Interested in gout

well, despite not knowing an awful lot about the
Vietnam war (having been educated in the UK), i can
imagine, in some ways, how bad it must have been. in
other ways, i guess you'd have to be there.
yes, well i haven't ever used it in that way. i always
seem to be a little bit too "tired" after a smoke :)
i've heard cannabis is useful for pain relief, but i
think that a lot of the effect isn't an actual
reduction in pain, more like caring less that tha pain
is there. for example, despite me saying the cannabis
increased the amount of pain i felt, i did get less
pain when i was watching TV, because the effects of
the cannabis meant i was enchanted by whatever it is i
was watching.
i've just turned 25, but i had my first attack when i
was 17, with maybe one or two attacks a year since.
strange you ask me about allopurinol, as i have been
prescribed it but never took the tablets (due to not
wanting to be on permanent medication).
this morning though, i took my first tablet (100mg) as
the doctor now wants to see how much it will reduce my
uric acid levels, which appear to be naturally high
all the time (as opposed to the "spiking" others speak
of)
dave

I do not drink coffee and haven't for about 25 years. Nor do I
consume much in the way of caffeinated soft drinks, but for some
of us Coke, and stimulant drinks like Red Eye, Red Bull and "V"
might be a problem.
If you are trying to analyse your caffeine intake don't forget to count
these other things as well as coffee.
Regards,
Marg (Australia)

I was sitting there sipping my morning cup of coffee thinking about
what else I might be doing that would aggrivate my gout. I finished
the paper, and looked out over the tomatoes and decided that it's
time to harvest them again but decided I'd have another cup of
coffee first...
Cup of coffee..
Cafene..
General stimulant, raises blood pressure, stimulates adrenal cortex,
known to be a relatively strong diuretic...
I know all thest things and yet..
Wow...
I'm adicted to coffee...
I drink 3 to 6 cups a day and have done so for more than 40 years..
I did a quick search and will do a much more thorough search later
but-
Yep....
Coffee, particularly the cafene in coffee is probably the source of
my renal imbalance...
Do any of you have any information about coffee use and gout..
Before researching it my reasoning goes like this.
Coffee, cafene, is known to increase the water removal activity of
the kidneys-adrenal stimulation, coffee every day, stimulation every
day will gradually teach the adrenal system and the kidneys to depend
on a level of cafene in the system to function properly. It could
also reduce the effectiveness of the system by keeping it over
stimulated...
Danm... I really would hate to give up coffee, I guess I can go for
the decaffinated variety..
I don't know but I'm guessing that it is causing me a problem and may
be one of the underlying factors, if not the underlying factor
causing my gout.
mmmm

At your age, with confirmed, multiple gout attacks, why are you not
on allopurinol?
You should be. Moreover, it will allow you the live the life others
of your age are able to live. It can't be the fear of taking drugs.
If you get side effects and cannot take it then that is another
kettle of fish. If you have not tried it, you should. It will take 3
to 6 months to work completely but that's not bad considering the
alternative.
It may not seem like that much but when you have to eat rice and all
your friends are eating steak and lobster and your not even paying
the bill....well-I know you understand.
Allopurinol works for so many people and it's a cure. It stops gout
in its ugly, sensitive, swollen tracks.
My opinion is that you should be on allopurinol.

I was talking to my mothers husband, who is a doctor, and he told me
that there is another medication for gout. I know there is
Allopurinol and Probencide but this new medication is not available
to the public yet. One of his fellow doctors is on it and he said is
just as good as allopurinol or better but with less side affects.
This doctor with gout was on allopurinol but he had a bad reaction
to it. I'm guessing he has close ties with the pharmacutical company
and asked if he could give it a try. I'll get back to you guys with
the name of the medication as soon as I'm able to get a hold of him.
I have a great idea, I'll have him join our group.

A good answer to my tough response to you.
I seriously doubt if you have had more experience with the substance
than I have but then again my experience was from a different day
and with a different world. People were shooting at us when I
started using it heavily although I had done it on wekends regularly
in the states before I left in 72 for a place called Vietnam. It was
an all expenses paid vacation trip too and I think the pressure of
thinking that someonw was going to shoot me every day, every night,
24-7 was in fact made easier to deal with by the weed. That was where
we first met Mr. Thai stick and it always left me in a stupor for
many days in a row. I quit when I saw two of my buddies fall, all
three of us were very very high, one in front of me and one beside
me, and I was so out of it I didn't even hear where the shots came
from. I decided after reflecting on it for a few weeks that it was
pretty stupid of me to be high in that situation. One of my wounded
buddies didn't make it and the other said, and I'm trying to quote
him, "Hey dude, it don't hurt that much, and I get a ticket out-a
here now."
If I were sitting at home with the gout, knowing I didn't have to go
to work, and it were legal, say like in Holland, I might try it too.
I wasn't condeming you and I appreciate it that you didn't take it
that way.
From what you said I do find it valuable and worth having read your
post that you believe it made your gout attack worse. That is, after
all the subject of this forum, gout, and the fact that it made the
pain worse does not surprise me. I found the same thing when I was
laid up after a motorcycle accident when I was 18 before I went to
Nam. It made my leg hurt terribly and I remember being surprised at
the time. I agree that it probably increases your tactile
sensitivity, at least for a while and this is probably one of the
reasons people enjoy it's use so much-i.e. enjoy it for bedroom
recreation...
Good luck with your gout and you sound very young to be afflicted
with it.
Are you on allopurinol?

from:FraidtoFly
its not fighting really, just differences of opinion.
personally, the mails i received on the subject of
cannabis use are absolutely fine, these people are
just as entitled to condemn pot as i am entitled to
smoke it. in fact maybe a little more so seeing as it
is technically illegal (for now!) - and also, i kind
of jumped in there without considering others, so my
apologies to anybody offended by my posts or my
actions :) d

[snip]
from personal experience, what negative effects??? :)
Ok girls and boys we are
mine and mine alone guys!!
I don't even know this
it can? amazing!! - i know there are trials finally
going ahead (in the UK), but who's to say what will
come of it.
buddy..I do not use abuse drugs..but I gotta
exactly. if someone came on here and said "i've been
sucking on car exhaust pipes all morning and it got
rid of my gout within 20 minutes" i'd give it a go if
i was in the world of pain that is a gout attack!
including one Mr Bill Clinton, although he didnt
inhale of course ;)
hooray, rehab instead of jail!! - seriously though, in
the UK a sacking would be the standard fare, none of
that "lets give them help" type of thing. maybe some
companies would offer to help, but that would be down
to individual companies rather than legal precedents.
obviously not! heh heh couldn't resist that one :)
again, different country different law, but there was
a woman who escaped a drink driving charge after
consuming liquer chocolates. similar circumstances.
never done the colchicine, doctors in the UK seem to
prefer other slower acting drugs. but yes, basically
make yourself sick to get rid of your sickness.
there are blood tests in the UK to stop "drug
driving", so there must be some kind of limit, but the
tests are not used a particularly large amount. also,
heroin and amphetamine users are targetted more often
than cannabis users. personally i wouldn't drive after
anything more than a single joint, and only then if
there had been at least an hour and a half gap between
my last "toke" and me having to drive. having said
that, i will avoid driving almost every time i smoke
because after a smoke, i simply cant be bothered with
having to hold a wheel, press pedals AND move a stick
about all at the same time :)
d

tsk tsk, no flaming now!, i dont think he was being
"sarcastic" as you say, just a little over eager to
point out the disadvantages of the evil weed :)
well, i do use weed recreationally and replied as
someone mentioned they weren't aware of the effects on
gout. as a regular cannabis user and gout sufferer,
surely i'm likely to be the most authoritative figure
on "this specific matter", but i have used cannabis
for gout pain relief and have found that it isnt as
effective as prescribed drugs *shock horror
revelation*
in fact, as i originally mentioned, cannabis can
actually make an attack worse, if used early in an
attack. however, if an attack is on its way out but is
also lingering, then prescription drugs supported by
cannabis use can reduce or remove pain, in my case.
but as an overall effective pain killer for a gout
attack?? no it isnt effective.
i'm in the UK where fingers crossed it will be
legalised pretty soon. without going into a "Free The
Weed" rant, the only reason cannabis was made illegal
was as a knee jerk reaction in the 1920's to
unsubstantiated reports of all sorts of nastiness
being committed by these drug users.
the fact that, in reality, a cannabis user simply
could not be arsed getting off the couch to cause this
nastiness seemed not to register with the enforcement
agencies of the day. since then, reports have again
and again concluded that cannabis has far fewer
negative effects than both alcohol and nicotine.
fair bargain, and i'll keep away from the "Free The
Weed" rants in future as well. deal? :)
d

hi there, and thanks for your response. i think you
have mixed up two separate subjects into one single
subject here. i had previously posted about problems
with having gout attacks that were affecting my work
life, through having to have time off work during
attacks. the little bit i wrote in this email was a
message to say "thanks for not replying" to my
previous question. a sly dig to get someone to reply,
if you will :) - i'll reply to other bits below.
mostly the above is true. but i disagree with the
phone etiquette thing. i can hold a conversation with
my mother whilst under the influence and have her not
realise a thing. although i dont disagree with you,
yes it slows you down and stops you thinking clearly.
firstly, an important point is that i live in the UK
where drug testing is almost none existent. at the
moment, so this disadvantage doesnt register too much
with me. i have had prolonged exposure and so my fatty
tissue probably does contain cannabinol. again, this
doesnt worry me as testing is not a common option used
in the UK.
no i do not expect any employer to show me anything
but the door if i turn up to work high, but i think
the "next day" effects are over estimated in my case.
my friends often say that the next day "hangover" is
true and they often are effected by it, but i have
always been fine in terms of wakefulness, ability to
concentrate etc etc. again, im not disagreing with the
point you make, but my experience is different. this
may be because i stick to the "weed" rather than
"hash" as much as possible, as the hash does have
these effects on me.
so i think your points are all valid, if a little
misguided when pointed to me personally, and whilst i
thank you for bringing these points up, i have been
aware of them for a number of years and it has not
curtailed my habit.
i'll also say that i use cannabis as an
antidepressant, which helps control my weight, which
in turn helps to control my gout. i will not condone
this action for others to follow as it may not work or
have the opposite effects, but for me, in my
situation, it works!
i'll go reply to the others now :)
d

First let me say that alcohol is as much a drug as is pot, only pot is benign and much less harmful in every aspect, except perhaps for possible damage to the lungs. The only difference is that alcohol is mostly legal and pot is mostly illegal and the reasons for that are political. You can be high as a kite from pot and eat a batch of (regular) brownies or a couple of candy bars or whatever and be perfectly straight in short order. We should try to be non-judgmental here because our objective is to seek the truth about gout and its triggers/aggravators.

