My Gout Remedies » Gout Causes

GOUT ALCOHOL

iov — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:14:34 +0000

How Alcohol Contributes to Gout

If you find that you have a joint area that is inflamed or has skin that has taken on a reddish or purplish appearance and is accompanied with painful sensations, then you should know that these are symptoms of gout. Gout is a form of arthritis which affects only one joint at a time and usually manifests in the knee, the foot, the ankle, the large toe, as well as the hand, wrist, elbow, and even the fingers. The main culprit that is responsible for causing gout is the high level of uric acid in the body. Uric acid is produced mainly from purine, which is usually present in certain food items like red meat, sardines, and liver, but a high fructose intake also tends to raise uric acid levels and improper kidney function also plays a hand.

Another thing that causes gout is alcohol consumption. Gout and alcohol have generally been believed to go hand in hand, and studies have already made the link between these two. Alcoholic drinks such as beer and hard liquor in particular have been observed to raise people’s likelihood to develop gout. This is because the alcohol in these beverages contains purine, which triggers the development of uric acid in the body. Wine aficionados need not worry, however; studies have shown that wine does not produce the same effects.

It may seem unthinkable to avoid alcoholic beverages altogether, especially since it is such a major part of celebrations in life. But perhaps you need to think twice about hitting the bottle. Whenever you need to drink some beer or any form of hard liquor, always keep in mind that you should keep the drinks down to a minimum, meaning stick only to one bottle of beer during nights out or parties, and to avoid hard liquor whenever possible. Only by putting a limit on your alcohol consumption can you reduce your chances of developing gout.

So does alcohol cause gout? It would appear that it contributes to one’s likelihood of developing gout. However, one can’t really say that alcohol is the sole cause of gout. If you consume too much alcohol and also eat food that contains a high amount of purine, then you really are upping your chance of developing gout. Even if it isn’t the main cause of gout, though, it is still a very good idea to reduce your alcohol intake.

GOUT ATTACK

iov — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:30:06 +0000

What You Should Know About Gout Attack

There might come a time in your life when you are awakened suddenly in the middle of your sleep by a sharp, shooting pain from somewhere, maybe your knees, elbows, toes, etc. You feel like it was set on fire, with the affected area appearing red and swollen. If for instance you ever experience this, chances are, you are on a bout with a gout attack. The question now is, if ever you encounter this, will you be able to survive the pain that can become excruciating and debilitating in some instances? What are gout attacks? Where do they stem from? What are the signs that you should look for? Are you at risk of having gouty attack? If by chance I am unfortunate to have to experience it, is there a gout attack treatment that I can afford and can easily obtain? What is the usual gout attack duration?

If you feel that you are experiencing a acute gout attack now, reading this will be your first step towards recovery. First, what you should know is that gout is caused by high amounts of uric acid in the body, causing them to crystallize and be stored in joints, tendons, and the surrounding tissues, causing them to swell and to subject you to pain that can sometimes feel unbearable. Uric acid is an organic compound composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. It is produced by xantine oxidase which is from xanthine and hypoxanthine, respectively, which are all from purine. Therefore, to be able to prevent gout attack and to also be able to get rid of it, you should not ingest foods that are rich in purine, like red meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, and some vegetables like soya and string beans. Avoiding these foods is a natural treatment for gout attack.

There are also other acute gout attack treatments that are usually being prescribed by physicians, namely:

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, or NSAIDs, which are the easiest to ingest and whose main function is to dilate the blood vessels that causes pain, hence, reducing it. Examples are Indocin, Clinoril, Voltaren, and Orudis.

Colchicine, which comes from plants of the genus Colchicum. However, there are negative side effects from it, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps.

Corticosteroids, which are naturally produced by the adrenal cortex. Some examples are prednisone, prednisolone, and triamcinolone. They are usually the last resort recommended by doctors.

The best gout attack treatment usually depends on the person who is suffering from it. It is a case-to-case basis. One treatment might work best for one person, while another type of treatment might work best for another. Getting on the right diet can more or less ensure that your risk for gout attack is significantly reduced.

