Gout

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martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
So, I've suffered from gout for around the last 5 years or so. I quickly discovered the myth about port/red wine etc causing gout (it doesn't) but I found that lager/beer could bring on an attack if drunk in sufficiently large quantities (around 24 pints/cans in a weekend). However I haven't had any alcohol for over 2 months and have just suffered one of my worst gout attacks (in my wrist/hand) which put me off work for two days.

A visit to the doctor and some internet research has suggested that my recent intake of sugar (large bags of Haribo, Jamaican ginger beer) could be the cause. Depending on the website you read, fructose may or may not be a trigger.

Now having given up alcohol, being asked to also give up sweets seems a tad harsh (all I've got left is coffee!!). Does anyone else suffer gout attacks and have advice on other triggers etc. At the moment, allupurinol is out (I manage each attack as it comes).

TIA
 
I get it in the joint of my big toe.

It's only this year it's flared up enough to the point I had to work out what it was, before that I now realise it'd been building for a while and I ignored it.

It's trial and error, but I reckon fizzy drinks are a trigger, which isn't a problem as I only drunk them out of laziness when my daughter leaves them kicking about, but the other trigger seems to be chilli's, which I love and think helps with my diet.

When I feel the gout coming on, I have a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda a couple of times a day and that seems to ease it off.
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
You might be interested in this article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19746453
Yep seen that. I actually have a cherry tree and have eaten cherries as a mitigation in the past. However one website (typically one I can't find now) claims that the fructose in cherry juice can bring on an attack of gout.

I get it in the joint of my big toe.

It's only this year it's flared up enough to the point I had to work out what it was, before that I now realise it'd been building for a while and I ignored it.

It's trial and error, but I reckon fizzy drinks are a trigger, which isn't a problem as I only drunk them out of laziness when my daughter leaves them kicking about, but the other trigger seems to be chilli's, which I love and think helps with my diet.

When I feel the gout coming on, I have a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda a couple of times a day and that seems to ease it off.
Yeah I've had a lot of fizzy drinks since I gave up alcohol and think it may be a trigger. Not sure about chillis as yet as I've not had any recently but do tend to add chilli powder to quite a bit of stuff.

Btw in case you didn't realise, just because it affects your toe now, I've found it change to other joints although it does favour the ones in your feet. I've had it in my hip and this last attack in my wrist. :sad:
 

buddha

Veteran
Another gouty here!
Started 10 years ago. Never been excessively overweight, and reasonably fit.
Though, thankfully, have been free from an acute attack for almost 2 years.
As well as beer, dehydration is your enemy. Cherries, strawberries and apples and suchlike are your friends. I'm sure you've seen the stuff all over the interweb.

edit: I've read it's the stuff just under the skin of red fruits that's good - forget what it's called. But that's what things like Cherry Active tablets are made from IIRC. Never tried them though,

"An apple a day", as they say. And lots of water.
 

VamP

Banned
Location
Cambs
You don't say why alupurinol is out, but the way I manage is VERY irregular use of alupurinol, probably less than one tab per month on average, as a way of occasionally lowering my body's concentration of uric acid. This works very well and I have not had an attack in over three years. Previously I would have an attack once or twice per year.

Mind you I have also lost a lot of weight, and dramatically improved my diet, and cut back on alcohol over the same time, so my evidence is purely anecdotal.

How do you manage attacks BTW?

I used to go to GP and get anti-inflamatories prescribed, but a physio friend suggested rather than waste time that way, best just to hit it as soon as it materializes with maximum dosage ibuprofen and paracetamol combined.
 

Linford

Guest
FIL has gout. IIRC He said it was caused by the formation of uric acid crystals in the tissues. Sopunds painful, and that good hydration levels will help
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
You don't say why alupurinol is out, but the way I manage is VERY irregular use of alupurinol, probably less than one tab per month on average, as a way of occasionally lowering my body's concentration of uric acid. This works very well and I have not had an attack in over three years. Previously I would have an attack once or twice per year.

Mind you I have also lost a lot of weight, and dramatically improved my diet, and cut back on alcohol over the same time, so my evidence is purely anecdotal.

How do you manage attacks BTW?

I used to go to GP and get anti-inflamatories prescribed, but a physio friend suggested rather than waste time that way, best just to hit it as soon as it materializes with maximum dosage ibuprofen and paracetamol combined.
Alupurinol is just me really. It just doesn't seem right to take a tablet every day when there are other ways to prevent it. I know this probably doesn't make sense but I see it as a "Because I take alupurinol I can eat whatever I like" rather than changing what I eat.