I work as a contractor and left my last assignment a couple of weeks before my first gout attack. When that happened arthritis and a back problem all flared up like a domino effect, so although I didn't actually LOSE a real job because of gout I have not been able to work for months and it amounts to the same thing because I have been livingoff my savings and credit cards all this time. The gout is okay for now and my artrhritic knees are better I thinl because of the supplements I started recently but my back is still bad. But I am now actively seeking work and will haqve to see how it goes when I do land a job. Gout and its aftermath has cost me almost six months' salary,

Negevoli

You need an anti inflammatory medication and although over the
counter drugs may work for you, I needed Celebrex, which worked very
quickly and very well for me.
With gout, you have a percipitation of sodium urate crystals from
your blood and those crystals are attacked by your body. They are an
irritatnt and your body gets inflamed to try to get rid of them. The
area will get red, it will be warm to the touch and in severe cases
your whole body can get a fever. I would advise getting Naprosin
tonite and takind two immediately and another within 4 houtrs after
you have eaten something (preferably white rice). Then, tomorrow, get
your physician to perscribe some kind of anti inflammatory
medication.
The next part is a lot easier to say than it is to do but it is my
treatment. Others should comment as it probably varries from person
to person but the principles should be followed regardless of how you
get there.
You need to elininate, and I mean immediately, the things in your
life that can make more crystals form. As a new gout sufferer your
body has been crusing along in life getting rid of its uric acid
about as fast as it was being made and that is where most people are
and live. That is, their bodies get rid of uric acid as fast as it is
made. Unfortunately you, and the rest of us gout sufferers, have
reached a point in life where we are not able to get rid of the uric
acid as fast as it is made and some of the excess uric acid that we
carry in out bodies starts to percipitate out as crystals of sodium
urate.
Thus the first thing for treatment of a gout attack, other than the
drug perscription that a physician must do, is to eliminate the
purene sources in your diet. My self perscription during the first
few days of an attack is:
1) Eat only white rice, no salt. I do however, flavor the rice with a
little bit of salid dressing but just enough to flavor it and that is
probably a couple of teaspoons. I stop all meat, all vegetables,
everything but white rice for the first few days.
2) Dramatically increase your water intake. Double or tripple, or
more. You need to drink enough water to make you urinate every hour
at a minimum. My procedure is to drink a full glass of water each
time I go to the bathroom. It means a lot of trips to the bathroom
but you need to flush the sodium urate out of your system and your
kidneys are the best defense you have.
3. Avoid salt on, or in, anything during an attack. If you cannot
hold to the white rice diet, and I can usually only hold out for
three days or so, then make sure you do not eat any of the offending
foods, red meat, shell fish, beans-get a list from your physician,
and do not put salt on your food during an attack. I would advise
that you make sure that no salt is added to your food. The food will
not taste very good when you do this but it is important to keep your
blood as salt free as you can so that the crystals can redissolve.
(An important thing to consider about this set of recommendations is
that if you have to be in a situation where you must do exercise or
must be in a hot place and are therefore going to sweat a lot, you
may have to replace some of your body salt with an electrolyte, such
as Gatoraid or Pedialite.
If you follow these perscriptions and take both Culchiccine and an
antiinflamitory drug, you should be able to feel noticible letup in
your pain and swelling within the three days of the white rice diet.
The theory here is that with an intake of only rice, any formation of
uric acid that was happening from the food you were eating will stop.
Also, any food allergy or inflammation from your diet will also be
stopped and the rice allows you to have energy while short
circuiting the uric acid formation from food. In a way, white rice
clears your system of all stuff, good and bad. The gout pain will, in
most cases immobalize you so your uruic acid from muscle breakdown
should also be at a minimum, and in most cases, this should releive
your symptoms.
Some other recommendations.
Absolutely do not take aspirin. It will make your gout worse.
Do take Vitamin C. It will increase the rate of uric acid excretion
in your sustem and it will tend to neutralize the crystals that are
causing you pain.
Longer term you can hope you never get another attack. Unfortunately
the probability is that you will get more attacks and they will be
more intense and more frequent as you get older.
Have your blood pressure checked and if it is high you might want to
consult with your physician about it.
Most physicians I have talked to do not recommend, after only one
attack, that someone go onto the one drug that can stop your gout
because there is still a chance that you will never get another
attack again. You might discuss allopurinol with him though just in
case he has any opinions about it. By the way, it will not stop your
gout attack tomorrow or even soon because it is a long term treatment
that takes a long while to be effective against gout.
Good luck and I hope your pain lets up.

I am surprised that he did not perscribe a non steroidial anti
inflamitory (NSAID) medication. There are several over the counter
such as motrin or naprocyn. None of the over the counter drugs
worked for me. I limped around for the first three weeks with mine,
until, on the advise of my mother and her rhumatologist, I got my
doctor to perscribe Celebrex. Colchicine and celebrex worked for me
but it didn't completely clear up till I learned what did and did not
irritate my gout. If you are taking enough colchicine to make you go
to the bathroom, that should be enough to start to releive the
symptoms but not if you continue to pour uric acid on your gout fire,
so to speak. You may also be sensitive or allergic to it so that may
be causing you a problem without relieving the gout.
I'll give you my recommendation in another post as I am being
summoned to the dinner table right now.

I just had my first attack of gout :/ I have had it for 2 weeks, my
doctor prescribed colchicine pills, but they made me go to the toilet
so I had to come off them. Can anyone give me some advice on how to
shift it and how long it should last for, my doctor hasent given me
much info at all. Also am I best to avoid going to work until the
swelling and the pain have gone altogether?
Thanx in advance
Kerrie

I went back over the literature again to confirm that there is no
evidence I could find to suggest that allopurinol has any affect on
uric acid that has already formed in your body. The mechanism of
action of allopurinol is to stop the formation of new uric acid.
While reading various references, I ran across several very recent
references that are very important to us.
Earlier medical literature has noted the relationship between gout
sufferers and hypertension-(high blood pressure) as well as a
similar correlation with corronary heart disease. Until very
recently this was thought to be a co-effect of gout, perhaps, it has
been suggested, that gout and hypertension are caused by the same, or
at least similar, metabolic conditions.
I would suggest that you read at least the first reference I will
give because it is a startling result.
1) http://www.rheumatology.hss.edu/phys/specialReports/uricAcid.asp
(July 1, 2003) Theodore R. Fields, MD, FACP
Internet Project Director, HSS Division of Rheumatology
Director, HSS Rheumatology Faculty Practice Plan
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Medical College of
Cornell University
Uric Acid and Cardiovascular Disease - Chicken or the Egg? New Animal
Data Suggest Possible Pathogenic Role of Urate.
2) Hypertension. 2003 Jun;41(6):1183-90. Johnson RJ, Kang DH, Feig D,
Kivlighn S, Kanellis J, Watanabe S, Tuttle KR, Rodriguez-Iturbe B,
Herrera-Acosta J, Mazzali M:
Is there a pathogenetic role for uric Acid in hypertension and
cardiovascular and renal disease?
3) Hypertension. 2000 Dec;36(6):1072-8. Verdecchia P, Schillaci G,
Reboldi G, Santeusanio F, Porcellati C, Brunetti P.
Relation between serum uric acid and risk of cardiovascular disease
in essential hypertension. The PIUMA study.
4) Hypertension. 2001 Nov;38(5):1101-6. Mazzali M, Hughes J, Kim YG,
Jefferson JA, Kang DH, Gordon KL, Lan HY, Kivlighn S, Johnson RJ.
Elevated uric acid increases blood pressure in the rat by a novel
crystal-independent mechanism.
In order to keep from upsetting anyone as to why I say these things,
I will quote from the first reference cited here.
Dr. Fields writes:
"Recent animal studies, however, suggest an independent risk status
of urate.3 Rat data in this study suggested that urate appears to be
pathogenic of hypertension, arteriolar wall thickening, and
endothelial dysfunction. Mild induced hyperuricemia (using a uricase
inhibitor which does not lead to crystal deposition in the kidney and
preserves renal function) causes hypertension in the rat within
several weeks, with stimulation of the renin-angiotensin system and
inhibition of NO synthase (and renal injury and fibrosis).
In this model, blood pressure changes were prevented if allopurinol
was given early. Chronically hyperuricemic rats showed salt-
sensitivity and thickening of the afferent artery of the glomerulus
and tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis - which did not
reverse if allopurinol was given late. Hyperuricemia stimulated rat
vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and induced endothelial
dysfunction."
That may be hard to absorb but the bottom line is that when they
artifically induce high urate levels in rats, those rats develop high
blood pressure and they develop hardening and thickening of the
arteries. More importantly, when those rate were fed allopurinol
early in the test, the hypertension symptoms did not appear. If the
symptoms were allowed to go too long, they were not reversible.
The excess uric acid that we are accumulating from our gout condition
is much more dangerous than just the pain we feel from the attacks.
The high levels of urate in our blood is causing severe and
eventually non-reversible cardio-vascular problems.
Based on this finding I plan to get my physician to increase my
dosage of allopurinol to a level known to stop urate production
altogether and then titrate my system back to the optimum level. That
is, I will move the dosage level down, slowly, based on any bad
reaction to the drug, based on serum urate levels in the blood and
based on how my gout attacks are progressing.
Some of you have stated your reservations about taking allopurinol,
as I did, but allopurinol is indicated for gout sufferers and to my
way of looking at it, this is cardio-vascular implication is the most
persuasive of all the information I have read. I can live a long time
with a pain in my foot, I cannot live very long if my heart and my
arterial system are compromized.