GOUT CAUSES

iov — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:53:40 +0000

Gout Causes and Treatment

So you have felt that throbbing pain in your joint. You might be wondering if the pain you feel is due to old age. If you are still in your early 20s, the pain is indeed a cause for alarm because you are not supposed to have joint pains at such an early age. But if you have gout, you should be expecting a lot of swelling, soreness, and redness in your joints. Gout affects both males and females at any age. If you are wondering what causes gout, you better learn more about it. It is an advantage to know the different gout causes so you can have a better idea of how this condition can be treated and prevented.

The first couple of questions you might be asking are what is gout and what causes it. Gout is the development of uric crystals around the joints, brought about by high levels of uric acid in the bloodstream. This condition can be hereditary so if your family has a history of suffering from gout, chances are you will be experiencing the same kind of pain in some part of your life. Although old age is not directly related to having gout, adults are more likely to suffer from it than children. Males are also more prone to this condition than women.

If you weigh more than you are supposed to, you also have higher chances of being affected by this illness. When you are overweight, you have more tissue that needs to be broken down therefore; you tend to excessively produce uric acid. Having too much uric acid in the system is a primary cause of gout. Drinking too much alcohol and eating too much food rich in purines also cause gout. Having too much purines and alcohol in the body interferes with the natural elimination of uric acid from your system.

There are also some medicines that interfere with your body’s ability to get rid of uric acid. Some of the medicines that are known to cause gout include diuretics or water pills, anti-inflammatory drugs derived from salicylic acid, immunosuppressants, and a drug called Levodopa which is used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Knowing the causes of gout helps much in determining which kinds of treatment can be taken. However, if you want to know which remedy would be appropriate to your condition, you would need to visit your doctor and seek his or her help. The different causes of gout flare up when you continue taking in food, medicine and beverage that affect your ability to eliminate uric acid from your body. You must be right if you say that your best weapon against this illness is awareness.

CHILDREN AND GOUT

Kathy Nelson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:16:53 +0000

by Kathy Nelson

If you suffer from gout you may have heard the comments about it being the Disease of Kings and how it is caused by too much beer and rich food. This would make you think that your children are not at risk at getting gout as I am sure you don’t let your kids drink beer.

Gout is caused by a build up of uric acid crystals around your joints, it normally starts in your big toe and can move around your body from there. Uric acid crystals have no idea how old you are and they don’t care that you are too young to experience the horrible burning pain that goes with a gout attack.

The last twenty years or so have brought about changes in children’s eating habits. In general, children don’t spend as much time outdoors playing sports or exercising. They also eat more processed food and beverages. Many children are not happy to drink just water, instead they prefer sodas and flavored drinks which contain a lot of high fructose corn syrup.

In recent studies, fructose and sodas have been shown to increase the levels of uric acid which has led to increased incidences of gout. Gout is definitely not a disease of kings anymore, as the amount of soda and so called “health” drinks we all consume continues to increase and so will the instances of gout.

The amount of gout attacks suffered by a person can be reduced if the right kind of diet is put in place. This isn’t really a difficult thing to do if you can remain focused. However, it is only natural that the older we get, the more we get into a routine and can often make it difficult to stick to a new diet.

Have you thought about the long term effects of your child’s current diet? If you haven’t, then you need to because if you are letting them pick up bad habits and could be causing long term damage. Try to help them get into good eating habits so that they will see the benefits as they get older.

Work takes a toll on our personal lives. Sometimes it can be hard to spend enough time shopping and cooking with good quality foods. We tend to go for fast foods because it is more convenient and we just haven’t got the time to ensure that our children are fed properly.

Your weekly trip to the supermarket should be the basis of preventing gout problems in your family. You can cut out foods which are bad for you before they get anywhere near your fridge or kitchen. For a start, you can avoid foods and drinks which contain high levels of uric acid-causing chemicals. Also, cut out drinks which are high in fructose. By doing this you can cut down on the chances of your children developing gout problems, as well as leading a more healthy lifestyle in general.

