Damn gout, what a pain!

[Boss]

The acute gout attack is today treated with Natrium bicarbonate 2 grams /day for 10 days - it will alcalinize the urine and speedup the illimination of the uric acid. Add 5 - 10 mg of fast acting betapred tablets - diminishing the dose over 2 weeks till 0.

After 2 weeks start Allopurinol 300 mg. / day lifetime. forget about colchicin. Avoid beer, peas, beans

Good luck !

I used this cure a few times and usually painfree second day !

[doublephil]

For those wondering - the reason lemon juice is effective at alkalizing the body and relieving gout is because it stimulates the liver and kidneys to excrete excess acid from the body - including excess uric acid. It is also effective for eliminating kidney stones. The main active constituent is the ascorbic acid - Vitamin C - but taking artificial Vit C pills does not have the same effect as they are very poorly absorbed by the body and fairly useless unless taken in very high amounts. Other fruit with high Vitamin C could be eaten - such as papaya and guava - but these fruits also contain high amounts of fructose which is very unhealthy as it will spike blood sugar levels and cause the liver to convert the sugar to triglycerides (fat) rather than work to eliminate excess acid - unlike lemons which do not contain any sugar - and are therefore much more effective

[paulhen]

Same as everybody else that has posted, I have suffered periodic gout attacks since my mid-twenties (am now 62). I have never even travelled without colchicene on hand. I get it in the big toes or ankles which is painful enough, but a knee....

When last I had an attack I did some research on the Internet, likely the National Institute of Health in the USA being one source. Anyway, my takeaway was that colchicene has fallen out of favour being replaced with high dosages of Ibuprofen. So here in Thailand I buy 600mg tablets. I take three at the sign of an attack.

My personal opinion is that dehydration is very common for foreigners here, so keeping your fluid intake is important for many aspects of our health, uric acid control being one. I also have found whiskey is no problem for me, but red wine and beer are.

I agree, it is hard to comprehend the level of pain a big toe can cause! I also prefer natural means of control and drinking lots of water is on the top of the list!

Edited October 4, 2014 by paulhen

[dunque]

you can get rid of it guys ...three easy steps if you want to be pain free ..

1/ cut out anything with HFCS .High Fructose Corn Syrup , esp sugar drinks , processed carbs , its in so many products you will be surprised ... its not sugar at all your body will treat it like a toxin ...

2/ switch to a plant based diet , minimal protein..

3/ drink a lot of filtered water ..

give it a shot worth the effort for a pain free future and save you a heap of money

goodluck

I almost never drink soft drinks, I do like the occasional icecream or a dark chocolate, have a beer about once a month, no longer eat shellfish, but do eat chicken occasionally. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables but I do like to have pork as a stir-fry. I gave up smoking a couple of years ago, sex is fairly spasmodic at my age, not sure that I can give up the few pleasures I still have left in life and feel that life is worth living. Thanks for the advice though.

Good luck with the sex.

Don't know why but this reminded me of this classic 'Porridge' moment

http://youtu.be/PoRIRkJce_w

[Albertosez]

Take 4 x elastic bands, 2 dog turds, 300grams of Parmasan Cheese and boil that with 6 pairs of old and unwashed socks for about 12 hours. It does sweet F.A to relieve the pain of Gout, but the smell will at least distract you from it !!

[Albertosez]

http://www.drugs.com/arcoxia.html

I've suffered with Gout for many years and tried most home remedies and prescription drug remedies. Allorpurinol can help prevent Gout, but it is not a medication for relieving it once you have it ! Diclofenic and Colchicene are effective, but I recently found a new drug that works the best for me.