I just posted something earlier, but thought I'd tell you all that
when I went to my foot doctor, she told me that they're seeing more
cases of gout due to the recent "fad" of high protein diets. I'm
probably telling everyone things they already know, but I thought it
a bit interesting...

Had my first attack of the gout last year (lucky me) and it's been
just over a year and just had another one. This wasn't as bad as I
went to the doctor and they took blood.
Just got back the other day and turns out my uric acid level is a 10
(which she described as high). I was like "no kidding".
Anyway, she tells me that if I only have one attack a year to keep
coming back and she'll give me the indomethican (probably spelled
that wrong), however if it gets more frequent then I'll have to go
on some medication to regulate my uric acid levels.
Anyway, my question is this...I seem to have a sort of bunyon
forming on my right big toe (my mother has these as well, as does
her sister and her mother) (I'm male, by the way). My doctor noted
this and told me I could get it removed whenever I wanted. Now
personally I don't care about a bunyon, as long as thre's no pain
and there's not really, but the area is still a bit tender.
Anyone else have this, or am I just lucky?
As far as a "cure" goes, I really haven't changed anything in my
diet, except that I try to drink a lot more water during the day.
Anyone have any ideas to make things better?
Over and out...

[snip]
i am a regular cannabis user and i have found, through
many months and years of research, that cannabis will
not actually bring on an attack on its own, but if you
are suffering an attack, it can make the pain worse.
whether this is due to foreign bodies in the blood
stream or due to a heightened sensory level because of
the effects, i do not know.
my advice would be to puff away until you get an
attack, then stop till it clears up.
one more point. there are two basic types of cannabis,
there is the solid block (usually called "hash") that
you can get, or the dried leaves (usually called
"weed"). the hash, i have found, has worse negative
effects than the weed.
and it was nice to see that everybody completely
blanked me on the "work and gout" issue i raised last
week. has no-one had a job lost or career ruined
through continuous gout attacks? damn.
d

I had it with gout!!! I'm only 30 years old an I have to worry every
day about what to eat. I go out with women and try to have a good
time but I can't eat a good meal or drink alcohol. No, I don't have
to drink alcohol to have a good time but it does help. I have been
hearing about allopurinol is the way to go, I might give it a try. I
do worry about Allopurinol and my liver but like somebody else
mention, I'll worry about it when I get there. I've had gout for two
years and I believe I have tophi already. People describe it like
looking like a crab eye. I think I have it, it's a small hard bump,
that does look like a crab eye. I thought it took three years to
develope tophi? My mother told me that I lived life too fast. I used
to drink hard, do marijuana and have multiple sex partners. I
believe she was right and now i'm paying for It. Sorry for the
pathetic story but I had to vent out.

Sorry for not finishing but had to go to a meeting then another
meeting.
Urate level in your blood, taken over time, is a good measure of your
kidney's ability to rid your system of urate.
Sodium urate, to be precise mono sodium urate, is sparingly soluble
in water, or blood, and a number of 7 suggests that you are at a
saturated level. If you are having an attack your level will almost
certainly be 7 because that is where it is when things are in
equillibrium. The Solid monosodium urate (MSU) is in equillibrium
with the dissolved MSU and untill your system can get the blood MSU
to go down, it will be very hard for the crystals to redissolve.
If you have a large excess of uric acid in your system, such as
arnoldtheskier apparently has, enough to form trophi by the way, then
even though you stop the production of uric acid with allopurinol,
there can be enough uric acid in your fatty tissue, to keep you
miserable even if nothing is coming in because allopurinol is being
used.
When your blood urate level has dropped to say, 5 or less, then there
is a capacity for the blood to dissolve any remaining urate crystals
and it can also excrete some of your uric acid that is converted into
sodium urate from the excess you have in your body. Thus, by
maintaining a lower than 7 urate level in your blood, if you can in
fact get to that point, you will be able to rid your system of the
excess and reasonably expect to live gout free.
Understand this however, the urate level in your blood is not an
indicator of how much uric acid you have in your system. The acid
form of uric acid is an organic compound that hides in your fatty
tissue, or as a deposit in your joints as trophi, and it can remain
there for years and years. You could, for example, be on allopurinol
for 3 years, be 30 pounds over weight, have a blood urate level of 5-
a good number, and still get a bad attack of gout when you lose 15 of
those 30 pounds really fast.
It is the mono sodium urate dissolved in your blood that crystallizes
out of solution that causes your gout attacks. It is possible to
maintain high systemic levels of uric acid and not ever get into the
gout crystal formation stage.
Long term, take allopurinol, monitor your urate level in your blood
and alter the dosage of allopurinol until your urate level begins to
drop. As arnholtheskier mentioned, this can be 900 mg for some severe
cases but most men are brought back to a maintenance dosage of
between 200-300mg long term.
A final editorial comment, I also resisted taking allopurinol and I
am only on a 100 mg per day dosage and suspect that I will have to go
higher to finally clear up my gout attacks. But there is no question
whether anyone who has had a second attack should do it. The long
term effects of allopurinol may be some liver and some kidney damage.
Your gout will only get worse and you are not going to be able to
control it with diet or water or preying. If you have severe side
effects then you may have to get really strict with yourself but for
my money, it is just plain silly to avoid allopurinol treatment if
you have had a second attack.

OK
So allopurinol does not do anything to the uric acid you already have
in your system.
Then why is is effective on gout?
Because it stops the formation of new uric acid. Remember, your body
is in a steady state of digesting food to make urate and digesting
itself to make urate and this urate load is usually handled by the
kidney and excreted when it is made. In us gout sufferers, for
whatever reason, and there could be a multiple set of reasons, the
excretion part, does not work as it should. Some people have a
elevated rate of making the uric acid, but even these people end up
having excess uric acid in their system and must get rid of it.
Thus, allopurinol stops the production of new uric acid. It does
nothing for the removal or breakdown of the uric acid you already
have.

Time for a summary of what is going on with uric acid and u, and me
and anyone else that has gout.
First, people can, and many people do, have very elevated levels of
sodium urate in their blood and show absolutely no sign of gout. Why
this is, or to be more precise, why it is that some of us get gout,
i.e. crystallization of sodium urate is a big unknown. I'll leave it
at that because I have no information on that one.
The next most important issue is allopurinol and what it does. This
is very well documented and in fact the Nobel Prize was awarded, in
part for this finding.
Allopurinol does not affect your uric acid level, your dissolved
sodium urate level or your crystal deposits of sodium urate. No
effect at all, none nada. Uric acid is a completely stable substance
in the body and the only way, short of surgery, to remove uric acid
is to excrete it through your kidneys or to sweat it out through your
skin or, some physicians now believe, to move it out through your
bowls when you have dihreah, which culciccine does for us after we
have taken enough of it.
Allopurinol inhibits the enzyme in your body that converts the
precursor for uric acid into uric acid. The precursor and its
precursor, that is the two things that are there just before uric
acid is formed, are both much more soluble in water and more easily
handled by the kidney than uric acid. Allopurinol does nothing,
besides the side effects, but stop the production of new uric acid.
If you have a lot of uric acid stored in your body as uric acid, not
as the urate salt, then you will have to lower the uric acid level
through excretion and if you have a lot of excess uric acid, as
apparently arnoldtheskier did, it can take as long as three or more
years to eliminate the excess uric acid. Trophi are an extreme form
or excess uric acid and, by the way, not all people who suffer from
trophi get the gout attacks that are caused by the crystals.
More later, I have to go to lunch....
end of part one...

My apologies..it just occurred to me that I hadn't really
properly answerred a question about tests..regarding
allopurinol.Sorry Skip..I surely hope that I haven't left anyone with
the impression that the only concern is uric acid levels..and so what
about long term..as long as the gout is gone..again my apoligies..
FAR,FAR from it.I have indeed inquired/read/researched about the
long term effects.
And the Dr's I see are obviouslly VERY concerned.Very.
I have blood tests done every few months.These are VERY
thorough.There is a very serious concern about kidney/liver function
health..as well as a whole host of other things.Yes I have a pretty
good idea of all the tests..results..always get a copy.I don't know
if anyone is interested in all the tests that are done.I'm sure I
could explain them..
WHEW!11 tests are ordered..I guess it is based on gout/chronic
gout..on allopurinol..33 tests and results come back on a printout
from the lab.
I'ld be happy to post any other info.if anyone wants..or email me.
Arnold..