SIGNS OF A GOUT ATTACK

Kathy Nelson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:40:36 +0000

by Kathy Nelson

The condition known as gout will normally take several years to form before a person starts to suffer from it. This is because the uric acid crystals need time to build up in a person’s joints and the tissue surrounding it before gout symptoms and signs begin to show.

If you have any of the following symptoms then there is a good chance you have gout:-

1. The most common form of gout starts as what is known as podagra usually. This refers to pain in the big toe joint when it is inflamed from the build up of uric acid.

2. No one who hasn’t had a gout attack start at bedtime can believe how much pain can come just from the brushing of your partners foot against the infected joint, normally your big toe.

3. If your toe joint feels like it is on fire and that pain goes on for several hours then the chances are you have gout. The pain should start to disperse over the following 2 days although it can take as long as a week to go totally.

4. When the gout attack actually begins to subside then the person finds that the skin around the joint, which is affected, may feel itchy and starts to peel.

The above are just some of the symptoms that people with gout may have. Not everyone who suffers with the above will have gout and not every gout sufferer will suffer with all (or any) of these symptoms.

The most common part of the human body where a person is likely to experience gout is the big toe joint. However, some people may develop gout in other joints in their bodies including their feet, ankles, knees, wrists, fingers as well as their elbows.

If you have recently had surgery then there is a increased chance that you will have a gout attack. These after surgery attacks seem to be short in length, although just as painful as any other attack, it can also be treated as a side effect of the surgery rather than actual gout.

If you or someone you know starts to have any of the symptoms we have mentioned here it is vital that they go to see a DR. While the initial pain may dissipate after a few days it will come back , and may be much worse the next time, unless they take proper medication.

About the Author:

How do you know if you were suffering from a gout symptom or just normal day to day aches? If your big toe ache we rarely normally think of gout as a possible cause.

WHAT TO EAT IF YOU SUFFER FROM GOUT

Kathy Nelson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:10:12 +0000

by Kathy Nelson

When you sufferer from gout and start to experience intense pain from gout attacks, I’m sure you’ve researched the subject because you are looking for ways to stop the attacks from happening again. What you may or may not know, is that what you eat plays a big part in gout attacks.

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is “what is the best diet for me then?” and then you begin to picture all of your favorite foods and which ones you will no longer be able to eat. None of us wishes to give up our favorite foods but our long term health needs to come first.

Stopping the pain is the first thing on your mind when you are having an attack and so you are very motivated to change your eating habits, but as the pain wears off and you start to think that maybe you won’t have another attack or maybe the next bout won’t be so bad and you will be able to bear the pain, so changing your diet isn’t really necessary.

You need to start thinking about the long term solutions to your gout and the pain you are suffering as a result of it. Yes, short term remedies are fine at first, but the real pain is caused by a build up of uric acid crystals in the joints. This can be solved by taking some steps to help in the long term, such as watching your diet and eating the correct foods.

Start by changing your eating habits not just over the next few months, but over the next few years. You need to be making changes over a long period of time so that you can experience less pain from gout in the long run.

Therefore which changes to your lifestyle should you make at the moment to stop another attack of gout? First, keep a journal of all the things you eat and drink over the next two weeks. This will be much easier to do if you carry some kind of note book around in your pocket. By doing this, you will be able to see exactly what you are eating rather than guessing. You will be able to see over these two weeks where you need to cut down on or eliminate certain foods. You should also increase your water intake.

You should avoid foods which are high in purines which allows your body to make the uric acid that crystallizes and causes gout. Purines are found high amounts in meat and meat products, especially internal organs such as the liver and kidney. You should also avoid sweetbreads, anchovies, sardines, beef, brains, meat extracts, herring, mackerel, scallops, wild game, and gravy. A plant-based diet is low in purines, so your diet should consist mostly of vegetables. Foods with a moderate about of purine are fish, asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, green peas, lentils, dried peas, beans, oatmeal, wheat bran, and wheat germ.