The link is attached. " Arcoxia " - Lots of scary stuff written about this drug, but then again, there is normally lots of scary stuff / potential side effects with most drugs that have not been fully appraised / approved by the main Medical Councils. It's expensive, approx 50BHT per tablet ( 90 or 120mg ), but very good. If I feel even the slightest Gout Symptom I take 1 x tablet and the attack never progresses and symptoms are gone the same day. I once had a severe attack of Gout and it took about 4 x days to clear it with " Arcoxia " - but it's definitely the best drug I have found for me personally - when I detect that a Gout Attack is on the cards !

[writeshack]

At the first twinge I take a 120mg Arcoxia tablet, and 24 hours later another one if necessary. It works slowly, but it works for me. Available over the counter, but not all pharmacies. Also generic available from India.

Edited October 4, 2014 by writeshack

[lopburi3]

Allopurinol worked for me, 100 mg per day for about 6 months now down to 2 pills a month after a two year period. Haven't had gout since I started the program.

Great short term relief can be had by taking Naprogesic, a Bayer product, or something similar containing Naproxen Sodium (275 mg).

BTW and don't laugh. Naprogesic in marketed for female 'Period Pain' relief but works great in relieving the pain of gout as well as the inflammation.

A chemist recommended it to me as I did not have a doctors script for the drug I really wanted at the time.

EDIT: Absolutely NO changes in my diet whilst on the Allopurinol coarse. Still have my few pints a day.

What's the price of Allopurinol?

I do not know the current drug store price but I pay 450 baht per 90 tabs/100mg at major private hospital here in Bangkok - so shoul be considerably less at drug store.

[bdenner]

Allopurinol worked for me, 100 mg per day for about 6 months now down to 2 pills a month after a two year period. Haven't had gout since I started the program.

Great short term relief can be had by taking Naprogesic, a Bayer product, or something similar containing Naproxen Sodium (275 mg).

BTW and don't laugh. Naprogesic in marketed for female 'Period Pain' relief but works great in relieving the pain of gout as well as the inflammation.

A chemist recommended it to me as I did not have a doctors script for the drug I really wanted at the time.

EDIT: Absolutely NO changes in my diet whilst on the Allopurinol coarse. Still have my few pints a day.

What's the price of Allopurinol?

Here in Udon Thani I pay 300 Baht for a 250 pill container. Quite cheap, BUT in saying that I'd pay 10 times that much for em if I had to.

Back home they are about AUD $6.00 for 60. Still cheap but require a doctors script.

http://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/product.asp?id=61945&pname=Allopurinol%20Sandoz%20300mg%20Tablets%2060

Also some good info on this site re dosage etc.

EDIT: Someone mentioned that they have an adverse effect if taken whilst in the middle of a gout attack. This is a true statement, take the period pills instead.

Edited October 4, 2014 by bdenner

[giddyup]

Allopurinol worked for me, 100 mg per day for about 6 months now down to 2 pills a month after a two year period. Haven't had gout since I started the program.

Great short term relief can be had by taking Naprogesic, a Bayer product, or something similar containing Naproxen Sodium (275 mg).

BTW and don't laugh. Naprogesic in marketed for female 'Period Pain' relief but works great in relieving the pain of gout as well as the inflammation.

A chemist recommended it to me as I did not have a doctors script for the drug I really wanted at the time.

EDIT: Absolutely NO changes in my diet whilst on the Allopurinol coarse. Still have my few pints a day.

What's the price of Allopurinol?

I do not know the current drug store price but I pay 450 baht per 90 tabs/100mg at major private hospital here in Bangkok - so shoul be considerably less at drug store.

Is one tablet a day the normal dosage?

[ggt]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

you can get rid of it guys ...three easy steps if you want to be pain free ..

1/ cut out anything with HFCS .High Fructose Corn Syrup , esp sugar drinks , processed carbs , its in so many products you will be surprised ... its not sugar at all your body will treat it like a toxin ...

2/ switch to a plant based diet , minimal protein..

3/ drink a lot of filtered water ..

give it a shot worth the effort for a pain free future and save you a heap of money

goodluck

This is excellent advise...I noticed when I loaded up on sweets...I would have a bout of gout...no sugars...no gout...it was that simple for me...

