Battling with Gout constantly

[NoStepOnSnek88]

I battle with almost continuous bouts of Gout. We maybe eat red meat once a week and I will on some weekends enjoy a beer.
I feel like I'm living on anti-inflamatory pills recently. Has gotten worse over the last year.
Does anybody also suffer from this and what do you do to keep it under control.

@Werner1975

First of all, I won't go into much detail here, that said you are most welcome to DM me anytime.

Long story short I have severe Osteoarthritis in my right knee and hip, it probably started around 2009 if I had to take a guess, without me knowing. Then around 2016, I started suffering from mild Gouty arthritis (AKA gout) much like you I tried changing my diet, it was a few times per year, severe but a handful of times in an entire year.

Then around 2020/2021, it became unbearable, the pain, the frequentness, I guess as a fellow sufferer when I say unbearable you know which level and pain I'm talking about, words do not do the pain and suffering justice.


Like many, I turned to my Doctor for help, and yes I had high or elevated levels of uric acid in my blood, yes Puricos was the only answer, a prescription drug and OTC Colchicine, so one tablet of Puricos and half a tablet of Colchicine per day, every day, was the Doctor's recommendation.

About three months went by, and then there were a few days when I skipped taking the Puricos, and had a severe attack.
It came to a point where I now needed to renew my prescription.

The Doctor took blood again, and uric acid levels were very slightly elevated, went home and a few weeks later I started doing my own research and tests.

So around 2022 if I had to guess, took the 3 months of Puricos prescription I had left and threw them in the dustbin, I simply refused to take a pill everyday.

At the time my triggers were beef, any sweetened / sugary stuff, being dehydrated, tight shoes, (couldn't wear formal shoes anymore).

The areas varied but the vast majority of the time the attack would happen in my left foot, it would start at the heel / left rear side of my foot, then spread to my ankle, and then over the bridge of my foot. I also would get it in the common "big toe" area.

My last gout attack was around June of 2023, to add it was because of tight sports shoes, I should have paid more attention when I knew I was going to spend 5 to 6 hours with them on.

I found a "cure" well at least for me, no more prescriptions, puricos, injections etc.

Lemon and water, nothing fancy, I buy the 2lt lemon juice and "flavour" my water with that every day, I make sure I drink a minimum of 1.5lt of it every day. I should mention it took about 4 weeks before the uric acid was "flushed" / diluted.

I do not measure out specific millilitres, just a splash in a 1.5lt drinking bottle, should not be sour, must bearly taste the lemon.


But unfortunately, my Osteoarthritis is still there, there is no "cure", I've tried all these "hippie" meds for pain relief, the real relief would be when I go and do the Total hip replacement (THR) surgery... one day.

PS: and BTW, I told the Doctor, he was glad and said if the lemon juice and water works for me, then I should continue, he sees no harm in it drinking it, because I'm basically "flavouring" my daily water intake with a spalsh of lemon juice.

This was what I was taking with the puricos before I found my "cure".



The "cure".

 

[NoStepOnSnek88]

@Werner1975 ,

Like many other have mentioned in this thread already, there is a MASSIVE misconception around gout and arthritis in general,

It has a lot to do with genetics and also how your body/kidneys break down / filter uric acid in your blood.

 

[XPD]

I had a severe attack in 2019. Got the magic injection from the GP and then started taking alkaline powder. At the time only A Vogel existed but there are many brands now. I still take it every morning and never had a severe attack since. With certain foods I get the odd tingle but no flare up. Also reading this thread caused it to tingle. Lol. PTSD

 

[Stephan Maritz]

@Werner1975 ,

Like many other have mentioned in this thread already, there is a MASSIVE misconception around gout and arthritis in general,

It has a lot to do with genetics and also how your body/kidneys break down / filter uric acid in your blood.

This is true, some people go for ages trying to isolate the triggers, only to come to no specific conclusion. Sometimes medication is the answer, not lifestyle changes.

 

[NoStepOnSnek88]

I battle with almost continuous bouts of Gout. We maybe eat red meat once a week and I will on some weekends enjoy a beer.
I feel like I'm living on anti-inflamatory pills recently. Has gotten worse over the last year.
Does anybody also suffer from this and what do you do to keep it under control.

Try the water & lemon juice remedy, you have nothing to lose.

Use a large water bottle, and just add a splash of lemon juice to the water, nothing fancy.

