When I was in the hospital in 2012, I developed gout in my big toe. It was quite painful, and made my entire foot hurt. When I tried to stand up the first time after my surgery, I had an even more difficult time due to the gout. One of the most common ailments older people encounter is gout. This is common to people 65 years old and above especially for older men. Even so, younger adults may suffer from it as this problem may occur based on nutrient factors and not just age.
On the other hand, older people who eat nutritious food and observe a balanced diet are less vulnerable. Today, we will be going over gout causes and the natural remedies made available.
What is Gout?
Gout is a problem in joints particularly in the feet and is considered a form of arthritis. Typically the joint swells and is followed by excruciating pain. It occurs when the amount of uric acid is too high forming uric crystals that are concentrated in the joint. It does not only affect our joints but also our ankles, knees, fingers, and elbows.
What Causes It?
According to Arthritis Foundation on gout causes, gout is the result of excess uric acid in the body, a condition called hyperuricemia. The amount of our uric acid increases when we eat food that is high in purines which are commonly found in meat and fish.
However, it is our lifestyle that determines the probability of having gout. High uric acid is not actually bad. What makes it dangerous is when its amount is too high for our body to maintain thereby making the excess amount to build up in our joints.
How to Prevent Gout
Our health always depends on our lifestyle. We can prevent gout simply by avoiding the common lifestyles that trigger it.
Here are the lifestyles that we should avoid:
- Extreme diet or weight loss activity such as fasting
- Too much beer or hard alcohol
- Excessive eating of seafood such as shell fish
- Drinking too many sodas that increase a build-up of uric acid.
- Not drinking enough water–you should get on average eight glasses each day.
Medical Treatments
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases published an article on the facts about gout and mentioned that doctors use medicines to treat an acute attack of gout, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, such as prednisone and colchicine, which works best when taken within the first 12 hours of an acute attack. Nevertheless, it is best to connect with a medical specialist at MDSandBox.com that can help you if your conditions worsen.
Natural Remedies
Changing our lifestyle is still the best natural remedy. If you have been on gout medicine and your medication isn’t working you might want to try one of these natural remedies. Here are some of the natural remedies that we should use to get rid of the uric acid in your body letting your body get rid of gout quickly:
- Drink a lot of distilled water
- Eat lots of cherry’s and watermelon
- Use lemon juice and baking soda
For the lemon juice and baking soda it is recommend you take into account the appropriate dosage.
If you are suffering from gout and your own medication doesn’t seem to be working you might want to look at your diet to see if there are any foods causing high uric acid levels. I hope you can use some of the easy natural methods to lower your uric acid levels so your gout can recede and your health can improve.
I have heard of this ailment and it is just not for older people anymore. Women are getting this painful condition and it can be hard to treat. Thanks for the information on this-it is very helpful.
A couple of years ago, a friend had a bad case of gout, and it was hard to see him in such pain. I didn’t really know much about it, though, and I really appreciate your informative post. Sorry you had to go through it.
I have a lot of health problems. Thank goodness gout isn’t one of them.
My husband has this. Now I rule his intake with an iron fist (no sodas!, no beer – which he didn’t care about that much anyway). Now it’s cherry season and we are eating them, but I did not realize that they were helping. he hasn’t had an attack in years and years.
Every time my mom eats this certain bean, she would then suffer from gout. This is interesting to know about gout, and I’m glad those remedies are easy to find.