. Click on the name of each supplement type below to see how it can address gout related problems: