DIET RECOMMENDATIONS
- Eat a diet as low in purines as possible. While purines are found in all foods, it is especially important to limit protein intake. Completely avoid anchovies, bakers and brewer’s yeast, herring, mackerel, sardines, and shellfish. Reduce consumption of other high protein foods, such as meat, poultry, dried beans, and fish. Generally speaking, for a person weighing 150 pounds (70kgs), protein consumption should be limited to one 3-ounce (100-gram) serving of protein food daily. Also avoid asparagus and spinach.
- Eat a diet that emphasizes whole, unprocessed foods, including beans (up to two servings a day), nuts and seeds, vegetables, and whole grains.
- Eat cherries or take cherry extract. Eating half pound (225 grams) of canned or fresh cherries a day has been shown to be very effective means of preventing gout attacks. When fresh cherries are out of season, use cherry extracts or concentrates in tablet or tincture form, available from many health –food stores.it is likely that cherries inhibit compounds that cause inflammation. This reduces inflammation after uric acid builds up in a joint.
- To flush uric acid from the body, drink not less than eight glasses of water daily.
- Avoid alcohol, since alcohol increases uric acid production.
- Do not take more than 50 milligrams of vitamin B3 (niacin) or 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C per day. In excess, these vitamins compete with uric acid for excretion into the urine, and cause uric acid to accumulate in the body.
- Do not take aspirin or diuretics (water pills).these drugs can trigger a gout attack.
- Do not take supplements containing the amino acid glycine. Glycine can be converted into uric acid more rapidly in people who suffer from gout.
- Maintain a normal body weight. Obesity increases the risk of repeat gout attacks.
CONSIDERATIONS
- Allopurinol (zyloprim)reduces uric acid formation.it is a highly effective drug but it can produce severe side effects, such as fever, generalized rashes breakdown of red blood cells, and liver kidney problems. Another drug, colchicine, derived from the herb autumn saffron, eases acute gout attack and prevents future attacks. While often quite effective, it too can have serious side effects.
- Gout can be a sign of lead poisoning. Make sure you are not using serving dishes or pitchers fired with a lead glaze for anything other than decorative purposes. When acid foods touch the lead glaze, toxic lead leaches out into the food, and can promote uric acid formation in the body. A home lead-testing kit is available from the lead tester.