After two weeks of keeping a record of your food intake, use it for another two weeks but this time highlight the bad foods you have managed to cut down. Concentrate on one thing at a time. Once you have cut out one thing down, move on to something else. After a while you should see a reduction in your gout problems.

GOUT FOOD TO AVOID TO STAY HEALTHY

PJ Easton — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:41:16 +0000

by PJ Easton

Gout is a form of arthritis that affects many things in your body. It affects the tendons, joins and other tissues. It is more common amongst men over thirty years of age, but many women are getting it during post-menopause. People of all ages can get this problem and it is not something that is fun to deal with. There are a number of factors which increases your chances of getting gout. With that said, you should start looking into what you are eating and the foods you should avoid.

If you have gout right now, then you should make sure you do not eat foods that are high in protein. The food you consume should be low in protein. That means you will need to avoid red meat, dark meat and seafood. You will also need to stay away from animal organs, such as mussels, liver, heart and even sausages.

Something you should also stay away from, as it will only make your gout symptoms even more painful, is the ever so popular drink: alcohol. If you are a drinker, then this may send you into a panic, but in the end, it will help you out. This is because alcoholism can cause many health problems. However, we are not going to get into that right now, that can be found in a whole other article. Anyhow, avoid alcohol as much as you can as it could make your problems of gout worse than they already are. You should especially avoid beer as it is higher in yeast content. Yeast is also something that you should avoid. Any type of food that has yeast in it, stay away from.

FOODS TO AVOID

Anchovies
Roe (fish eggs)
Fish such as herring and mackerel
Sardines
Scallops and mussels
Game meats, like goose, duck, and partridge
Organ meats: brains, heart, kidney, liver, and sweetbreads
Meat extracts
Mincemeat
Broth, bouillon, and consomme
Gravy
Yeast (baker’s and brewer’s) taken in the form of a supplement

The last thing you want is to go through a painful gout attack. There are many foods which will increase your risk of getting gout. There are also other foods which can make you go through more pain and cause the attack to last longer.

IS GOUT REALLY JUST ARTHRITIS?

Paul Mahon — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:57:58 +0000

by Paul Mahon

Your diet could well be causing you pain, if you eat foods such as liver, anchovies and dried beans they could be contributing to your gout. Gout is the pain you feel in your joints, especially your big toe joint. It is a form of arthritis but you can do a lot to prevent gout attacks by controlling what you eat.

In the normal flow of life your body dissolves the uric acid that you intake via food and drink, your kidneys work to filter uric acids out of your body. Now if you have a kidney disease, have had one removed or maybe have had a kidney transplanted then you may well be suffering with gout as a side effect.

No one ever thinks about their kidneys until they start to malfunction in some way, one of the functions that your kidneys perform is to clean uric acid from your system and send it out of your body in your urine. When your kidneys stop filtering and removing uric acid you are in with a good chance of developing gout.

Hyperuricemia is the word that you need to listen for, if your Dr mentions that then you know you have elevated levels of uric acid in your body and are at an increased risk of gout. No need to panic instantly though as you are not certain to develop gout, you can change your diet and alcohol intake and get the levels of uric acid in your blood back down to safe levels.

If you are reading this and you are a man then there is a good chance that you have or will develop gout, the risk of women developing gout is much lower than men. This may be due to the differences in diet or alcohol intake. Men tend to eat more red meat than women and that is a contributing factor for gout.

When you notice your toe joint swelling and turning red it may well be the start of a gout attack, they often start in one joint. Many men have said that their attacks start in their big toe and while they may progress to other joints the pain is so bad that it really doesn’t matter. Gout can be an extremely debilitating illness.

You are in charge of your gout, you can reduce the frequency and the severity of your gout attacks just by changing what you eat and drink. Keep a diary of what you eat and drink for 3 months and you will see that your attacks almost always follow a bout of eating or drinking either in excess or items that are high in purines.