Hi
Not sure if I am sending this correctly. If not then I am sure someone will
let me know what I am doing wrong. (addressed to original sender and copied
to group).
65 Year old male in UK.
I started Allopurinol (300mg) about two years ago. Still had gout attacks
in the first year though none were very severe. In the second year have had
no attacks, just the very occasional twinge.
Was put onto Allopurinol about 10/12 years ago but developed an attack which
eventually became the worst I have ever had (mainly due to doctor telling me
to continue with the medication during the attack). Some research on my
part established the cause of the attack and that you should not continue
with Allopurinol during an atttack. This put me off of Allopurinol until I
had attacks in my knees which immobilised me for three weeks at a time.
Very interested in what you say as I have started studying human
systems/microbiology/organic chemistry in order to try to help my wife who
has SLE (more commonly known as Lupus) which is another condition related to
arthritis.
Mike

I have started a group for those going on allopurinol or those
already on allopurinol.
No..don't leave this group..this is a GREAT! group..I don't plan
on leaving.
I started this group because after years and years and years of it
myself..and all the sufferring..SO much
reading,research,communicating with so many people..it had become
redundant.I saw myself and so many others communicating..doing/trying
just about anything/everything..and..AND..people had either had
enough suffering..gone on allopurinol..and were basically ok
now..whereupon they quietly dissappeared..from groups..contact.They
had simply had enough of gout..and had found a solution.I don't blame
them.And the others were still on an.. on again/off again attack
program..looking for a new idea.Sure.. new people came along..and it
was the same..
It is another group.. where the focus is on allopurinol.This is
almost always where we end up when we have had enough of gout..or
nothing else works.It almost always works.Of course I am aware that
sometimes it cannot be taken.Gout has been around documented for 2500
years..pretty much nothing has a very good track record of dealing
with it.Allopurinol has been around for about 40 years..no-one..no
research can show that this has not pretty much ended gout when
taken.With few side effects.
I'm not encouraging people to take it..nor is allopurinol a
wholesale license to live/eat/ and drink.. badly.But if you're going
to go on it..or already on it..
I don't want to debate it..or get into discussions of other
ideas/remedies there.
I know a lot about gout and allopurinol..and am happy to help!
There is ongoing research with gout..but nothing on the horizon
yet..all we have is allopurinol(probenicid..too but not as popular).
All are welcome!Stop by..say hi..give some advice/get some
advice,tell a few stories..read a few..

I spoke to Dr. Enzenauer as well as Professor Cal Meyers from
Southern Illinois University, an Organic Chemistry Researcher for 40
years and, yes, there are already ways to measure urate and yes, we
could probably figure out how to make a home urine test.
However, there are s few problems with such a test. First, Dr.
Enzenauer says that although you know what the urate level is and you
know the history of that level in a specific patient, you have no
data about what the level should be, what it should drift to and why
it is going where it is.
Moreover, he also lamants that there are many people with uremic
poisoning in their system, i.e. their kidneys simply do not work, and
even though they get terribly high levels of urate in their blood,
they do not develop gout.
The real problem is that the level you measure in the urine will
depend, very heavily, on how much water the person has had to drink
and when, during his daily cycle, you make the measurement. There
already is a urate test that is done with a 24 hour sample of urine,
ugh, and I'm going to request that I be given the test. Someone on
here posted that they had just completed the 24 hour test and I am
interested in what was found.
I have suggested that a needle biopsy test for urate dissolved in the
fatty tissue of your system could be developed and this concept
caught Dr. Enzenauer's as well as another rhumatologist's attention
when I mentioned it to them. As we have discussed on here, when you
are over weight your uric acid will dissolve in the fatty tissue in
your body and stay there. When you finally try to lose weight, the
body can metabolize the fat but when it is burned, so to speak, there
is all the uric acid left behind and that is probably what causes us
our problem.
What we do not know, however, (and we should know) is whether a non
gout sufferer who is over weight has the same amount of uric acid
dissolved in their fatty tissue as us gout sufferers. That is not
something that is known and it shouild be. Well it sould be if there
were a test for uric acid in fat tissue. There doesn't seem to be one
and it seems like no one has thought of it yet. It isn't a hard thing
to determine and I would like to know mine but the test has to be
developed. I have contacted Dr. Meyers at SIU and he has agreed to
help me explore how this measurement might be made.
Thus, I am suggesting that the most important thing to understand
first is: 1)What is the total uric acid load is on our system? and 2)
How does that load compare to people who are at the same amount of
over weight as we are but who are not gout sufferers. We need data.
Knowing what rocK to look under is more than half the battle.

hi list
i was wondering how people on this list mix their work
life with their gout attacks??
i graduated from university (in the UK) last summer,
and in the job I have had since, i had had to stay off
work several times because of gout attacks that have
completely debilitated me.
this has now led to me having a disciplinary meeting
because of my absenses and although my employers were
understanding about my attacks once they knew what it
was, they obviously dont want me having any more time
off sick.
how do employers generally treat gout sufferers? is
there some kind of disability register that a person
can go on to have gout recognised as a disability, or
some form of part time disability? it is really
annoying that i am finding it hard to keep down a job
simply because of recurring gout attacks.
dave

Walter,

I've been reading with interest all your letters.

I think if a Urate in urine test is feasible it might be very helpful. For a litmus-type test I guess you would have to find a compound that reacts with urate and turns color when it does. Also it would need to turn different shades of that color depending on the urate level.

I would think something like the glucometer that diabetics use to test glucose in the blood, that gives a more accurate number reading of the level, would be more ideal. (Are you familiar with glucometers and how they work? Diabetics can check 4 or more times a day with relative ease and not too much expense. The glucometers get smaller, quicker, need less blood all the time.)

And urine is much easier to get than blood! Actually a uric acid in the blood test could probably be devised, but you're saying that is not the factor that determines an attack.

I hope you are still thinking about this and looking at how you could move ahead with your idea. I guess you would have to demonstrate to the medical profession (or a drug company) that such a test would help in warding off gout attacks. (I wouldn't approach the company that makes allopurinol!)

Eager to hear more,

Marian

I have a problem with my knee that has been keeping me from walking
or moving around. My doctors don't seem to know what it is so they
are saying it's gout. There seems to no evidence of an injury
through an MRI and X ray. This has been bothering me for more than a
month. I'm out of work on disability because I cannot move my knee
enough to drive.
I'm not sure that I have the exact symptoms of gout. I was wondering
if anyone in this group has gout of the knee and could talk with me
about the pain and the way it affects your knee?
I have a high uric acid count in my blood but 3 tests of knee fluid
have come up negative for uric acid crystals. I'm thinking I would
have some crystals in my fluid if I had gout. My doctor originally
was sure I had Lyme disease until more than 6 tests came up negative.
I have been on .6mg Colchicine once daily for almost 3 weeks. The
swelling in my knee has gone down alot but doesn't seem to go away.
My knee is swollen with fluid. This prevents me from moving it
around that much. I can barely bend my knee on its own. If I
elevate the knee or sit normally however, there is no pain or burning.
(it just feels tight because it is swollen) Does this sound like
gout? Doesn't gout burn all the time no matter how the joint is
positioned? My knee isn't shiny, red, or hot either.
Also, my feet have been swelling up for the last week from the ankles
to the calves and top of foot.(not my toes) This may be a reaction
to the Colchicine or Relafen(NSAID I was taking with Colchicine until
6 days ago when my feet started swelling).
If anyone can assist, I would be forever in your debt!
Billy

When I am going to get an attack I also have knee soarness.
Unfortunatley, I can, and often do, have knee pain without an attack
but perhaps they have been pushed off by water. I just don't know. I
will look for it though.
The more I think about it and the more I read and listen, the more
cinvinced I am that the primary culprit that triggers an attack is
salt. Extra salt in the diet, or higher salt concentration in your
system from getting dehydrated.
I can make the pain start with a salty meal and then make it go away
with lots of water. If I let it go too long the water doesn't help
but I am talking about the initial feeling we get when we know an
attack is on its way.
I have been on my exercise routing now for 4 days, sweating each day,
and off the celebrex and culcchicine for 3 days. Swelling is now all
gone, as is the redness. Feet and knees are a bit sore but not too
bac considering.

Can tophi form inside the mouth?

In a routine physical, about 3 years ago, my physician found a
strange EKG pattern which is repetitive and shows up each time an EKG
is measured. Just by accident about a month ago, I happened to be
talking to gout sufferer friend and his EKG is the same as mine. I
happened to ask another friend by e-mail, who I also know suffers
from gout and he tells me that he has the same thing.
Hmmmm
Perhaps just coincidence...
Have any of you had an EKG and is it normal.
If not what is not normal about it.
I won't mention what the abnormality is to keep the data clean. Two
of us have been to the cardiologist, different doctors in different
cities, and both Doctors say the same thing. "Don't worry about it.
It's just an electrical irregularity..."

This is true only of me, of course, but I have never drunk beer in my entire life and have not had any alcohol of any kind for years because it gives me headaches and I developed gout. I think Mr. Matthews documented that alcohol interferes ot interacts with uric acid levels and that is the reason gout sufferers should avoid it.

Neg

"285lbs from 170lbs my life changed dramatically. "
"The interesting thing is that I got my weight down to 185lbs and I
still get gout attacks. I don't think loosing weight reversed my
condition. "
The problem with the weight loss is that while you brought your
weight back to near your 170, there is still 15 pounds extra and some
of you at 170 was also fat. The excess uric acid that you had in your
fat tissue at 285 had to be gotten rid of and I'm surprised that you
didn't develop trophi. Maybe you did. In any event, your system is
now completely saturated with uric acid and it will take you many
years to come back into the balance you had at 170. Allopurinol is
clearly indicated and if you will exercise too, carefully and with
your physician's permission, I bet you, and allopurinol can keep old
Mr. gout away from your door.
"But my doctor told me that once you get gout you have it for life
no matter what you do."
This is not necessarily true although it is probably true for most
of us.

