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Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

nytimes.com

71–80 of 210 posts

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#71
post #57
post #53

Started having severe gout attacks in 2004. Doctors are particularly unaware about gout. Despite having extremely painful and long attacks (during one attack, spent more than a month in bed unable to walk), all the doctors I saw had no idea despite endless tests. Finally based on my own research I suggested gout and they were like "oh yes, I suppose it could be that". Once diagnosed, doctors are quick to get you on d…

By cutting out “fructose” surely you don’t mean cutting out fruit? Do mean derivatives like fructose syrup and stuff?

High-fructose corn syrup is in a lot of American food.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#72
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By cutting out “fructose” surely you don’t mean cutting out fruit? Do mean derivatives like fructose syrup and stuff?

Most fruit are nowhere near as healthy as most people expect they are. They have been selectively bred over many hundreds of years to be far larger, sweeter and more devoid of micronutrients than they were hundreds of years ago. The amount of sugar (especially fructose) in fruits like apples, oranges and bananas is shockingly high, and can cause or exacerbate conditions such as obesity, fatty liver, type 2 diabetes,…

Most national dietary guidelines encourage eating fruits and vegetables, with an emphasis on the vegetables. The sugar amount in fruit has a direct impact on the overall calories you consume but since fruit are also high in fibre, the contained sugar is not comparable to, say, a chocolate bar.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#73
https://www.drugs.com/mtm/febuxostat.html febuxostat is a wonder drug that has saved my toes for so many years now. This is after i had a pain in my heel. a couple of days i ignored it unill i felt as if there was a stone inside the heel. plantar fasciitis was the diagnosis. taking the medication purely on a reccomendation and it worked. was supposed to get a surgery instead

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#74
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not entirely true. Gout is caused by excessive levels of uric acid, which is an end-product of purine metabolism. You can get uric acid via two pathophysiologic mechanisms: under-excretion of uric acid, or over-production. Under-excretion is by far and away the most common cause of gout (think ~90% of cases). Causes for this include things like chronic kidney disease or an inborne/hereditary problem (like you…

Wait a minute, how did red meat make its way into this post?

Red meat (especially rare-medium) for me is a no. I can feel the low-level gouty effects for days after in my left foot, and I have to back off the beer to compensate.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#75
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most fruit are nowhere near as healthy as most people expect they are. They have been selectively bred over many hundreds of years to be far larger, sweeter and more devoid of micronutrients than they were hundreds of years ago. The amount of sugar (especially fructose) in fruits like apples, oranges and bananas is shockingly high, and can cause or exacerbate conditions such as obesity, fatty liver, type 2 diabetes,…

Most national dietary guidelines encourage eating fruits and vegetables, with an emphasis on the vegetables. The sugar amount in fruit has a direct impact on the overall calories you consume but since fruit are also high in fibre, the contained sugar is not comparable to, say, a chocolate bar.

Most national dietary guidelines are backed by weak epidemiology and are rarely corroborated by RCTs. See: the food pyramid

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#76
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not entirely true. Gout is caused by excessive levels of uric acid, which is an end-product of purine metabolism. You can get uric acid via two pathophysiologic mechanisms: under-excretion of uric acid, or over-production. Under-excretion is by far and away the most common cause of gout (think ~90% of cases). Causes for this include things like chronic kidney disease or an inborne/hereditary problem (like you…

Wait a minute, how did red meat make its way into this post?

Red meats contain a lot of purines, which often metabolize into uric acid. They are on the list of products whose consumption gout sufferers should minimize.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#77
post #56
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not want to squash your hopes but with dietary changes alone it is not possible to stop progression of gout. In a few years you will probably start having more frequent attacks. Lossing weight is little more effective. Keeping your uric acid well below 6.0 mg/dL is when the process starts very very slowly reversing. Fortunately there is a better understanding of the dissease and more new therapies in the pipelin…

> I do not want to squash your hopes but with dietary changes alone it is not possible to stop progression of gout. We all might get gout for different reasons but the generalization of "with dietary changes alone it is not possible to stop progression of gout" is not true. I have completely stopped my gout attacks by cutting way back on fructose.

[deleted]

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#78
post #30

Dispelling bullshit time. Gout isn't caused by what you eat, it's an underlying problem with your kidneys/liver/body and an inability to extract uric acid. It can be exasterbated by drinking beer, dehydration, red meat etc. Saying it's caused by what you eat is a bit like saying peanuts cause peanut allergies, or eating gluten causes coeliacs. You already have the condition, the things you eat makes it worse. I've be…

Apparently only something like Certainly can imagine other cases can be aggravated by diet choices.

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#79
I have been suffering from gout for the last 4 years or so (36 y/o now) with roughly 1 attack per year, prominently in the right big toe. There is a history of gout in my family. More recently I've had the odd time where I have mild symptoms - pain in foot rather than toe and still able to limp around without too much issue. I have wanted to avoid taking allopurinol daily and have done a lot of research to find more natural / dietary solutions without really finding any silver bullet. Interesting things i have come across:

1. There is at least one study showing Lemon Juice it can lower uric acid levels in humans[1] seemingly by lowering PH of urine.

2. Tart cherry juice is mentioned a lot as a cure. There are a quite a few studies[2]. Make sure and get the tart cherry (Montmorency) juice, you can get it in a concentrated syrup. My uncle says he has not had an attack since he started drinking a generic supermarket tart juice every day. I have never had an attack whilst taking cherry juice but i haven't been taking it consistently.

3. Interesting article linking fructose and gout which matched my intuition a lot more than the link with meat - https://tim.blog/2009/10/05/gout/

4. Hot bath with epsom salts seems to temporarily ease symptoms.

I personally haven't noticed a correlation between eating meat / fish and gout attacks. I have gone from eating meat twice a day to about once a week now and there has been no noticeable change in the gout.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03044...

[2] https://www.fasebj.org/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplemen...

Re: Once the disease of gluttonous aristocrats, gout is now tormenting the masses

#80
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By cutting out “fructose” surely you don’t mean cutting out fruit? Do mean derivatives like fructose syrup and stuff?

I don't have gout, but my IBS is set off by fructose, and yes, I've had to drastically cut down on fruit. Fortunately, vegetables are even healthier for you, and don't have significant levels of fructose.

Since you mention IBS in the context of fructose, are you aware of the the phenomena of fructose malabsorption? My wife has this combination of issues at times, strongly related to eating or drinking of apples or apple juice and other similarly high fructose fruits and extracts like agave.
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