Home Remedies For Gout Flares
While you taking medication to fight the pain and inflammation during a gout flare, there are a few other simple gout home remedies you can use to ease the discomfort. Rest is important try to keep the impacted joint higher than your heart. Ice may also be helpful, because it brings down swelling. Research shows that ice is particularly soothing for gout if youre dealing with a different type of arthritis, a heating pad may be a better choice.
Some people also say that eating cherries or drinking tart cherry juice helps during a gout flare. While studies have shown that cherry lovers may be less likely to have frequent gout flares, its not clear whether loading up on this fruit during an attack will make an immediate difference. Cherries may be helpful because theyre rich in antioxidants, and tart cherries may help lower uric acid levels .
Points To Remember About Gout
- Gout is a type of arthritis that causes pain and swelling in your joints, usually as flares that last for a week or two, and then go away.
- With early diagnosis, treatment, and lifestyle changes, gout is one of the most controllable forms of arthritis.
- The most common symptom of gout is pain in the affected joint, such as the big toe.
- Your doctor may recommend taking medications to manage the cause of your gout and treat active gout flares, and making changes to your diet and lifestyle.
Medications That Can Trigger Gout
Some medications can trigger gout symptoms. This includes common pain medications. Even small amounts of these drugs can impact gout. Your doctor may recommend changing these medications if you notice more gout symptoms.
Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid raises uric acid in your blood. Even low doses of aspirin can trigger gout. Research shows that this effect of aspirin is more common in women than in men.
Diuretics or water pills help to treat conditions such as high blood pressure and edema or swelling in the legs. These medications work by getting rid of excess water and salt from the body. However, they can also cause a side effect of too much uric acid in the body, triggering gout. Diuretic drugs include:
- chlorothiazide
may have high levels of the hormone insulin. This can cause too much uric acid in the body, triggering gout symptoms in your joints.
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Gout Flare Ups Due To Meat And Organ Meat
Red meats are not only dangerous for people with high cholesterol or heart diseases, but also for people who have hyperuricemia. Beef, pork, lamb, turkey or bacon and any other red meat for that matter can cause gout flare ups. Here, it must also be mentioned that even fatty poultry chicken is not allowed if you are a gout sufferer. To satiate your desire for meat, you can go for a small amount of lean chicken in your diet and always make sure that you always trim off the fat. As it is not possible to trim the fat off from minced meat, hence avoid them.
Not just meat, but organ meats also contain a high amount of purines and may cause gout flare ups. So, brains, liver, heart, kidney, cow tongue, eyeballs etc. must be removed from diet.
However, all meats do not produce the same amount of purines. Since red meat contains higher amount of purines than white meat, one can take it in moderate amounts. You can occasionally indulge in pork or beef while lamb and turkey should be avoided as much as possible. At the same time, leg meat of lamb contains more purines than lamb chops. On the other hand, chicken leg is better than chicken breast. In general, chicken and duck are safer choices and turkey must be avoided completely.
Who Should Diagnose And Treat Gout
The disease should be diagnosed and treated by a doctor or a team of doctors who specialize in care of gout patients. This is important because the signs and symptoms of gout are not specific and can look like signs and symptoms of other inflammatory diseases. Doctors who specialize in gout and other forms of arthritis are called rheumatologists. To find a provider near you, visit the database of rheumatologistsexternal icon on the American College of Rheumatology website. Once a rheumatologist has diagnosed and effectively treated your gout, a primary care provider can usually track your condition and help you manage your gout.
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Limit Foods With High Purine Levels
Purine is a substance found in all foods that have protein, but some foods have more purine than others. Purine is linked to high uric acid levels, and consuming a lot of food with purines can be a problem for people with gout.
Seafood, including salmon, sardines, and mussels organ meats like liver and some vegetables are all high in purines. Pork, duck, and turkey all popular holiday dishes also have purines. To help prevent a gout attack, steer clear of these foods during holiday parties.
Key Points About Gout
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Gout causes inflamed, painful joints due to urate crystal deposits at the joints.
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Gout can also cause urate crystal deposits that cause lumps under the skin.
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Gout can be triggered by eating foods high in purines and drinking alcohol.
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Treatment of gout is aimed at reducing pain and the risk of future flare-ups.
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Gout can be managed with medicines and lifestyle changes.