I spoke to Dr. Raymond Enzenauer, the chief of Rheumatology at the
University of Tennesee Medical Center. He has never met me but was
recommended as someone knowledgable in gout. I came out of the
conversation with a few points that I think are important.
First as to a recent post by Newfoot, Dr. Enzenauer also says that
only 10-15% of your uric acid load comes from diet, as was posted,
but, he points out, if your renal system is able to manage 100% of
what it makes and cannot handle any more, a 10% overload, every day
of your life, ends up being a lot of extra Uric acid.
The biggest culprit for gout sufferers in his experience is beer.
Beer is a double problem for us because it shuts down renal excretion
while increasing, substantially, the purene load on the system. He
says that his office knows that Monday after the super bole, there
will be a stream of gout complaints. According to Dr. Enzenaauer,
alcohol consumption is a much bigger culprit in triggering gout
attacks than diet.
Men and women act very differently when they have gout. Men are more
than 4 times as likely and get gout much younger than wemen. Almost
all of the women he has treated are older, 60 and above, and their
gout is related to impaired kidney function. He stresses that he
doesn't really know but it seems like the attacks in women are
entirely different than they are in men.
I need to summarize the conversation more consicely and will do so in
a future post.
For now though, I need to go to my exercise. Ond day on the treadmill
and I am so much better that I wonder why I waited so long.
My attack has almost entirely resolved and I now walk normally.

Does anyone know if

Are pulses high in purines in their raw state as well as their dried state?

If tofu (made from soy beans) is very high in purines, what about soy sauce and miso paste?

The Japanese eat a tremendous amount of soy products, do they generally suffer from gout?

Also in asian foods there is 'blacan', dried shrimp paste, the ingredient that makes a lot of Thai and Vietnamese food taste great. You only use 1/4 teaspoon in most dishes (servings for 6), but I imagine that this also is no good for gout sufferers, is this correct?

How about Thai Fish Sauce, is this a no no also?

Thank you in advance.

Ilona

Adelaide, Australia

6:00 AM, Took 1 celebrex, one culchicine trying to control my gout
attack and 20 Mg of Accupril-BP med
7:43 Voided bladder at start of walk.
7:45 45 minutes, 3 miles and an incline of 3, whatever that means, on
the tread mill. Took in 1 quart of water/electrolite (half and half-
GatorAid) during the walk. I sweat profusely and from past experience
have found that I lose about 4 pounds dufing 1 hour of a walk.
Had enough pain when I started to cause a slight limp. Big toe of
left foot and the next two toes painful, red and slightly swollen at
the start. This attack has lasted for three months now.
8:02 Finished walk, drank one quart of water, needed to void which is
new, since I haven't drunk water during a workout this was new and I
would not have made it to 1 hour without a break. I will probably
have to plan two half hour sessions.
8:45 After the walk, now some 45 minutes after stopping the walk, no
pain in either the big toe or the other two toes and only have pain
when I actually press the toes down hard enough to lift me my body
off the floor with one foot and that pain is slight. I am leaving the
shoe on that foot to keep the area warm. This fits with the
observations from "Newfoot" who reported that his pain was reduced
when he played golf in the heat.
I was afraid of doing this walk this morning but so far it has been
great, this is the least pain I have had now in over three months.
IMPORTANT QUESTION
As I was walking, something occured to me that I need to, WANT TO,
understand.
When I sweat,(perspire) and my sweat is salty.
Very salty in fact. Sodium something is being removed from my system
and I'll bet there is urate in the sweat along with sodium chloride
and whatever other salts are dissolved in my blood. If this is true,
then it would be MUCHO benificial to us to sweat and drink water and
replace the fluid as it is removed.
I'm not advising anyone or suggesting anything to anyone vis a vis
this but it is a fact that sweat is salty and I doubt that the body
can distinguish among the various ions when it decides it needs to
cool the system down and starts the sweat process.
Hanging in there--Skip

I am in the throws of a gout attack that has been with me now for
about three months. Off and on and I have been trying to figure out
how to minimize/eliminate the pain and get back to normal.
I recently went on allopurinol but I think I am not on enough, as I
am only at 100 mg now.
I believe that I need to loose weight as I am now 207 and should be
180 and I know that there is a lot of stored uric acid in my fat and
as I lose the weight the uric acid will come out. The trick has to be
to keep the water going.
My weight loss plan is to walk for 1 hour a day, on a tread mill,
that takes me 4 miles in that hour on an incline of 4 on the machine.
Dunno what that is in the real world. I do know this, that when I am
religous about the walking for 5 of 7 days each week, I loose about 2
pounds a week with no change in diet. When I get encouraged I usually
lower the food and improve the rate of loss to about 3 pounds a week.
Any more than that and it would be dangerous and I level off there.
When you walk for one hour, and sweat as I do when I walk two
important things happen.
1) I wil raise my body temperature for a whole hour. That's why I am
sweating and the increased body temperature will increase the
solubility of the socium urate in my system. Improve the solubility
and the system will reabsorbe the solid sodium urate and reduce the
crystals in my system.
2) The walk will increase, temporarily, my blood pressure and an
increase in blood pressure will improve whatever renal capability my
system has. Increase the pressure on an osmotic system and it will
improve it.
The key I think is to make sure that I replace immediately, or as it
is happening, the fluid that I am going to sweat out. I have never
done this and I know from past experience that when I sweat too much
without drinking water and without drinking an appropriate
electrolyte, I get attacks and I get dehydrated and it's not good.
From a experiment design, I should make sure that my kidneys have
plenty of water to use when I am elevating my Blood Pressure so I
will drink about two quarts of liquid, 1 qt of water and 1 qt of
gator aid during the walk.
I'm posting my weight today, I think about 207 and I'll post my
progress weekly on Sunday evening. I'd like all of us who ae
overweight, to try it. Lets loose weight. What are you now and post
it weekly. If you are not able to loose weight, and you are trying,
perhaps you can tell us why you think you didn't and why you were not
able to do it. I know that in my case, I am just weak and figure that
I can do it tomorrow so I put it off and pig out. Tomorrow will find
me walking-only 45 minutes a day the first week by the way, and I
believe I can do it. I walked through the gout pain once about two
years ago and, in fact, I walked it away after about two weeks and it
stayed away for two years. I got to 185 then. Unfortunately over the
intervening two years I then balooned back to my now chubby self of
207.
Wish me luck and perhaps some of you will join me.

Hi Peter,
I doubt that the bag of frozen peas is hurting you, since you have a
noticeable positive effect, though I may be wrong. I also use cold to
reduce swelling when a severe attack is on, and it is very helpful to
me. Now, if you eat the bag of frozen peas, THAT is a different story!
Heh.
I had been lucky for three years, and had only 3 severe attacks,
although it has become clear to me that general achiness in various
joints has likely been a symptom as well. Unfortunately, last January,
during a time of stress, I had a really bad attack, which has remained
with me after the severe pain subsided, as a low grade swelling ever
since.
I've been lucky enough to join this group and hear all sorts of good
tips. I am implementing the following in my life as a result:
1. Slow but determined weight loss.
Diabetes II runs in the family, so this is top priority for me, although
I've been reading that gout sufferers need to be careful with weight
loss.
2. Two litres of water a day - more if working out or working
physically.
3. Back to a more healthy diet.
Now to figure out what that is. :) First, though, I'm reducing the
empty fats and calories, like chocolate, candy, soda pop, potato chips,
ice cream, etc.. My wife is a very good responsible cook, luckily, so I
have good options for vegetables at least once a day.
4. Using some of the foods/extracts that have been recommended -
cranberry, cherry, celery seed.
5. Investigating whether my left big toe remains injured, as dropping a
casserole dish on it triggered in the nasty attack. Also, I am a dance
teacher as my hobby profession two nights a week, and feet are
relatively important to dance. ;)
6. More family and friend fun times and less work time to decrease
stress.
How about the rest of you? Any changes you're planning? Are you
serious?
Rick.

See your Physician and get him to put you on allopurinol. Don't
screw around trying to control it any other way. You gotta lose the
weitht too but do what must be done now. Take your medicine-
allopurinol. And good luck...
Skip

I urge you to read the paper,
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh21-1/84.pdf
by Murray Epstein, titled "Alcohol's Impact On Kidney Function".
Compare his clinical and laboratory findings with your own
experience.
The bottom line of the rather long and complicated article is that
whereas your rate of liquid removal with alcohol is increased, i.e.
you gotta go to the head more often, the rate of removal of things
you want to get rid of, is dramatically reduced. In other words with
alcohol, your body starts to dump water but stops removing the
impurities. This has the effect of increasing your monosodium urate
concentration in your blood and creating a problem. Water will indeed
help the situation but until the liver can metabolize the alcohol,
your kidneys take a vacation from impurity remocal, so to speak. that
is they stop removing urate from your system. If you are not in the
throws of an attack, it will probably not hurt you, however, if you
are on the edge of an attack or in one, it will be a bad idea to
drink alcohol. During my first attack I drank about a liter of wine
thinking that it would numb the strange pain I had in my toe.
I can testify, under oath, that it did not help. I think I actually
saw it swell as the wine disappeared.