About the Author:

If you are wondering What is gout then We will show you. The chances are that what you really need to know is whether you are suffering with gout or not. We will show you.find out. http://goutassistance.com/what-is-gout

DO YOU THINK THAT YOU MAY HAVE GOUT?

Paul Mahon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:47:41 +0000

by Paul Mahon

Gout is uniquely known in the medical world as one of the most regularly recorded medical disease throughout history. It is frequently related to hereditary abnormality in the ability of a person’s body to excrete uric acid.

No one thinks much about purines in their food, the items that are high in purines are often amongst the most flavorful foods. Shellfish, red meats and game meats are all high in purines. Only when you have an agonizing attack of gout or even worse kidney stones do you start to even consider the purines in your food.

Not everyone with increased levels of uric acid in their blood stream will develop gout, but if you find your blood contains elevated levels then it is a good reason to start taking precautions to reduce it. At it’s worst increased uric acid can lead to kidney stones and even kidney failure, as well as gout.

Gout attacks are partly caused by your body trying to protect itself, it sees the uric acid crystals as an invader and white blood cells are sent out to put a safety envelope around the crystals. This is when the pain starts.

If you do have gout you are not alone, in the us there are at least a million others who have gout. Most of the people who suffer with gout are men.

Finding out if you have gout is not an exact science in any way. We have mentioned enhanced levels of uric acid already, yet there are people who have gout but don’t display increased uric acid levels. If you have the pain that we have described then it is time to go and see a Dr, be totally honest and open with your Dr, tell him exactly what pain you are having and when you have experienced it.

About the Author:

Ever wonder what the causes of gout? When you know what the symptoms and causes are then you can try to avoid them and prevent yourself suffering from gout or at least reduce the severity of your gout attacks.

THE BEST GOUT PAIN RELIEF FAST

PJ Easton — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:09:51 +0000

by PJ Easton

The ailment we commonly call gout is medically termed acute gouty arthritis. To many people, especially those who are not familiar with the condition, gout is just another common ailment and as to what the best gout pain relief is, is just irrelevant. On the contrary, gout is one of the oldest ailments known to humanity and one of the most severe kinds of arthritis.

If it is worth any solace, being such an ancient disease, medicine has been doing far-reaching research in attempt to at first relief agony interrelated with gout infections that it is possible today to find a appropriate remedy for the individual needs of gout sufferers.

NSAIDs has been known to provide the best gout pain relief and are the most common prescription given to gout patients for instantaneous pain relief. A major advantage of NSAIDs is the fact that it helps to extend the periods between gout attacks and the intensity thereof. Alternative options to NSAIDs are Corticosteroids and Colchicines for persons who tend to be intolerable to NSAIDs or experiencing severe side effects.

In order to obtain instant relief, the best way will be to take pain relieving medication containing ibuprofen. Not only does ibuprofen act as a pain reliever but serve as a good anti-inflammatory cure as well. If you suffer from gout and you don’t put in effort to treat the attack in some way or another, you will likely suffer from it for more or less a week.

It is very important to know that medication containing aspirin might relieve the pain for a while, but it is actually worsen your gout problem. Aspirin inhibits the body from doing away with the uric acid that builds up in your body that is causing the gout related pain.

By applying a cold compression like ice wrapped up in a cloth helps to sooth painful joints and numb the pain for a while. This method also helps to decrease swelling around the joints. It is a good precaution to keep a cold compress ready in your freezer for those unannounced gout attacks. It has been recorded that some gout sufferers find a hot compression such as a warm towel to be soothing and helps to get some relief to be able to sleep at night.

Although drinking plenty of water will not bring immediate relief, it is recommended to consume about one liter of extra water per day in order to aid in the dilution of the uric acid that is the main cause of the in the joints.

About the Author:

Do you suffer from Painful Gout? Are you looking for alternatives? This is only one of many free articles on What Foods to Avoid for Goutfrom http://www.NaturalGoutcures.org/ Check out our great range of free quality articles.

My Gout Remedies » Gout Causes

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