I got the GOUT

Just got diagnosed with Gout. Not in my feet like most people, thank god...in my right elbow. I thought it was tendonitis or bursitis, but after finally going to the doctor he convinced me to take colchicine and allopurinol, which has partially controlled it. BUT, long term I want to control it through dietatary means, if possible. No red meat, seafood, or BEER. Which is taking some of the joy out of life, since I absolutely love drinking craft beer.

Anybody out there to commiserate with? Sucks getting old.

I have only seen this happen to people who are way out of shape.

Slow - I was THE 'poster child' for gout a number of years ago. In my feet, finger knuckles, knees, elbows, you name it. Had gigantic tophi on my elbows the size of golfballs. Finally found a rheumatologist about 20 years ago (I was in my thirties) who put me on 300mg allopurinol and said it would take some time but eventually my pain and symptoms would go away (and he said don't EVER stop taking it). After a couple years he was 100% spot on. I now live pain free with no symptoms, range of motion problems, etc. I can now climb, hike, play my guitars, etc. all of which I had to give up until I started on allo.

Allo is cheap, super effective (at least for me) and it gave me my life back. The super plus side is that I haven't changed my diet or beer drinking addiction.

My advice: Get on it and stay on it. And you will be able to do Rewritten, Green Spur and Swanson's.

Best of luck, dave

P.S. the doc was with the mayo clinic out of rochester.

nicelegs - Gout can attack ANYONE no matter their physical conditioning. I was leading trad 5.10 and bouldering ~V-4 when it got me. It really, really sucks.

dave

Hey Slow,
I was diagnosed about 2 years ago. I told my Dr I didn't care to take drugs daily so she prescribed me Indomethacin to take as needed. I cut out all but the BEST red meat...I have maybe 1 juicy lucy at a bar and one nice steak a month, other than that it's turkey or chicken, or *gasp* tofu.

I still enjoy a fair bit of good beer, the Dr. said no more than 2 in any given day. I figure she knew I'd cheat and was going conservative so I try to (almost) never have more than 4 in a single day. I find that as long as my diet is relatively clean the beer is ok, its the combo of shitty diet and beer that makes it flare.

I've also read that high-fructose sugar can aggravate gout. This isn't a big deal for me as I avoid that crap anyways, but if you're a soda drinker you may want to consider severely limiting your intake of that or switching to something with real sugar.

Last piece of advice; if you're like me and don't medicate for it daily be sure to hit the drugs the moment you feel a tinge of gout-like pain. It's way easier to head it off before it gets going than to beat it back once you've got a full on flare up.

Cheers,
Steve

Diagnosed 15 years ago at age 40, mostly elbows and sometimes knees.
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Allopurinol 200 in 100mg each time, over that I have had gut problems. Colchcine is not scripped a lot these days..Prednisone sometimes

i have big tophi in the elbows as well and have heard that after removal, they usually come back ?

Now the bad news- I just spent almost a month in hospital with heart issues,,Docs pretty certain that the long term gout (inflammation) FOR SURE AFFECTED the heart..so be careful

feel free to pm me for more if you want

Steve - I'm with you 100% on the diet (I never did eat much red) IF you can control through that method. Otherwise, what I said earlier. I also agree with the avoidance of high fructose (that stuff IS crap and its in everything it seems).

And it is a lot easier to deal with it ASAP rather than wait for the full on attack.

Thank god we can still drink beer!!

John - we are very close to the same age with the same period of gout symptoms. Fortunately I have not had any side effects from allo. My tophi eventually dissolved on their own after starting allo as my doc said they would - it took some time though. They have never come back.

Your comment about heart issues was also mentioned by my doc when I was diagnosed with gout. That is why he said to stay on the allo for life - to prevent the possibility of inflamation.

For the record, since starting allo I have never had to take colchacine, prednisone, indo or any othe anti-inflamatory.

If you can control it without drugs - GREAT! - but if not ^^^.

Any of you can also pm me if you wish. Thanks all.

Drink tart cherry juice. Works great for gout. I'm not some woo-woo new age hippie nature mama, it works and there are studies that demonstrate as much.

Couple quick blurbs I had on my laptop:

"
2003 study, 280 grams of cherries (about 45 cherries) was given to 10 healthy women. Blood uric acid levels decreased by 14% after five hours, and excretion of uric acid increased.

And in a 2011 study, 10 overweight and obese participants consumed 8 oz per day of either 100% tart cherry juice or a placebo for four weeks. Although participants had normal uric acid levels, seven participants displayed reduced serum uric acid levels after drinking tart cherry juice. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), an indicator of chronic inflammation, was significantly lower with the tart cherry juice versus placebo.

a new year-long study of 633 volunteers with gout shows that flare-ups are 35 percent less likely when a person eats cherries (Arthritis & Rheumatism, online Sept. 28, 2012). Cherries in combination with the uric-acid-lowering drug allopurinol reduced the likelihood of an attack by 75 percent. "

Will S wrote:Drink tart cherry juice. Works great for gout.