Question - I have had gout for a couple of years. I have read that Beer
should be restricted. Is this all Beers - is there a differnce between
Beers - eg. Lager. Does the same count for Cider? Any assistance would be
much appreciated.
In Hope

Welcome and I shudder at the prospect of Gout at 27, or in your case
at 20. In my opinion, you have to get serious about your person and
your life if you want to avoid, or at a minimum, reduce, gout
attacks. The one thing that is conclusively bad for you is to be over
weight. However, it is also very hard to lose that weight when you
end up getting an attack when you try. Believe me, that is where I
live but I have resolved to shed my extra 20 pounds and the decision
that I will do it is the first step. The second step, actually doing
it, is proving harder to get done but I have to if I want to avoid
these attacks.
From what you have written and from what I understand about the
disorder, you should be on allopurinol. At a minimum for as long as
it takes you to get your weight back into a good range. Believe me, I
know just how hard it is to really lose weight but you and I will get
more and more, not so friendly, pain if we don't. By the way, I gave
up competetive tennis when I was about 46 because of knee pain and
I'm sure now that the pain is associated with gout.
For you to be stricken with gout at 20 suggests to me that you should
be treated by a rhumatologist. A physician may know a lot about
treatment of the symptoms to relieve the pain but your particular
progression of gout suggests that you have a much more serious case
than most of us. Most of us get it at about 50 and the fact that you
got it at 20 means that your system for excreting uric acid is just
not working. They can do 24 hour urine tests on you and in that way,
they can determine what your rate of excretion is.
As to diet, well shrimp, red meat, beans, artichokes-your physician
can supply you with a list, but you have to eliminate them from your
diet. I allow myseld a half of a serving of prime rib, on my
anniversary, and I go home afterwards and go to bed in fear when I
do.
By the way, do you carry when you play golf. I do, or did, and I
found that if I got really good shoes and got them a size larger than
I really needed, it dramatically reduced the golf induced attacks.

The real issues we have long term are:
1. What is our Uric Acid load above and beyond normal limits?
2. What is our present rate of uric acid excretion.
Number 1, as I have said earlier, is not something I believe any
medical service anywhere can tell you. It may be possible to develop
such a test but to my knowledge, no such test exists today. What the
medical community measures today is our serum mono-sodium urate, the
salt form of uric acid and there is no measure of the acidic form of
the uric acid in our bodies. Clearly if you have developed trophi you
have a serious problem with uric acid but short of that indicator, we
are living blind, so to speak.
Number 2, however, is something that I believe we can get a measure
for. It should be possible to develop an indicator dye, that can be
put into a paper, like the Ph paper you use to measure the acidity of
your swimming pool, or a colorametric test, like the color test of
water with indicator drops you use to determine if your pool has
enough chlorine. I would prefer the paper method but clearly a
colorametric indicator test would be more accurate. The urate level
in your urine could be measured daily, or weekly or perhaps only
monthly, but it would let us know how our system is doing at getting
rid of the uric acid we have. Moreover, after we have plotted the
levels over a period of time we would be able to understand the
fluctuations we are undergoing and it would help each of us
tremendously, in understanding what kind of treatment, if any, we
need when we are not having an attack.
Moreover, once you understand what is the "rate of urate excretion"
your body is producing, you can experiment with your diet and look at
the results, quantitatively on a daily, or even hourly basis to
determine what the effect of various things is on your urate
excretion.
For example, there are numerous references to cherries and a diet
cotaining cherries. Do cherries increase the rate of urate excretion?
It is something we can measure.
Great for the concept but now I gotta figure out how to measure it so
we can do it in the privacy of our own home.
I know such a test can be developed and the question is, are you
interested in it. It is the first concrete product idea I have had
from this research-study-pain endurance trial I have been going
through but it makes a lot of sense to me to be able to measure that
rate and also it makes sense to know what the normal ranges are and,
most importantly, what affects that rate.
I'm retired now but I decided in the shower this morning, as I
thought about this test, that I could probably get a grant somewhere
or maybe a job to develop this test. I did put together an elaborate
and extensive test system, when I did my post doctoral work at
Northwestern and this urate test should be easy to do.
This forum seems to be relatively unresponsive to suggestions, with
some notable exceptions who have e-mailed me and I do appreciate the
feedback from said notable exceptions, but I really think this is a
concept, a practice, a test, that we should all have and that we
should all do on a daily basis frist and then weekly and then monthly
Esay to say but the test doesn't exist yet...
My guess is that we may even be able to predict a gout attack and
head it off with this data. If your urate level in your urine has
been 10 units (AN ARBITRARY UNIT I DREAMED UP) and suddenly it drops
to 5 or 4 or whatever level, and it has not been there before, you
may be about to have an attack. Moreover, such a test will allow us
to regulate the amount of allopurinol we take much more precisely. If
300 mg is good for my mom, who weigs 110 pounds, why is 300mg the
correct dose for me when I weigh in at 205.
She suffers from peripheral nuropathy, a known side effect of
allopurinol, but is stubborn about her allopurinol because of her
numerous bouts with being bed ridden from gout.
Hey, you gotta know what you want to test for and why you want to do
the test before you can devise the darn test.
Smile please.
I'm looking for feedback on this idea-
A home colorametric, quantitative test of urate in urine.
Any interest...???

Well, I'll try to work something up but I am no expert so there's no guarantee. If someone IS an expert, please volunteer if you have any time to do it. The suggestions were wonderful and should serve as a guide for the form -- it can be revised.

Negevoli

Have you had your gout verified with observation of uric acid
crystals? If you do not have sensitivity to foods, I seriously doubt
that it is gout. I also get a terrible pain in my toes, usually both
of them, when I wear cetain shoes, which I keep forgetting to throw
away, when I play golf. The pain is uncomfortable and feels similar
to gout but is not gout as it's progression is significantly
different. With my golf pain there is little swelling and
inflammation, just pain when I walk. When I get a gout attack, my
whole foot, including my ankle, swells to about twice normal size,
the toe gets deep red and I cannot move it.

For what it's worth, I have been drinking tons of skim milk for many years, simply because I have always loved milk, and switched to skim maybe 15-20 years ago. I drink 2 gallons per week and sometimes mire than that. And I had my first of two gout attacks, two days apart, in Feb. So I don't know how relevant skim milk may be. I also have Paget's disease, so the milk factor may be moot in the calcium equation.

I wish this group would develop a "profile" form for all members, capturing basic and important histories of all of us. Mini-biographies, not using real names necessarily. This info could be provided to all of us and we could draw our own conclusions, based on the preponderance of evidence, so to speak.

Negevoli

I have had gout about 8 years, being diagnosed in my late 30's about 1 year
after a severe heat exhuastion episode.
Allopurinal w/colchicine for flare-ups is THE treatment as far as I can tell. (
Doc. says if it doesn't respond to colchicine it ain't gout...it sure worked for
me)
Since this ailment is at least vaguely related to kidney function, I wonder--
I have occasional pain in lower left center of my lower abdomen ( where an ovary
would be on a woman) could this be related to gout ? as in a blocked ureter or
something? Also I have occasional testicular pain/swelling--- this probably
ISN't related-- I had a vasectomy a couple years ago as well.
Anybody had any experience with non-joint related pains traced back to gout? Or
is middle age just generally catching up with me?
thanx

of the food into the uric acid and tha is different.
*************
I'll let you try the food loaded with purenes during an attack-i.e. a
touch of insanity doing that-
But I love salt in my diet, I love Chinese food and I love salted
chips and popcorn with salt.
My wife often cooks with a lot of soy, salt and other sodium
containing seasonings and she is a great cook.
Believe me, it will be hard to keep away from the salt.
But, you can try eating a meal high in salt, usually Chinese cooking
is loaded in salt, particularly the sauces and most particularly the
curry sauces. Have a Chinese meal with heavy sauce, add soy sauce to
the rice-soy sauce is very heavily laden with salt and if you are a
chronic gout sufferer, you will feel the familiar twinges in your
toes within one hour.
I have tested it three times now on purpose. the last time with just
rice that was salted beyond reason. Just rice and salt will make it
hurt. It takes about a gallon of water, literally a whole gallon, to
bring my system back into a stable non-painful state.
I am certain that salt will bring on the pain and if you are sailing
along in life gout free, say for a year pain free, and you have a
system that is supersaturated with Uric acid,
A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN YOUR SERUM SALINITY, COULD TRIGGER A BAD
ATTACK.
For example, come in from working in the yard, dehydrated, have a
beer which will reduce or mess up your kidney function, and then eat
a very high salt containing meal. I don't, however, think that's the
usual trigger for the bad attacks. I am certain however, that the
salt will make whatever attack you have, worse.
CALCIUM
I'm convinced that Calcium plays an important role in the overall
crystallization process because:
1) It happens in a joint-(high calcium locally).
2) Long term, gout attacks actually remove calcium from our bones.
(look in the literature and you will find many x-ray's of the loss of
calcuim from bone.)
I do not, however, have even an intuition as to whether we need more
or less calcium. If any one has any information on this I would be
interested in reading about it. The reason it is so critical is that
calcium is a required mineral and as we age, our ability to deal with
calcium and to use calcium is dimminished. It is a mineral however,
that we need to have in our diet, and I want to get an understanding
of just how much calcium we need to take in. I am not sure from the
chemistry of calcium and uric acid alone if it is, per se, good or
bad. My mother's rhumatologist has her on 4K mg a day along with 300
mg of allopurinol and she has been attack free for over 4 years now.
I'll give you my emotional and subjective belief right now based only
on my own experience and the experience of my grand father who lived
with gout for about 60 years having had his first attack at the age
of 39. Milk, Skim milk initially, was about the only drink he was
able to tolerate other than water and, for his last 10 years of his
life, from 89 to 99, he survived on Kellogs special K and skim milk.
When I was 16, he and I worked out that diet because he was wasting
away and we reasoned that special K had everything he needed and the
skim milk made him feel less pain. He actually started to gain weight
again after a steady loss for 10 years on the special K and skim milk
diet and, in later years, he had actually graduated to whole milk and
half and half. He was ambulatory but lived in pain for almost his
whole life after 40. He would tell me how much skim milk helped him
and, now, some 25 years later I must agree with him that for me, skim
milk makes me feel better-less joint pain and I have been considering
adding skim milk, that is fat free milk, to my diet three times a
day. You know the old advertisement we were subjected to when we were
kids, 4 glasses of milk a day...well, it may be good advise to us
gour sufferers.
But I stress this, I don't know from data or from the literature what
our Calcium load per day should be. If anyone knows or has experience
with it, please advise....

