How to be gout-free without medication
19 June 2009
I am finally gout free and that is without medicine.
I while back I had decided to stop taking my prescribed medication for gout to see what would happen. The result – nothing, absolutely nothing. In order to keep my gout under control I do the following:
- drink a lot of water (and pee regularly)
- eat less purine foods like meat and fatty foods
- eat more vegetables
- eat less, in general
- avoid alcohol
- do physical work
Actually this routine is a combination of a diet and gout control. And I feel better for it. One cannot underestimate how important a good diet is.
And this also means choosing food which has been grown or raised without overuse of chemicals. The best way to monitor this is to grow your own food. It not only gives you exercise but you get something out of it after your hard work – food. Plus you get in touch with nature this way, something we need to do in this day and age.
9 July 2009 at 7:29pm
Hi, just found your blog via Google.
I was analysed to have gout since 2002, I was 23 and had alcohol drinking habit at the time.
I quited alcohol and started taking medicine since 2004 until 2008, and control my eating habit. Then I had a similar idea to be medication-free, that I stopped medicine around august 2008, and the I’ve been free of attack until last month (June 2009).
I guess I was too easy on my practice and violated some of the rules (i.e. eat lots of meat).
So I wonder how do you keep yourself on the right track? Do you monitor yourself (have blood-check) regularly?
Thanks,
Kris
10 July 2009 at 11:54am
Hi Kris,
Thanks for your question.
If you are good with keeping your diet then it is not necessary to monitor it. I don’t monitor my diet because I eating less and I haven’t had an attack since.
What I suggest is to drink a lot of water (2 litres a day) to dissolve the uric acid (which forms the crystals in your joints) when you eat more meat than usual. I still eat meat but not as much as I used to. If I have meat I try to only have it for one meal per day. The other times it is non-meat or just fish.
To sum up, eating less meat and drinking more water seems to work. Also zero alcohol. Alcohol, especially beer, is bad for your gout.
Good luck.
17 September 2009 at 7:03pm
Your suggestions for gout-free living are excellent. Off the top of my head, I would also add: avoid excess iron, avoid medications for other conditions that cause gout (not always possible but blood pressure and cholesterol problems are common among gout sufferers and both have “good for gout” options).
Kris mentions monitoring, and I feel that this is something that is vital for continued gout free living. Even if you can avoid uric acid lowering drugs, it is still important to have uric acid tested, say twice a year.
If you allow it to rise above 6mg/dL, you run a risk of uric acid crystals forming. Often this is so slow that you don’t notice it until the big bad gout flare hits you – but in the meantime, the slow build-up of urate deposits can attack tendons, cartilage and bone.