Try to drink at least 1.5lt of it per day, for the next few weeks and see if you experience any gout flare ups, or symptoms.

 

[Werner1975]

Try the water & lemon juice remedy, you have nothing to lose.

Use a large water bottle, and just add a splash of lemon juice to the water, nothing fancy.

Try to drink at least 1.5lt of it per day, for the next few weeks and see if you experience any gout flare ups, or symptoms.

Thanks, will give it a shot. So tired of taking pills.

 

[Mortymoose]

I have posted this tale before, somewhere in the dark depths of this here esteemed forum.

But in the interest of assisting a fellow sufferer I shall repeat.

About twenty five years ago, a once fit lad like myself took it apon himself to brew homemade beer in a plastic bucket.

I was a newbie, out of my depth, did not know the workings of beer gravity and alcohol content or the terms.....I just wanted to stick it to yon brewery folks and get pissed on the cheapo,

It was just shy of 05h00 in the morning after the big suip, the one where I invited my mates over for the introductory testing, bodies were strewn across my lawn, broken bottles littered the English HO's laundry, this happens when fermentation runs riot and your 750ml brown glass bottles decide to return to their natural state.

So as one would expect, I awoke with a raging headache, nay, a blinding headache, but it was not the headache that had awakened me from my drunken slumber, but the pressure of a thin white cotton sheet resting apon my big toe.

This was how I was introduced into the dark mystic world of Uric Acids and Gout. This was how I would come to know real suffering apon this earth. This was how I could stand around a table with the woman folk that bleated , " You have never experienced pain like pushing out a baby from your uterus!". I would scoff at such claims...... I cannot recall and I am to feckin lazy to scroll back on this here thread, but one of you reflected my exact view of the fine art of gout suffering as saying something like, "the pain was so bad, I would not have hesitated to cut of my leg to alleviate such pain...." Yep, I often lay apon the carpeted floor of our humble housein the wee hours of the morning, when the rest of the world was in slumber, wailing in agony, blurting out to The English HO, "You have no effin idea!!! The pain, My feck! The pain......It's so bad that If I owned a shotgun I will blow of my feckin foot....." It was bad lads! Really bad.....

First the toes, then the ankle , the arch of the foot and on rare occasions it would take my knee...

During some attacks I still had to work and would whisk myself on an office stool down the aisles at the store....

I had two friends who were experienced nursing sisters that would come to my house in the wee hours and take me into Nirvana, that last resort, A Celestone/Voltaren combo...... Next to Morphine this was the bomb.

Yet, I never changed my lifestyle choices , the years rolled by, the gout worsened.....

My patient wife getting upset, the agony, the pain,

Then I read about the damage I was doing not only to my liver but my kidneys with all these injections...

One morning, in the midst of an acute attack, around 03h00, whilst crawling down the hallway to get a piss, wailing like a banshee after the cat brushed up against my toe, my wife appeared, like the Virgin Mary, she first took pity on her man and then said to unto me...... "Moose, that's it, this has gone on for fifteen years, enough...... I am sending you to a specialist down in the Cape in the coming days....."

and she was right....

Saw a young buck of a Doc at Constantiaberg, who laid into me.... "Moose, you need to change your lifestyle....(This is where I yawned!) , otherwise you are going to have some serious health issues if you make fifty ....(This is where I gasped!)

In a nutshell, I had to abstain from dead cows and their brethren, stop making home brew and absolutely no alcohol for three months in order to allow the meds to do their magic....

I was put on 300mg of Puricos..... Like a Freemason, he parted the secret ways of managing Gout....." You only take the colchicine 1mg when you feel a twitch coming on, every two hours thereafter"..... he whispered, " Never take the Puricos when you are having an attack...... but you can never give up the Puricos...."

Guys, It was so bad that I got wheel chaired home from work by my staff one day, None of my nursing mates resided in town any longer, I sat in that chair, crying like a drug dependent Scottish hobo, injecting into my upper legs the meds that they had left me.... No more...

Good Afternoon, My name is Moose and I am a Puricos addict, I have taken this tablet diligently for the past twenty five years, I drink 2,5lt water a day, I have identified my triggers as Marmite, yeast extract, Brown mushrooms, stress and anything with stock powders in it.

I also researched about the condition, the uric acids, what happens to the body, the crystals, purines in food.... I became a boffin on the subject...