Lower your salt intake when you are having an attack. If possible
make it go as nearly to zero as you can.
I am suggesting that you should put yourself onto a low salt intake
diet at least when you are having any kind of pain from gout. It is
often very hard to do that but it should allow the crystals to re-
dissolve and allow them to be properly processed by your body. Solid
sodium urate cannot be excreted. It must be dissolved first ant then
excreted so the higher the level of salt in your system, the lower
the threshold level for crystallization.
Long term I'm not sure yet but, there is a wealth of data suggesting
that a low salt diet should be used by people who have high blood
pressure. You can raise your blood pressure from 120/18 to 140/90,
albeit temporarily, by eating a very salty meal. One of the tried and
true treatments for high blood pressure is reduce salt.
Same goes for a gout attack. It will be good for your blood pressure
and it will improve your margin to redissolve the crystals.
I'll put all of this in an e-mail I am preparing.

Back from my trip and each day was an aggregation of little terror's.
I was on the end of a bad attack-about 6 weeks worth and had finished
the last week of the attack with an agressive 1 week of cortizone,
which bty the way, for me, does a great job of relieving the
inflammation but nothing to make the cause, the crystal deposits,
better.
When I am finishing a bout with the pain, my toe seems to be a very
sensitive detector for what causes pain. That pain is always
associated with meals. Particularly on a trip, where you are supposed
to be having fun, you are under peressure. If not direct pressure,
certainly a social kiknd of pressure, to eat some of the great food
that you encounter on your trip.
Well, I have noticed that there are two kinds of pain stimuli
associated with food. The first will come within one hour of eating
and the second, often not related to the onset or the intensity of
the second pain happens some 6 to 8 hours after the meal and usually
hits in the middle of the night. that one, bacause I am now very
careful about what I eat, does not happen very often, but I do slip
up and eat a steak or some other offender.
I believe I understand this pain after 1 hour phenomenon now.
Again it goes back to Chemistry but this time it is not really that
simple. I will try to explain the principle and once you get it, you
will be able to remove some of the stimuli that get you into trouble.
i.e. into the pain and swelling.
In the chemistry world there is a phenomenon that has been understood
and taught to chemistry majors for as long as our current
institutions have been standing. The Germans of old, I mean back in
the alchemy days had measured the solubility of compounds and the
phenomenon dates well back into the 17th centruy. It has to do with
soluability of weakly soluable substances in water and there is, with
every substance, what is called a soluability constant. Ksp is the
term if you are going to ask your doctor but he is unlikely to know
what it really means.
Now don't freak out because you see a formula..
NaU <=====
This is an equillibrium situation and there is a soluability that
sodium urate will achieve when there is an excess of the solid form
and this equillibrium will be establ;ished if the system is a test
tube or if it is your foot. The constant K is the product of the
amount of Sodium (Na+) times the amount of Urate (U-) that will be
dissolved in an aqueous solution. If you increase the amount of, for
example, sodium that is in the solution, then the amount of urate (U-
) that it takes to make the constant goes down.
In other words, if you put salt into your system, it will tend to
make the Sodium Urate that is dissolved in your blood want to
crystallize out. Increase your salt intake and you will induce
crystal formation.
I'll finish this later but you have the overall conclusion.
I am proposing that we need to go onto a low salt diet during an
attack. It is the salt in the ood we eat that makes that attack after
an hour of eating. the 6 to 8 hout one comes from breakdown of the
food into the uric acid and tha is different.
Low salt intake during an attack.

Gout and arthritis
Gout is one of the most common forms of arthritis joint inflammation.
It appears as an acute attack often coming during the night. Within
12-24 hours there is severe pain and swelling in the affected joints.
The skin over the joint may be red and shiny. Gout usually affects
only one or two joints at a time and usually attacks the feet and
ankles. The ball of the big toe is the most common area. Without
treatment the attack subsides in a week or so and when patients first
develop gout there may be intervals of many months or even years
between attacks. As time goes by, these tend to become more frequent
and more severe and eventually many joints may be involved. MSM is
great for gout because it helps reduce inflammation.
The Arthritis Foundation helps with a variety of programs that help
you understand arthritis pain and arthritis symptoms. For more
information on the Arthritis Foundation contact your local office or
call 1-800-283-7800. Or write the Arthritis Foundation, P.O. Box
7669, Atlanta, GA. 30357-0669.
Have a look at a website for a company that sells it - no connection
with me, I'm an Inland Revenue employee in the UK!
http://www.msm-uk.net/allround.htm

I have been newly diagnosed with gout. It has started in my right
hand on my index finger in the first joint. I have read it most
usually starts in the big toe. Has any others have problems with
their fingers and wrists?? Thank you

Hi folks,
I meant to just lurk until I got into the swing of things, but have poked my
nose into two discussions thus far without an introduction. And, that's
downright rude.
So, my name is Cindi. I am a mom and officer administrator. I am 43. I
don't have gout. But the man I love more than anything else in this world,
does. His name is Mike and he is 51 years old and he's my husband.
What I find frustrating and sad is that he also has degenerative arthritis,
coronary artery disease and irritable bowel syndrome. All this in a man who
is handsome, of normal body weight, is active and one of the most alive
people I know. It doesn't seem fair sometimes, but I know it could be much
worse. When I see him in the kind of pain that his (now 2) gout attacks
cause, I just want to do something.
I bought cherry juice, but he has not drunk it yet. Maybe after his second
attack, yesterday, he will. You know how men can be about taking care of
themselves *grin* I am reading all of your other recommendations,
especially those involving vitamins, with avid interest.
We have three young adult/teenagers as our children, two of whom live at
home and are in school. We live in southern New Jersey. I just wanted to
pop in and introduce myself and thank you for all of your caring.
Cindi

I'll be out for a week and in the meantime, if any of you happpen to
visit your physician, I'd like you to ask them if there is any way
they know of to determine what the total Uric Acid load on your
system is.
According to what I now understand about Uric Acid in our bodies it
will exist in 4 distinct places, or forms and probably in a mixture
of all four to various amounts depending on each person't history.
First of all, he will probably tell you that , sure, they measure
uric acid in the blood and, yes they do but ask him, isn't that
really just the dissolved urate and not the measure of the Uric acid.
He will look at you funny and he may shake his head but you will be
scratching on something he learned a long time ago and may not even
know now. If he is a rhumatologist, then he will know that urate and
total uric acid are not even related to each other. Try to find out
if he has any ideas on how it can be measured. If he has thought of
some way to measure it then by all means find out how. What method?
To be exact here, how can we measure the total uric acid in someone
without grinding them up and doing an assay. We want the total uric
acid in your body per Kg of body weight. That number is very
significant indeed. My guess is that by properly tuning an MRI we
will be able to get at least a semi-guantative measure.
If we have that number then we can determine, with exactatude, just
how elligible each of us is for an attack.
If a normal amount of uric acid in a gout free man of my age and
weight is 1, then mine will probably be somewhere near 2 or higher.
Allopurinol should allow us to get to 1 or even below 1 but I think
it is actually dangerous to let your uric acid level to get to much
below that 1, where 1 represents the amount in a normal healthy
person of your age and gender. If your number is say 1.2 to 1.5 then
you may or may not sauffer attacks. If it is 2.0, I'm pretty sure you
already know gout. Some people may be very high and these would be
the ones in real danger form an attack.
So, ask your physician, or rhumatologist, if he or she knows of a way
to measure the total uric acid in someone's body without destroying
said body..
The danger of being below 1 is that you will not have sufficient uric
acid and you will loose the cancer protection.