[Crossy]

+1 on the Arcoxia (I get the Indian generic Etoricoxib), for those who don't suffer continual attacks it's a great quick fix.

[cdmtdm]

hard to comprehend that the answer to gout is clearly to eliminate sugar , but most responses are to try a different drug .... has anyone actually tried a diet change ? did your doctors even ask what your diet was ? it may be as simple as cutting down on bread ( now full of sugar even wholemeal) or pasta sauce , salad dressings, cereals , sports drinks , alcohol ( now not as high in sugar as many other drinks) these are all full of HFCS ... save yourself some money and extend your life ...

[giddyup]

hard to comprehend that the answer to gout is clearly to eliminate sugar , but most responses are to try a different drug .... has anyone actually tried a diet change ? did your doctors even ask what your diet was ? it may be as simple as cutting down on bread ( now full of sugar even wholemeal) or pasta sauce , salad dressings, cereals , sports drinks , alcohol ( now not as high in sugar as many other drinks) these are all full of HFCS ... save yourself some money and extend your life ...

You are probably right, but cutting out just about every food that actually tasted good and existing on brown rice and lentils is a big ask.

[cdmtdm]

hard to comprehend that the answer to gout is clearly to eliminate sugar , but most responses are to try a different drug .... has anyone actually tried a diet change ? did your doctors even ask what your diet was ? it may be as simple as cutting down on bread ( now full of sugar even wholemeal) or pasta sauce , salad dressings, cereals , sports drinks , alcohol ( now not as high in sugar as many other drinks) these are all full of HFCS ... save yourself some money and extend your life ...

You are probably right, but cutting out just about every food that actually tasted good and existing on brown rice and lentils is a big ask.

i should have clarified as i did in an earlier post ..eliminate processed sugar ..in particular High Fructose Corn Syrup ....you can eat a huge range of foods like vegies , fruit ,nuts , protein from white meats , even sensible amounts of butter , use olive oil , flaxseed oil .. do it for a month and see what happens .. just stay away from as many processed foods as possible ... drink lots of water , black tea or coffee ...herbal teas ..everything in moderation ...

[Ace of Pop]

Funny thing, Beer contains Acetic Acid, thats what a Breathalyser tests, nothing to do with Alcohol, same as drinking Vinegar its the Acetic Acid that kills the Uric Gout Acid.My friend gets awful Gout when he stops Beer to loose a bit of weight, Anyone found this themselves.?.

[attrayant]

For those wondering - the reason lemon juice is effective at alkalizing the body and relieving gout is because it stimulates the liver and kidneys to excrete excess acid from the body - including excess uric acid. It is also effective for eliminating kidney stones. The main active constituent is the ascorbic acid - Vitamin C - but taking artificial Vit C pills does not have the same effect as they are very poorly absorbed by the body and fairly useless unless taken in very high amounts. Other fruit with high Vitamin C could be eaten - such as papaya and guava - but these fruits also contain high amounts of fructose which is very unhealthy as it will spike blood sugar levels and cause the liver to convert the sugar to triglycerides (fat) rather than work to eliminate excess acid - unlike lemons which do not contain any sugar - and are therefore much more effective

Having spent a fair amount of time pouring over the research, I can't find anything supporting this. However, I can't find anything refuting it either. So if you truly learned that from some reputable source, I'd love to see the cite. The only thing I can find are studies showing that it increases the acidity of the urinary tract (duh) and therefore may help prevent urinary tract infections and renal stones. I believe most people prefer cranberry juice for this, as it's more palatable than lemon juice.

Suffice it to say that the idea of consuming acid to make your body less acidic flies in the face of conventional biochemistry. It's very easy to measure ascorbic acid intake and compare that to how much is excreted. It has never been seen that dietary excess is retained or absorbed, it is always excreted (and fast, too - the half-life of vitamin C in the body is about 30 minutes.)

