Gout

[ChrisSportsFan]

Originally Posted by mutantducky

also on those things to avoid. Some of them are good for you with Vitamin D and K.
high protein meats, spinach, mushrooms, cauliflower, dried beans, anchovies, sardines, roe (fish eggs), herring, mussels, codfish, scallops, trout, haddock and gravy.

asparagus is a guaranteed bad couple of days for me.

[Adam]

I had my first attack back in the fall of 2007, went to the doctor after a couple of days of being crippled. I laughed in a co-worker's face when she suggested it might be gout; I thought I'd broken my toe somehow.
I had to go back and tell her she was right.

I've had about three or four attacks since then, and have learned to recognize the symptoms before they get too bad. I'm a steak guy, so I have to be careful not to eat it too often. My attacks have been brought on by physical trauma to the foot, though. Sudden sprints for example.

The other thing is, and this is going to sound crazy to some of you but it works like medicine for me. If I feel the symptoms coming, I eat dark cherries and it works in the same time frame as the medicine I was prescribed on my first attack.

A year and a half ago we were in CA and I had an attack the day we went to Disneyland. We stopped and bought some dark cherries on the way into DL and I ate about half a pound of them. By mid-afternoon, after having walked for a few hours, I was fine. As I noted though, I've learned to recognize the stiffness that hits the night before, and if I have a couple servings of cherries I have avoided the attacks.

[just another ref]

I had heard cherry juice was good for treatment. Tried it and it didn't work for me. Tasted so nasty I said I'd almost rather have gout. I read specifically that one shouldn't take medication (I assume it was that drug someone mentioned earlier) only during an outbreak, but I bummed a couple and did it anyway and it worked like a charm. Pain went away totally.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I had heard cherry juice was good for treatment. Tried it and it didn't work for me. Tasted so nasty I said I'd almost rather have gout. I read specifically that one shouldn't take medication (I assume it was that drug someone mentioned earlier) only during an outbreak, but I bummed a couple and did it anyway and it worked like a charm. Pain went away totally.

I'd never heard of using just cherry juice, I just eat dark cherries. I keep a can of them in the pantry just in case, but actually prefer fresh ones. That said, the advice came from my mother-in-law's friend who has fought gout for a long time. I laughed at her when she told me what he did, but it works for me. Obviously, it's not going to work for everyone, but I figured it was worth the dollar to find out.

[tjchamp]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I had heard cherry juice was good for treatment. Tried it and it didn't work for me. Tasted so nasty I said I'd almost rather have gout. I read specifically that one shouldn't take medication (I assume it was that drug someone mentioned earlier) only during an outbreak, but I bummed a couple and did it anyway and it worked like a charm. Pain went away totally.

You should never take allopurinol while in the middle of a gout attack. It will exacerbate the problem. Indocin is a nsaid that relieves the inflamation caused by gout.

I've had that pain where you cannot tolerate the sheet on your foot. The dr. prescribed a treatment of colchicine at that time, and was pain free in about a day. That drug was presribed as a last resort though. He indicated it is a poison. Not sure how that works.

[chartrusepengui]

I had kidney stones a lot over several years, including visits to specialists, and two surgical procedures to have some removed. A few months after the last - I had severe pain in my foot. I was told I have something similar to Gout but not Gout (I can't pronounce it and have to look it up to spell it)

Basically, it is kind of like kidney stones - crystals form in foot causing severe pain. They don't know why. Studies have been done. Diet does not really affect it as far as they can tell. I keep well hydrated with water because of the kidney stone issue. They don't know why I kept getting them either. All tests come back normal. So - when I had the severe attack they put me on colchicine and allopurinol at the same time until pain subsided.

Now on just allopurinol. When they tried to wean me away from this - both kidney stones and other came back. So - I am now on maintenance allpurinol all the time. No more stones, no more foot pain. Still don't know whats/whys. Have had kidneys tested and more bloodwork than you can imagine.

[Back In The Saddle]

I've also done the gout thing. Crippling pain is right. Oddly with me it didn't happen in the big toe, which is the popular place to get it. Mine happens in other joints within the foot and in the ankle.

I also had my knee scoped last year, thinking I had a torn meniscus. Turns out it was a gout-like thing with crystals forming in the knee joint. Not really painful, but caused a lot of swelling.