We have two states. In an atack and out of one and there are things
that we need to do when we are having an attack to reoieve the pain
that may we will not necessarily do when we do not have it.
I'll not address the classic medical treatments like culccicine and
the NSAID's. We need em and you do what you can to make your life
comfortable.
But there are two things that I believe help in terms of medication.
The reason I like the recommendation is because I figured them out
from what I believe the mechanism is and, so they have worked on me.
There are also many articles in themnedical literature to support
these two recommendations.
Take vitamin C. I am at 2000 units a day now, 2 grams, and plan to go
to about 4 thousand units gradually over a three month period.
1. Vitamin C. One of the chemicals that is known to be readily
absorbed by the aqueous part, the water part, of body tissue. It is
also an acid and will have the effect of protonating, that is the
effect of making uric acid salt crystals-that is what hurts us-uric
acid salt crystals- it will have the effect of turning, at least the
surface of those crystals, into Uric Acid leaving sodium ascorbate
dissolved in solution. Pure uric acid does not hurt us.
2. There is a secondary reason for taking vitamin C which is that
studies from many places have shown that vitamin C has the effect of
increasing the rate at which the body removes uric acid, that is uric
acid excretion from the kidney,increases with vitamin C and it
lowers, as it should from the chemistry equilibrium, the overall
serum monosodium ureate level. In other words, it lowers the
dissolved sodium urate in the blood and that will in turn, reduce the
tendancy of the monosodium urate to crystalllize. Remember, it is the
mono sodium urate that crystallizes and hurts your toes. When you
drive that urate back to pure uric acid, you do not get pain. You may
get trophi but you won't get the gout pain. The common old wives
treatment that has been shown to be relatively effective against gout
is eating cherries. Lots of cherries and drinking cherry extract.
Cherry extract is perhaps one of the best sources of natural vitamin
C there is.
Take vitamin E, I am now on 1000 units of alpha d tochoferol, vitamin
e. Don't get fooled with the d,l form, stay with the d form as the l
form, in the dl mixture-which is a lot cheaper- can be toxic if you
end up taking large doses. I Plan to get to about 2000 units a day
but not till later.
1. Vitamin E has been shown in numerous studies to reduce the pain
from gout and also has been used clinically to increase the rate of
uric acid excretion. In fact studies suggest that low excretion of
uric acid is actually associated with low levels, too low a level by
the way, of vitamin e in the system.
2. I chose vitamin E logically too because it is a water insoluable
compound that resides in the lippid system of your body, in th oil
side of your body, and it would have the effect of trapping and
holding and making unavailable, or at least making less available,
the uric acid. My reasoning is that uric acid that is trapped and
held in our lippid system will not make crystals and will at least
slow down the rate of formation of the crystals by starving the
source of uric acid because it is now, more or less, hidden in the
lippid system of the body. I was plesantly surprised to find that
there is indeed strong date to support taking vitamin E to both ward
off and to help releive gout.
Now, a few words about these two chemicals.
Before my recent research on gout and finding out that these two are
good things for gout, Hell, I knew in my heart, way deep from many
many, many, years in the industry that Vitramin C and Vitamin E are
known good things for you no matter who you are, how old you are, or
what your general state of health is. they are both good and there is
no information I have come across that suggests otherwise after
almost 40 years of being in the chemistry business.
Both help your health, both help reduce total body uric acid, both
can help relieve immediate symptoms.
In my opinion, not taking at least 1000 miligrams of each each day is
negligance. I have thought this for at least 30 years and am now a
lot more motivated to keep eating the gigantic pills. I now am sure
that it just is stupid to not eat them. I assure you I am not above
being stupid but on these two, they are now part of my diet.

As some of you know I have been looking into the literature to try to
find out what is going on with gout. Things my primary physician told
me were often in conflict with what my Rhumatologist told me and as
often as not, neither of them seemed to know what was going on. The
only recourse seemed to be wait and see and, long term take
allopurinol.
I am now on allopurinol and I am ready to go back to both of them
with extensive documentation. I believe I have a pretty good picture
of what is going on, and more importantly, how I need to live my
life, vis a vis gout and the future.
I honestly believe that the medical literature does not contain a
consice or a good description of what is going on, even in the
medical text books that the physician learns from, and therefore,
depending on where you are in the possible cycles of uric management
in your body, you will react differently to different medications. I
do not believe that there are diffferent kinds of gout affliction.
Only one and it has a modifier as to severity only. In other words I
believe we are all the same with different amounts of uric acid in
our systems to deal with. The problem is that uric acid assumes
several forms in our bodies and depending on "other" circumstances,
which no one understands yet, these states of meta stable
equillibrium can get painfully altered to give us a gout attack.
Apparently my communications must have irritated a few of you and for
that I apolagize and I will not send out any more long, unsolicited
messages. I did not know that people would get an e-mail when there
is a post on here. I have never encountered such a thing but. Oh well.
I have posted my e-mail address and it will change here in a week or
two after comcast gets through with me. When they do change it, I
will re-post the e-mail. Over the next few weeks I will be writing up
what I have found in terms that people who do not have a degree but
suffer from gout can understand and hopefully be better prepared to
deal with the medical community when you do get one of your attacks.
I'm pretty sure you have not dealt with a summary of what gout is
from this perspective because I did not find it in the literature. It
came from my understanding of the chemistry of weak acids in aqueous
and non aqueous systems aqnd it has been the subject of much of my
life's work.
I will say this about how you should manage your life. If you have
had two or more attacks of gout and you are not on at least a low
maintenance dose of allopurinol you are risking a lot more than just
a little pain once in a while. Gout attacks can be a lot more severe
than I had ever imagined. They can cause you to lose kidney function,
loose a limb or a whole host of other unpleasant problems. If you are
sensitive to allopurinol or if you just cannot take it then you have
to be very strict indeed with diet but for most of us, particularly
the men, allopurinol looks like a really good way to go. It will
reduce or eliminate the gout attacks, it will shrink the prostate
and, taken with daily doses of vitamin C, and vitamin E it will
restore arterial and blood vessel surface texture to what it was when
you were much younger.
If you are interested in the summary I intend to prepare, please send
me an e-mail request. I will not post it here and no, there will be
no charge.

CAN U PLEASE LET ME KNOW
ALL THE BEST MICK

Hi -
Thanks for all the info. But could I ask not to be sent any more e-mails
about gout. I'll get to the website for any more info.
Thanks a lot,
Chris B.

1. Gout sufferers run a higher risk of heart disease and strokes.
Documented earlier
2. Relatively recent findings show that Allopurinol and Vitamin C are
effective in healing artery damage and is shown to reduce the risk of
heard disease and stroke.
References:
http://www.heartcenteronline.com/myheartdr/home/research-detail.cfm?
reutersid=3265&nl=4
Taken with allopurinol it has the effect of reducing and in reversing
the dammage associated with smoking and age on blood vessels.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030107073219.htm
American heart association seems to recommend it.
Since I'm already on allopurinol, and since Vitamin C has the effect
of reducing overall Uric acid excretion and reducing serum urate
levels, and there is the added benefit of helping with coronary
issues...
Seems like a no brainer to me.
I'm putting my patient on it tomorrow.

I Have asked you BEFORE...........But Please Refrain from Sending me Emails.

Concerning GOUT............I am Sick to Death of Recieving thses Emails.................Mr D J Fudge.

In a post earlier this evening I suggested that vitamin C might be
benificial because of its overall effect on serum acidity. Vitamin C
is a water soluble organic acid that is absorbed by the body. It has
the effect of lowering ph(increasing acidity) and it apparently has a
well documented effect of increasing uric acid excretion and
decreasing serum ureate concentration levels.
After having looked at enough written information on it, put together
with common sense, I'm recommending that my primary patient-me-begin
a long term treatment woth 1 to 4 grams of vitamin C daily. The long
term theraputic advantages of C are heavily documented and it will
have the long term effect of reducing overall uric acid. It is
mentioned many times right up there with Culcicine as a long term
Gout treatment suppliment and it doesn't really make much sense not
to take it.
References:
http://www.doctoryourself.com/kidney.html
Vitamin c and kidney stones, C increases the excretion of Uric acid
http://www.holisticonline.com/Remedies/Arthritis/arth_gout_nutritional
-therapy.htm
Vitamin C increases the excretion of Uric acid
http://www.mycustompak.com/healthNotes/Concern/Gout.htm
Vitamine C is often recommended as a standard supplement to the diet
in gout suffers. Start with 1 gram a day and increase to 4 during
periods of no gout attack. It increases the level of uric acid
excretion and it lowers the serum uric acid level.
http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Updates/rudrespc.htm
Vitamin C and the cold
Sumbaev, V.V., Iasinskaia, I.M., "Effect of Ascorbic Acid on Uric
Acid Formation in Men and Animals", Ukrainskii Biokhimicheskii
Zhurnal, 69(2), 1997 pages 116-120.
http://avsunxsvr.aeiveos.com/agethry/nutrit/nutrit1.html
Another confirmation that c increases Uric acid excretion

Hello!
I slept for about 15 minutes on my swivel chair with my left big
toe uncomfortably pressing on the floor. When I woke up, I noticed
some pain right at the toe joint. I thought this will subside quickly
but to my surprise it swelled overnight and the pain progressed so
much that I had to limp when walking. The pain and swelling continued
for more than a week until now. It looked like gout and I think it is
gout based on what I read so far and what other people who had gout
think.
If what I have is gout, could it be possible that the stress
inflicted on the toe joint while I slept triggered the
crystalization of uric acid that was already sataurated in my blood?
I never had gout before and I am 57. Anybody with similar experience?
Kigo

I am in the process of reading as much as I can about gout and along
the way I will come across things that I believe are important to us.
I will post two today.
1) http://www.utah.edu/umed/courses/year2/pharm/study/rx04.pdf
Sodium Acetyl salycilate, the sodium salt of aspirin, competes with
Sodium urate for the receptor site that transports uric acid across
the membrane in the kidneys and "may exacerbate acute gout attacks."
In other words stay away from aspirin to relieve gout pain. It is
contraindicated and could lead to very serious side effects because
it can cause coagulation in your renal tubes which can lead to kidney
failure.
2) Yesterday I posted that high uric acid is associated with heart
disease. Here is one of the references. I found about 12 that suggest
it but this seems to be the most comprehensive.
High Uric Acid Linked To Heart Disease Deaths
The Journal of the American Medical Association May 10, 2000;283:2404-
2410 http://www.mercola.com/2000/may/14/uric_acid.htm
People who have high levels of uric acid in their blood have an
increased risk of dying from heart disease. The presence of elevated
uric acid identifies a sign of greater risk of cardiovascular
mortality. The power of that effect -- the effect size -- is greater
in women than in men and considerably greater in African Americans
than in whites.
Previous studies have suggested that high l