And ascorbic acid is not a stimulant - if we are using that word in its normal medicinal sense. The liver doesn't metabolize vitamin C, it stores it. So additional vitamin C flooding your system isn't going to do anything different than what the resident vitamin C is already doing. As you're not deficient, your liver already has a good supply of that nutrient on standby. Additional intake won't even see the liver - it'll be quickly excreted.

The lesson for the OP is that these kinds of threads end up being essentially valueless. As I scroll through the replies, I see recommendations to drink more acidic things, less acidic things, various compounds of bicarbonate (not at the same time as the acids, I hope - we all remember our high school science fare projects right?), advice to drink lots of fruit juice followed by posts that say to avoid fruit at all costs. Which post should the OP believe? The recommendations to drink more water and avoid diuretics are good, as well as cutting down on alcohol and avoid excessive meat intake, but those are good recommendations for everybody, not just gout sufferers.

The problem with the "try this and see if it works" method is very hit-or-miss. If symptoms abate, how do we know it was because of the home remedy? How do we know that the symptoms wouldn't have cleared up on their own anyway? That is why research trials exist - to differentiate between the people who are "cured" by happenstance (they would have gotten better in spite of treatment), and those who are truly cured by the remedy in question.

[thatguy]

I only read the first page, so this may have been mentioned.

Simply and briefly put:

Most gout comes from an imbalance in purine metabolism/ excretion, it's genetic. The excess uric acid will occur no matter how you try to restrict the intake of purines in your diet. There seem to be many contributing factors, many mentioned above. Yes another nail in the fructose coffin, and by the way don't get fat.

Colchicine will relieve acute attacks, Allopurinol will maintain lower uric acid levels long term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout and many others

[lopburi3]

Allopurinol worked for me, 100 mg per day for about 6 months now down to 2 pills a month after a two year period. Haven't had gout since I started the program.

Great short term relief can be had by taking Naprogesic, a Bayer product, or something similar containing Naproxen Sodium (275 mg).

BTW and don't laugh. Naprogesic in marketed for female 'Period Pain' relief but works great in relieving the pain of gout as well as the inflammation.

A chemist recommended it to me as I did not have a doctors script for the drug I really wanted at the time.

EDIT: Absolutely NO changes in my diet whilst on the Allopurinol coarse. Still have my few pints a day.

What's the price of Allopurinol?

I do not know the current drug store price but I pay 450 baht per 90 tabs/100mg at major private hospital here in Bangkok - so shoul be considerably less at drug store.

Is one tablet a day the normal dosage?

Yes - either 300mg or 100mg size. But as said get blood tests - uric acid blood test is not expensive (180 baht at my hospital) so suspect a doctor visit/test at cheaper facilities would only be a few hundred baht every 3-6 months..

[ableguy]

My take on the situation is this , go to any clinic or hospital and have a blood test for gout, get the facts and ensure it is gout, then get a prescription from a dr for. Gout medication . You can buy this without a prescription at any pharmacy but better to have a chat with a pro first, good luck.

Ps. Been there done that.

[rct99q]

5 years in thailand

now living in US

Dr.s both countries = allopurinal

US = Ibuprofen for pain

Thailand = colchicine

both effective.

Both countries= lose weight, no alcohol, chicken, bamboo curries, pop, sweets, shellfish, seafood, organ meats, and a few other things.

So approaches in both places similar. Thailand however had me come in monthly for blood tests 150 baht same day results. US every 3 months $300 and takes about a week to hear back, if at all.

[Ace of Pop]

Mentioned Gout with a few expats last night, out of the 6 ,3 suffer.One who suffered badly reckoned that his daily dose of collagen had lowered the attacks to almost zero. One said Bamboo, and Broccoli trigger bad attacks and takes Colchonine .The last one eats a leaf from the garden every morn his wife told him about and gets no attacks anymore.Each had a different tale to tell.

