02 Feb, 2009
Your diet is causing you pain
Posted under: Diseases | Subscribe by RSS | Subscribe by Email
If you suffer with gout then you should be changing your diet right now. Your diet, including your intake of fluids (alcoholic and non alcoholic), is affecting every part of your body including your joints where the gout pain appears.
For many years now it has been suspected that a person who diet is high in proteins and purines a substance that helps to make up our genetic structure. But as these purines break down they form uric acid and if too much forms it will crystallize in the joints and cause the pain and inflammation that we associate with the condition known as gout.
When your gout attack is so painful that you can hardly walk, realize that a lot of that pain is caused by your diet, if you drink beer regularly , eat game meat or liver then you can expect to experience gout attacks regularly. It is a good idea to keep a record of what you eat and drink for a month or so , include information on any gout attacks you may have.
Is all that beer and red meat you eat worth all the gout pain that you are experiencing? You need to take your gout diet seriously and realize that the more notice you take of the food you put into your mouth the greater your chance of reducing your pain from gout is.
Potatoes, corn and peas are just three of the vegetables that you should be avoiding all together or at least reducing your intake of them. It can be hard to change your diet all at once, so make a plan to reduce your intake of potatoes by 50% within 2 weeks and work on from there.
While your intake of meat and vegetables will greatly affect your gout another thing you can do to help yourself is increase your intake of water. If you drink alcohol (especially beer) then greatly reduce that intake and replace it with water.
Drinking 8 glasses of water a day will cause your system to flush out more of the purines which if left in your system will break down and become uric acid. While it can be tempting not to drink lots of water (who wants to be going to the bathroom every half hour) the benefits of consuming lots of water are a reduction in gout attacks and the severity of the attacks you do have.
By making changes to your dietary habits and using a gout diet for which you can find plenty of advice on the internet about, you will discover that you are better able to control the condition. Certainly over time not only will the symptoms and attacks associated with this condition be greatly reduced, but you will feel much better in yourself as well.