Day 211- Gout- Reduce your Inflammation Naturally

What is gout?

According to PubMed:

"Gout is a kind of arthritis that occurs when uric acid builds up in blood and cause joint inflammation. If too much uric acid builds up in the fluid around the joints (synovial fluid), uric acid crystals form. These crystals cause the joint to swell up and become inflamed."

What is Uric Acid?

According to Wikipedia:

"Uric acid is a heterocyclic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen with the formula C5H4N4O3. It forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates such as ammonium acid urate. Uric acid is created when the body breaks down purine nucleotides."

Gout can be acute in which it typically affects one joint or it can be chronic, which can be seen as repeated episodes of pain and inflammation, and which may involve more than one joint. In a majority of cases the pain associated with gout will be focused on the big toe.

Besides gout, high uric acid can be associated with other conditions.

• Diabetes
• Kidney disease
• Obesity
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure purine
• Heart disease

Gout has been associated with diets high in purine. High purine foods include meats, bread, yeast, alcohol, beer, legumes, etc. Research recently has also shown that gout can be associated with diets high in high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

So how can we eliminate or prevent gout?

Research has show that consuming two servings a day of a sugar sweetened soft drink increased the risk of developing gout by 85%. This means that skipping the daily sugary soft drink or fruit juice could make a big difference when it comes to addressing gout. A study from the University of British Columbia states:

"A surge in the painful joint condition called gout among American men is linked to a rise in drinking sodas and other sugary soft drinks. The risk of the disease increased in line with the intake of sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Those least likely to develop gout were men who drank less than one serving per month. Compared with that group, men who drank five to six servings a week were 29 percent likelier to develop gout. This probability rose to 45 percent among those who had one serving per day, and to 85 percent among those who drank two servings or more. The risk was proportionately higher among drinks containing fructose as a sweetener rather than sugar."

You also want to reduce inflammation in the body, since this is the number one priority. To reduce inflammation, you need to remove foods that you are allergic or sensitive to. If you aren't sure what foods you are sensitive to, try a food elimination diet. Alcohol should be avoided or highly restricted, as are excessive amounts of meats and carbohydrates. Stick with foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon and foods like cherries that reduce inflammation. I would suggest eating gluten and grain free as well. Most importantly remove excess sugar from your diet and drink plenty of water to help flush out uric acid from the body.

A healthy range for uric acid for women should be around 3.2-5.5 mg/dL and for men 3.7-6.0 mg/dL.

Pura Vida!

Alica Ryan