[giddyup]

Mentioned Gout with a few expats last night, out of the 6 ,3 suffer.One who suffered badly reckoned that his daily dose of collagen had lowered the attacks to almost zero. One said Bamboo, and Broccoli trigger bad attacks and takes Colchonine .The last one eats a leaf from the garden every morn his wife told him about and gets no attacks anymore.Each had a different tale to tell.

Be interesting to know what the "leaf from the garden" was.

[moe666]

If you look at the list of foods that are high in purines and this is the substances our livers cannot handle that causes a build up of uric acid. This list contains just about every food we eat including many vegetables. The one thing that helps me is to take my thyroid medication if I cut back on dosage blam gout attack also do not become dehydrated drink plenty of water. I eatanything and everything and live with the attacks one about every 6 months, O well my choice.

[giddyup]

If you look at the list of foods that are high in purines and this is the substances our livers cannot handle that causes a build up of uric acid. This list contains just about every food we eat including many vegetables. The one thing that helps me is to take my thyroid medication if I cut back on dosage blam gout attack also do not become dehydrated drink plenty of water. I eatanything and everything and live with the attacks one about every 6 months, O well my choice.

Not easy to "live with the attacks" that you have to take pills to make you sleep and more pills to ease the pain until the attack passes. I'm gradually getting over my latest attack, but had three days of bloody agony. I'll try just about anything to avoid these attacks in the future.

[moe666]

5 years in thailand

now living in US

Dr.s both countries = allopurinal

US = Ibuprofen for pain

Thailand = colchicine

both effective.

Both countries= lose weight, no alcohol, chicken, bamboo curries, pop, sweets, shellfish, seafood, organ meats, and a few other things.

So approaches in both places similar. Thailand however had me come in monthly for blood tests 150 baht same day results. US every 3 months $300 and takes about a week to hear back, if at all.

Cochicine is avaliabe in the states but by prescription. I take both ibuprofen and colchicine for the gout it takes a few day for colchicine to work. If you know you have high uric acid you do not need a blood test every month.

[giddyup]

5 years in thailand

now living in US

Dr.s both countries = allopurinal

US = Ibuprofen for pain

Thailand = colchicine

both effective.

Both countries= lose weight, no alcohol, chicken, bamboo curries, pop, sweets, shellfish, seafood, organ meats, and a few other things.

So approaches in both places similar. Thailand however had me come in monthly for blood tests 150 baht same day results. US every 3 months $300 and takes about a week to hear back, if at all.

Cochicine is avaliabe in the states but by prescription. I take both ibuprofen and colchicine for the gout it takes a few day for colchicine to work. If you know you have high uric acid you do not need a blood test every month.

I know from my last blood test 12 months ago that my uric acid is high, but colchicine doesn't give any kind of "instant relief" it take a few days for it's effect to kick in, at least it does with me. In the meantime you're in agony. Colchicine is available across the counter at pharmacies in Thailand, no prescription.

Edited October 5, 2014 by giddyup

[cdmtdm]

interested to find out if any of the gout sufferers on here are Not over weight ? or more to the point fit ?

[giddyup]

interested to find out if any of the gout sufferers on here are Not over weight ? or more to the point fit ?

I'm 6' 2" and weigh 89 kilos, so hardly overweight. Fit? Well I'm 72 so I'm not entering any Iron Man competitions. I didn't get my first gout attack until I was 70 so I guess I'm lucky compared to some who started to get attacks in their 40's or even younger. It is also hereditary, my father also suffered gout.

[bdenner]

180 cm - 5' 11', 85kg, 65yo. Reasonably fit for age now doing a lot of walking. 1st gout attack 2006 (abt 56yo), 3 years into retirement. Probably the effects of diet but more likely getting sloppy (lazy) after many years in the offshore O&G industry, with the inherent exercise involved (could never count the number of stairs I negotiated every day).