All About Gout

Over time, increased uric acid levels in the blood may lead to deposits of urate crystals in and around the joints. These crystals can attract white blood cells, leading to severe, painful gout attacks and chronic arthritis. Uric acid deposits can also be found in the urinary tract, causing kidney stones.

Food, Vitamins, Minerals, Probiotics and Uric Acid Production

Approximately, 70% of your daily UA load comes from your own cells as they die. The other 30% (normal diet) is produced by the foods we eat. For these reasons, our food and vitamin/minerals choices play a large roll in maintaining a gout-free life. Healthy cells, as a matter of course, die off at a normal rate, while the death of unhealthy cells can take place at an alarmingly rapid rate. As we age, we naturally produce fewer cells. However, lifestyle choices directly affect the health of those cells. Stress, sickness, weight loss, and even extreme physical exertions can all cause premature cellular death. This cell death increases the uric acid loads on the system. Couple this with pH imbalances (food and lifestyle), and uric acid is drastically increased within the blood supply. These heightened levels can prove to be entirely too much for the kidneys and bowels to dispose of in a 24-hour time frame. This day in and day out process eventually culminates a gout attack, and if left unchecked can result in excessive acute attacks and joint damage.

Gout sufferers tend to be deficient in several areas with regard to vitamins, minerals, and healthy bacteria levels. These are areas they can supply additional support to the cells by way of diet and supplementation. Those that work as antioxidants perform the useful function of squelching free radicals. Why is this helpful? Because during gout attacks, free radical levels rise.

Pantothenic acid, B5, is known as the 'anti-stress vitamin' and is effective as a gout remedy because it can help break down the excess uric acid which causes gout. Folic acid is believed to help the body produce fewer enzymes that make up uric acid. Quercetin may inhibit xanthine oxidase, the enzyme required to convert purines into uric acid. This is the method used by the leading long term gout pharmaceutical, Allopurinol. Quercetin has done this in test-tube studies. Deficiencies in Vitamins A, E, B1, B2, B6, and B12 are rather prevalent in gout sufferers and should be included in your multivitamin, as well. Bromelain is a vitamin that assists the body in blocking inflammation. Because gout is a result of swollen joints, this vitamin can help relieve the symptoms. Lastly, do not sleep on the importance of healthy bacteria. Nutrient absorption, vitamin synthesis, and waste elimination through regularity are dependent upon a certain number of probiotics, or friendly bacteria, present and active in the intestines.

Who gets gout?

Gout affects more than 3 million Americans. This condition and its complications occur more often in men, women after menopause, and people with kidney disease. Gout is strongly linked to obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol and triglycerides), and diabetes. Some other types of arthritis can mimic gout; so proper diagnosis is the key. Health care providers suspect gout when a patient has swelling and intense pain in one or two joints, initially, followed by pain‐free times in between attacks. Early gout attacks often start at night. Diagnosis depends on finding the distinguishing crystals. The physician may use a needle to extract fluid from an affected joint and will study that fluid under a microscope to find whether urate crystals are present. Crystals also can be found in deposits (called tophi) that can appear under the skin. These tophi growths occur in advanced stages of gout. Uric acid levels in the blood are important to measure, but can sometimes be misleading, especially if measured at the time of an acute attack. Levels may be normal for a short time or even low during attacks. Some may have increased uric acid levels, without the presence of Gout. X-rays may show joint damage in gout of long duration.

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