water as preventative
i am not a drinker (water, soda, juice, liquor or anything!) and
actually took pride in the fact that i had followed my grandmother's
habit in this respect!
now i KNOW the difference!
when i have attacks i drink water continuously (i mean it .. every
waking second) during the day. i drink it while i think inside
myself that "this is just taking medicine" but in this form instead
of pills! if i dont drink tons of water i know i will be unable to
put on a pair of shoes so i will be house-bound even though i am
taking allopurinol. in eight hours once, when i was getting that
feeling in my toe of an attack-about-to-be, i drank four two liter
water bottles! i never got that particular attack so it certainly
has convinced me of the power of drinking water!
shouldnt the allopurinol (300mg) be preventing this? why take it if
its really water which is a sure thing preventative? i have only
been on allopurinol for just under three months.
thanks
:-)
Please don't misunderstand me.
I am also on allopurinol and I do not intend to go off of it.
I am saying, however, that if we drink much more water than our
thirst tells us we need to drink, and if we do this during the times
when we are not having an attack, we will be sweeping our system of
uric acid and lowering the chancees of gout. We will probably also be
lowering the amount of allopurinol it will take to stop gout.
My problem has been that when I am not having an attack, I revert to
drinking only when I am thirsty and this is not good bahavior for a
gout sufferer. I need to retrain myself to drink more water. By the
way, even if you are on allopurinol, there are still breakdown
products that your kidney needs to get rid of and the water will help
to flush the system. If, after a few years of lots of water and
allopurinol, your uric acid level drops to say 2 or 3, then you might
consider cutting the allopurinol dose in half.