Ironically, Beer, Meat, Fatty meat, smoked meat, shellfish, lemons,tomatoes are not my triggers, how blessed be I....

If I look back apon my years of suffering two things spring to mind, (1) I should seeked out professional help years ago (2) I should have started my food diary to find my triggers earlier. (This was an eye opener.)

I rarely have had a full blown attack over the past 15 years, when I feel the tingle, Time is of the essence, I hit the colchicine...

I am at peace now....

In next weeks edition, "How Moose saved himself from Gout suffering and welcome to Atrial Fibrillation!"

 

[airborne]

Try the water & lemon juice remedy, you have nothing to lose.

Use a large water bottle, and just add a splash of lemon juice to the water, nothing fancy.

Try to drink at least 1.5lt of it per day, for the next few weeks and see if you experience any gout flare ups, or symptoms.

What mechanism is at play here with the tiny amount of lemon juice?

 

[Stephan Maritz]

Thanks, will give it a shot. So tired of taking pills.

Honesty a pill every morning is easier than 1.5l of water, and it's probably going to work.

For me it was a case of "What is another pill on top of the two in already taking".

Often natural/home remedies must be taken for ages, and probably will not work.

As much as I like the water with lemon, would you have to drink it every day forever?

 

[NoStepOnSnek88]

What mechanism is at play here with the tiny amount of lemon juice?

It's the lemon juice (citric acid) it alkalises the uric acid in your blood and reduces the levels, and also not being dehydrated.

By tiny amount I still mean a splash of lemon juice in your water bottle, I'm not talking about a few drops here, it should be enough to at least "taste" that lemon juice has been added.

 

[NoStepOnSnek88]

Honesty a pill every morning is easier than 1.5l of water, and it's probably going to work.

For me it was a case of "What is another pill on top of the two in already taking".

Often natural/home remedies must be taken for ages, and probably will not work.

As much as I like the water with lemon, would you have to drink it every day forever?

When I was doing my testing and research, the longterm usage / side effects of puricos (allopurinol) seemed way worse than lemon juice & water.

So here's a question, do you not drink a few litres of water per week, if you do why not just add a splash of lemon in that water.

And no, you don't have to consume 1.5litres of it every single day, I've gone weeks without really consuming close to that amount per day.

 

[SauRoNZA]

When I was doing my testing and research, the longterm usage / side effects of puricos (allopurinol) seemed way worse than lemon juice & water.

So here's a question, do you not drink a few litres of water per week, if you do why not just add a splash of lemon in that water.

And no, you don't have to consume 1.5litres of it every single day, I've gone weeks without really consuming close to that amount per day.

So is it not really just the water doing all the work and not so much the lemon juice?

 

[CUZ_458]

When I was doing my testing and research, the longterm usage / side effects of puricos (allopurinol) seemed way worse than lemon juice & water.

So here's a question, do you not drink a few litres of water per week, if you do why not just add a splash of lemon in that water.

And no, you don't have to consume 1.5litres of it every single day, I've gone weeks without really consuming close to that amount per day.

what did u find with longterm usage of Puricos ? I couldnt find anything online

Ive been on it for a few years with no side effects . For the last 2 years i have stopped taking it daily . Maybe thrice a week .

 

[NoStepOnSnek88]

So is it not really just the water doing all the work and not so much the lemon juice?

No, as lemon juice is a natural source of vitamin C and citric acid which aids in dissolving uric acid crystals and alkalises your blood

 

[SauRoNZA]

No, as lemon juice is a natural source of vitamin C and citric acid which aids in dissolving uric acid crystals and alkalises your blood

Sure but is it actually meaningful in such low quantities and isn't it ultimately just the water going through your system diluting it all that really makes the difference.

If you were saying like 50ml of lemon juice a day I could understand it doing something.

 

[neoprema]

As has been said, some people just have a genetic predisposition to higher uric acid. My uric acid is always high when i do a blood test even if avoiding the "trigger" foods.

I forgot about mushrooms, and had a nice mushroom-filled dish 4 days ago. My left toe felt like there are a thousand tiny blades running through the joint in a circle just ripping whatever they find.

2nd day on high doses of colchicine and its finally starting to go away. So irritating...

I only go to the doctor for the "gout shot" if colchicine doesn't work OR most likely - i have to travel and am not gonna wait for the pills i need it gone ASAP. Because it contains quite a lot of cortisone too the Dr said its best not to get that injection too often if you can avoid it.