I have stocks of indometacin and meloxicam that I start taking as soon as I feel the onset. Meloxicam has so far been pretty effective for clearing it up in a couple of days. However I didn't initially register this last attack as gout due to the change in joint (it was the same when it attacked my hip at Xmas)
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
FIL has gout. IIRC He said it was caused by the formation of uric acid crystals in the tissues. Sopunds painful, and that good hydration levels will help
It is incredibly painful. Hydration does help and I know I'm bad at it. Coffee also helps as being a diuretic it keeps the fluids moving around the system.
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
Shouldn't you be taking daily NSAIDs by way of prophylaxis?
See above Greg. It seems like a cop-out (probably completely irrationally) to take a daily tablet if I can manage it in other ways. My brother takes alipurinol daily and seems to get by ok although he does still get the occasional attack
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
So, I've suffered from gout for around the last 5 years or so. I quickly discovered the myth about port/red wine etc causing gout (it doesn't) but I found that lager/beer could bring on an attack if drunk in sufficiently large quantities (around 24 pints/cans in a weekend). However I haven't had any alcohol for over 2 months and have just suffered one of my worst gout attacks (in my wrist/hand) which put me off work for two days.

A visit to the doctor and some internet research has suggested that my recent intake of sugar (large bags of Haribo, Jamaican ginger beer) could be the cause. Depending on the website you read, fructose may or may not be a trigger.

Now having given up alcohol, being asked to also give up sweets seems a tad harsh (all I've got left is coffee!!). Does anyone else suffer gout attacks and have advice on other triggers etc. At the moment, allupurinol is out (I manage each attack as it comes).

TIA


I've been on a daily tab of allopruinol for 10+ years after a series of very painful gout attacks - the weight of bedsheets on my foot was impossible to tolerate, walking was impossible etc

Since then, I have rarely had an attack except for a period when i had one a week for several weeks - a bit of googling identified asparagus as high in purines and a trigger for some, and i had just discovered asparagus at the loacl farmers' market as was buying every weekend. I cut that out and the gout dissapeared again.

Prior to allopurinol, i learned to recognise the first symptoms (vague but distinctive tingling around the affected joint in my foot) and was able to reduce the severity of the attac using diclofenac 75mg.

I drink too much beer and red wine and main line Lion midget gems - none have any affect on the gout. if you read the interweb you will find almost everything identified as a potential trigger but for each individual there are specific triggers - giving up alcohol and sugar my for you be entirely futile!

Incidentaly - the romans sufferd from gout, so did Georgian Gentlemen and so did many booze drinkers in the US during prohibition - the link?

The romans had lead pipes and sweetened their wine with lead salts; Georgain gentlemen kept their port in lead crystal decanters; bootleg distellers used car radiators for cooling and the raditors had Lead soldered joints. The cause: Lead disrupts the kidneys' excrtetion of uric acid, the build up gives gout!
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
See above Greg. It seems like a cop-out (probably completely irrationally) to take a daily tablet if I can manage it in other ways. My brother takes alipurinol daily and seems to get by ok although he does still get the occasional attack
Aged P was on allopurinol and a daily dose of 'profen when he had it. He changed his diet for other reasons and he hasn't had an attack in years.
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
Cheers PK. Alcohol has been given up for other reasons. Similar to your asparagus though, if you look back through my diet over the last couple of months, the sugar intake has climbed and climbed whilst everything else has remained fairly static hence the finger pointing at sugar. It could be brown bread too and that's next in line for the chop (can't say I'll miss it, I prefer white but SWMBO prefers brown).

I agree with what you say about the interweb. About the only thing it's consistent on (thankfully) is that coffee is relatively good.
 

Broadside

Guru
Location
Fleet, Hants
I have been on daily Allopurinol for the last 3 years, prior to that I was suffering a serious gout attack every 2-3 months. I figured that daily medication was better than joint damage following each attack. I don't fit the profile of what gout sufferers used to be pidgeon holed as - I am 6ft and 75kg.

I never got to the bottom of the cause of my gout though I did try a lot of elimination stuff, I completely cut out things like alcohol, tomatoes, red meat, cut back on fructose, all the usual stuff really. After I went on the daily Allopurinol the attacks cut back to once or maybe twice a year, treated with a heavy weight NSAID, ibuprofen does not come near to touching the pain or reducing the swelling. Since that I have practically cut out yeast from my diet, i was previously a big fan of Marmite and lots of crisps a lot of which are flavoured with yeast extract. Since cutting right back on the yeast I have not had an attack since so it is staying out of my diet, but I can't say I have proved it for sure.
 
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