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Why Gout Flares Up When You Stop Drinking: You Have To Know This
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Health Conditions Responsible For Gout Flare Ups:
Sometimes, stress due to health conditions like pneumonia or medical procedures such as visiting the hospital or undergoing a surgery may also increase your uric acid levels. If you are visiting the doctor or have fallen sick or are going to the hospital for a surgery, make sure that you tell your doctor that you have gout.
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Wear Extra Layers Of Clothing
The electric bill for heating can easily get high during the winter. To save money, wear extra layers of clothing to ensure that youre warm. Pay special attention to your feet as this is the lowest part of your body where uric acid tends to accumulate and harden. Youll want to wear thick socks, so they remain warm, especially at night.
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Can Stress Actually Cause A Gout Attack
Stress has been around since the beginning of man, as long as there is uncertainty there will be stress unfortunately and it does produce consequences. Not as much to people who are relatively good health as much as to those who have a disease or a condition already. Stress may be caused by a divorce, employment, altered finances, self-image, depression, accident, disability, social life problems etc
Unfortunately, stress doesnt make an exception towards gout sufferers since there seems to be a correlation between stress and gout attacks. This correlation seems more prevalent when stress is long-sustained, meaning it is not a one day stress episode but more long term stress that may harm the gout sufferer by raising his uric acid levels. That is why a gout sufferer must learn to manage their stress cause remember that stress may also cause muscle tension and increased pain along with worsening gout symptoms.
There have been no studies done in regards to gout and stress but studies on arthritis which studied laboratory ratshave proven a definite connection between stress and the development of arthritis. Many arthritis patients connect their disease with a stressful incident in their lives which they claim triggered it for them.
Read Also: How Do You Handle Stress
Alcohol Because Of The Yeast
Alcohol was on the avoid or high-risk list by every major health source referenced. Abstaining from drinking could be a tough ask for many. The point here is there is plenty of scientific evidence confirming drinking alcohol directly increases uric acid levels that induces gout.
Yeast, in general, contains a high amount of purines. The most common gout triggers made with yeast are beer, liquor, wine, cider, marmite, vegemite, processed meats, cured meats, and extracts.
Brewerâs yeast is used to make drinking alcohol. It is the main ingredient that contains purines. Beer gets the bulk of its purine content from brewerâs yeast, which has about three times the purines as bakerâs yeast.
Some sources stated that wine is less of a risk than beer and liquor. However, a 2015 study published by the American Journal of Medicine stated otherwise.
Episodic alcohol consumption, regardless of type of alcoholic beverage, was associated with an increased risk of recurrent gout attacks, including potentially with moderate amounts. Individuals with gout should limit alcohol intake of all types to reduce the risk of recurrent gout attacks.
-Am J Med. Author manuscript available in PMC 2015 Apr 1.
Another point was that drinking alcohol hinders the kidneysâ ability to remove waste products such as uric acid. Drinking alcohol can also cause dehydration, which leads to unnecessary uric acid production.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Gout
An episode of gout is called a gout attack. Gout attacks are very painful and can happen quite suddenly, often overnight. During a gout attack, symptoms in the affected joint may include:
- Intense pain.
- Tenderness, even to light touch, such as from a bedsheet.
- Warmth, or a feeling like the joint is on fire.
- How long does a gout attack last?
A gout attack can last a week or two. Between gout attacks, you may have no symptoms at all.
How To Prevent This Harmful Disease And Adrenal Fatigue
Now that you have a better understanding about how this form of arthritis can possibly affect your bodys stress response and trigger adrenal fatigue, its time to discover what you can do to lower your risk for this disease.
Essentially, the solution involves making smarter and healthier lifestyle changes. Before you decide to try any new supplement or food, however, it may be a good idea to consult with your physician first. This is because you can suffer from allergy or intolerance which can lead to severe symptoms such as lightheadedness, trouble breathing, or even fainting.
That said, here are some easy ways that you can avoid suffering from gout while also caring for your adrenals:
Limit your alcohol intake or try to avoid it altogether
Alcoholic beverages, especially beer, have been proven to increase your bodys uric acid levels. Hence, they can make your arthritis worse and lead to experiencing more pain.
At the same time, alcohol tends to suppress adrenal function, affecting the adrenal glands ability to produce enough cortisol during times of stress. Furthermore, the consumption of alcohol also tends to lead to compromised liver function. This means that the liver would have to work harder to rid the body of hormones circulating in excess.
