Gout is a type of arthritis that develops when your uric acid levels get too high.
The uric acid forms crystals inside and outside your joints, often affecting the feet, hands,
wrists and your big toes, and this leads to severe and painful swelling.
In this video ill show you some natural ways to lower your uric acid levels and treat gout,
so stay tuned until the end.
Some people are going to need medications to treat gout, like indomethacin, celecoxib,
or colchicine and some need to prevent gout attacks by taking allopurinol.
And some may need to actually improve uric acid removal by taking probenacid, your doctor
will know what to prescribe to control your symptoms but in the meantime you can follow
some diet and lifestyle changes Ill show you right here, right now on this channel that
can help.
So the main culprit here is uric acid and it forms when the body naturally breaks down
purine proteins found already in our body or from the foods we eat.The uric acid is
moved by the blood and kidneys until its finally removed in the urine, but some peoples bodies
make too much uric acid, or they eat foods and drinks that cause this acid to pile up
more than it should.
Ill go over which foods to avoid that have high levels of purines, so stay tuned to make
sure you avoid them.
But on the other hand we could also have normal amounts of this acid in our bodies,but the
problem is our kidneys' inability to remove it.
When uric acid levels get high, they can form crystals, which lodge in and around the joints,
acting like needles surrounding the joints causing what is known as a gout attack.
It affects 8 million adults, 75% of them being men between ages of 40 and 50.
Whats alarming is that 60% of patients will have a 2nd attack within their first year
of diagnosis, which is why I wanted to make this video, to help some of you prevent the
2nd attack.
So enough background information, Ill give you 6 things you can start doing now to lower
your uric acid levels and your gout, but keep in mind, medication may be the most effective
way to prevent recurrent attacks.
The first 3 things you can do now is: Number 1: Limit drinks that can cause gout attacks
like alcohol.
Excess alcohol including beers and liquors are high in purines and can lead to flare
ups.
Also limit your sugary drink intake like sodas and sweetened juices as well.
Doing so will also reduce unnecessary calories and help reduce weight gain, which is an added
bonus.
The second thing you can do is eat less foods that are high in purines.
This includes fish like: trout, tuna, sardines, and foods that are high in fat like: bacon,
dairy products and red meats.
You also want to limit the intake of wild game and organ meats like liver, since these
are extra high in purines.
Instead switch to eating foods that are low in purine content like: most fruits and vegetables,
whole grain rice, bread, and potatoes, peanut butter, and most nuts.
Diet alone wont get rid of gout but it can prevent flare ups.
The third thing you can do is: maintain a healthy body weight.
Maintaining a healthy body weight is crucial to preventing many types of diseases, and
gout is one of them.
Also Obesity increases your risk of gout too, being overweight too leads to increased blood
uric acid levels, so keep that in mind cuz About 50% of gout sufferers are overweight.
When dieting, avoid crash diets when bringing your weight down as this can actually increase
your uric acid levels.
So slow and steady weight loss with eating right and physical activity wins the race.
The next three things if your gout treatments aren't working as well as you hoped is talking
to your doctor about some alternative remedies.
There isn't a lot of research on alternative therapies for gout just yet to prove high
efficacy, but certain foods have been studied for their potential to lower uric acid and
I wanted to share them with you.
The first one being coffee: studies show an association between both regular and decaf
coffee and lower uric acid.
The second: Vitamin C. Vitamin C supplements may reduce your uric acid levels, but no study
has shown that it affects the frequency or severity of the attacks.
The last one and 6th remedy in this video is to try 3 servings of any type of cherries,
careful for the pits though, it can be in any form too, sour, sweet, red or black, or
its extract, and try it over a 2 day period to lower uric acid as well as prevent gout
attacks.
More research is needed though to officially confirm this works, but it may be a safe add
on, to your therapy.
Gout is a painful medical condition and its important to talk to your doctor about your
symptoms.
A healthy lifestyle may lower subsequent flare ups but may not be enough to have full control
on the condition.
Let me know what has helped you, if you have any questions, and if you learned something
new in the comment section below.
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Until then, see you on the next one.