The disease gout refers to the type of inflammation or swelling affecting the joints. This disease is said to be in chronic form but it also imposes acute attacks. Moreover, gout is considered as the disease of the wealthy people and always with high incidence to occur in middle adult men. Yet, females are also at risk for developing gout when they have already reached their menopausal period. The first trace of gout was found out by the physicians in Rome and Greece.
Based from the book of one of the long time victims of the disease, the occurrence of gout is linked to the increase in the alcohol and large intake of meals. There are popular men in the ancient times that are affected by gout. These are Louis XIV, Franklin, Dr. Johnson, Newton, Luther and Alexander the Great.
Symptoms of Gout
- If there is an exacerbation of gout, there is a pain that will be felt by the person involved. The pain usually originates from the big toe and is described as hot and tender. The toe usually becomes inflamed afterwards. When the pain is present, there will be difficulty in putting your body weight in the affected part. The pain is also found in some joints in your body such as in the wrists and in the knees. Usually, gout attack happens at midnight or few hours upon waking up in the morning. When you are being attacked by gout, you will usually feel it in week long duration.
- Aside from the pain, there is also a high tendency that the person who is suffering from gout will feel elevation of body temperature as well as decrease in his appetite. Because of the inability to sustain his food appetite, his general wellness will be compromised soon.
- There is also a notable damage in the joints when there is gout. If you will observe a patient with gout, you will notice that there are chalky lumps which is due to the deposition of uric acids in the joints.
- Kidney damage may also be experienced by a person with gout. This happens in advance cases of gout that is due to the increase in the kidney deposition of the wastes that must be eliminated from the body.
Causes of Gout
- The primary cause of gout is the increase in the formation of the uric acid in the affected joints, kidneys and in the skin. Usually, uric acid is the byproduct of the chemical processes in the body. The ones that are suffering from gout have high amount of uric acid in his blood. The increase in the uric acid in the blood may be due to the reduction or formation of the acids that reach the kidneys and is excreted via urine. In gouty arthritis, there is dissolving of the uric acid in the blood. By the time that there are already overwhelming amounts of uric acid in the blood, this is now the time that this substance is deposited in the joints.
- Another root cause of the development of gout is heredity. There are some races all in the world that are too prone to developing this kind of condition.
- Eating habit is also another cause of gout. Those who are taking high amounts of alcohol, intake of foods rich in carbs as well as protein are at high risk for this disease. Meat eating (flesh eating) is the common cause of gout because of its high protein content.
- Stress is also rooted as a contributing factor in the development of gout. During this time, there is destruction of the cells in the body and the end product of the destruction of these cells is uric acid.
Gout Natural Remedies
- In the case of acute attacks of gout, the primary treatment in this case is fast. The patient who has a gout attack must undergo 5-7 days of water and orange juice treatment. In the first day of fasting, there is increase in the intensity of the gout attack. Yet, this will easily vanish as you progress with the diet. It is recommended that in the initial three days of the fast diet, you must separate it into small intakes rather than having them all at once. Once you are under fasting, it is also advised that you undergo enema in order to properly cleanse the bowel.
- Once there is already resolution of the manifestations of gout attacks, you can now begin a diet that is composed of fruits. Under this treatment for gout, you must observe eating 3 meals of fruits that are juicy. These fruits are pineapple, oranges, peaches, pears, apples and grapes.
- In your breakfast, you can eat fruits apples, mangoes, oranges, or whole wheat breads.
- For lunch, you can select vegetables like celery, squash, steamed lettuce, beets, carrots, or turnips.
- In the dinner time, a good amount of vegetable salad is nice like cabbage, carrots, radish, tomatoes, with topped with onions, or sprouted mung beans and alfalfa.
- There are also some foods in your menu that must be avoided. Examples of these are glandular meats, fish, eggs and any form of animal meat. These are the foods that can produce high uric acid in your system due to the breakdown of their cellular components.
- Those liquors that are said to be intoxicating must also be avoided. Examples of these are coffee, tea and liquors. Aside from these, it is also important that you avoid foods high in salts and spices and all of the canned foods available.
- Based from the research of Ludwig W. Blan Ph.D., cherry is considered as an effective single fruit that can help treat the disease. This renowned doctor is a gout patient himself. He created his own medical journal and stated the effects of cherries, whether it is sour or sweet, to the gout that he has. In fact, there are a lot of gout patients who have tried the cherry therapy and it was found to be effective in their case. Under this form of treatment, it is advised that you have to ingest 15-25 cherries in a day. Particularly, ten cherries can already control the disease that you have. If there are no fresh cherries in your place, you can substitute it with canned cherries.
- There are also some specific foods that you can consume in order to be free from gout which are rich in potassium. These are raw vegetables, beans, green leafy vegetables, bananas and potatoes. Better yet, you can switch your diet to a vegetarian diet or try alkaline diet.
- Carrot juice is also effective in this problem. The juice from carrot can be mixed with the juices from cucumber as well as beet. In doing the preparation, all you just need is to secure beet and cucumber juice that is 100 ml and have it blended with carrot juice that comes in 300 ml. Overall, you will have 500 ml preparation.
- Cold bath is also a nice treatment for gout. Aside from that, the use of Epsom salts during your bath will further increase the effectiveness of the treatment.
- Proper intake of water is also advised in the case of gout. With appropriate body hydration, you will be able to eliminate the excess uric acid in your system.
- It is also beneficial to apply cold packs to the affected joints or parts. Exercise in outdoors and getting fresh air is are also necessary and keep away from stressful habits.