Limit beverages that contain caffeine
Avoid foods that have high purine content
Make sure you get enough sleep and rest
Take some dietary supplements
Consider taking herbal supplements or adding certain herbs to your meals
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How Is Gout Diagnosed
In a clear-cut case, a primary care physician can make the diagnosis of gout with a high level of confidence. However, often there are two or more possible causes for an inflamed toe or other joint, which mimics some of the symptoms of gout, so tests to identify the presence of uric acid is performed.
Since the treatment for gout is lifelong, its very important to make a definitive diagnosis. Ideally, the diagnosis is made by identifying uric acid crystals in joint fluid or in a mass of uric acid . These can be seen by putting a drop of fluid on a slide and examining it using a polarizing microscope, which takes advantage of the way uric acid crystals bend light. A non-rheumatologist, when possible, can remove fluid from the joint by aspirating it with a small needle and send it to a lab for analysis. A rheumatologist is likely to have a polarizing attachment on their microscope at their office. Gout crystals have a needle-like shape, and are either yellow or blue, depending on how they are arranged on the slide .
Figure 11: Uric Acid Crystals Under Polarizing Light Microscopy
There are many circumstances where, however ideal it would be, no fluid or other specimen is available to examine, but a diagnosis of gout needs to be made. A set of criteria has been established to help make the diagnosis of gout in this setting .2
Table 1: Diagnosing gout when no crystal identification is possible
Ideally, 6 of 10 features will be present of the following:
Gout Flare Up Causes Symptoms And Treatments
Gout is a common form of arthritis that, according to recent studies, is on the rise.
In 2017, it was found that there was a 7.2% increase of people diagnosed with gout over the last 27 years.
And in the period from 1990-2017, its estimated that 41.2 million cases of gout were foundmaking it the most common form of arthritis in the United States.
Gout is caused by excess uric acid in a persons blood. Uric acid develops as purines are broken down in the body.
While purines are a chemical that naturally occurs in the body, they are also in the food or beverages we ingest.
When the body has too much uric acid, microscopic crystals may form and surround joints in the body, causing pain and inflammation.
Any joint can be affected by gout, but the most common one is the big toe.
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Causes Of Gout Flares
Gout, a type of inflammatory arthritis, happens when levels of uric acid a normal byproduct of metabolic reactions in your body become too high, says Kenneth Saag, MD, professor of medicine in the division of clinical immunology and rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. When this substance cant be sufficiently dissolved and excreted in the urine, it starts to crystallize, and those crystals deposit themselves in joints where they cause severe inflammation.
Certain risk factors, such as having a family history/genetic predisposition or having chronic kidney disease, can affect the development of gout over time. Taking certain medications , a high alcohol or sugar intake, or eating high-purine foods can trigger a gout flare. Read more about what causes gout here.
If youre new to gout, your doctor will need to confirm the diagnosis, as it can sometimes masquerade as other ailments that impact the joints . Your doctor will likely use a needle to remove some fluid from the swollen joint, then examine it under a microscope to confirm that it contains uric acid crystals.
Enjoy Sugary Beverages And Snacks In Moderation
Sweets abound during the holidays. Cookies, fruit punch, and other common party staples often contain high amounts of sugar, which can increase blood sugar levels. High blood sugar is linked to high uric acid, particularly in adults who are overweight or obese.
Avoiding soda, fruit juices, and other beverages and foods with high sugar content may help prevent gout flare-ups as you navigate the holidays this year.
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The End Of Gout Your Quick Start Plan
Shelly Mannings The End of Gout is not only a fascinating read its also refreshingly practical.
Shelly gives you two simple quick-starts:
Eat more of these
Eat fewer of these
This simple modification can correct many years of gout-causing errors in the eating. And you can start on this straight within minutes of receiving the program away.That really helped my problem of Why Gout Flares Up When You Stop Drinking.
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It tightens up the quick start advice and turns it into a solid, follow-along program.
The 7-day plan was the real clincher for me.
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The plan takes away all the thinking and gives me, for the first week, something I can simply copy.
After the first 7 days I used Shellys advice to adapt the plan according to my own tastes.
Which was pretty easy the plan is full of options so you can try different foods and see what you like best.
Its all food you can buy in your supermarket. And it includes lots of nice stuff the chocolate and strawberries desserts were real winners in my house!