Yeah, it got worse all day yesterday and today seems to be holding steady. I just started a course of strong steroids for something completely unrelated. I don’t know if that would have an impact. So, I’m holding at throbbing pain when touched. Unable to use that finger or side of my hand. Redness and some swelling. I’ll just keep watching it.
You’ve got to start calling it “the gout” so that the seriousness of it is properly conveyed.
My gout has hit me in my second toe, never my great toe. The most recent episode was in the hand and caught me completely off guard (it felt like my hand was broken, but there had been no trauma). Never thought it would turn out to be the gout.
Colchicine is my med for acute attacks. My doc said, “now, this will give you diarrhea”. I said, “no problem, gimme the diarrhea”.
The gout is an accumulation of uric acid crystals which are basically mini razor blades. If you are having relatively frequent attacks, a vegetarian or near-vegetarian diet is the way to go. Also, as previously mentioned, a daily dose of cherry juice has shown to be effective.
Stay away from the meats!
mmm
I forgot about cherry juice! If you can get Montmorency cherries (the sour pie cherries) those are the best. We had a tree in the backyard when I was growing up; it’s long since been cut down so Dad can’t indulge from it nowadays.
I have it, and in my experience hour attacks are triggered by not drinking enough water. If I go thirsty one day, I’ll have an attack the next. If you drink enough water that your urine is clear, you won’t have a gout attack.
Forget anything about cherry juice or particular foods, just drink water. The only reason drinking cherry just could help is that it is so vile that you have to drink a bunch of water to wash the taste out of your mouth. In my experience, naproxen sodium is as effective as indomethacin to handle flare-ups, and a lot cheaper. I’ve been on allopurinol in the past, but haven’t for a year. So I just drink a lot of water and wash the excess uric acid out of my system.
Gaffa - amen to the “don’t let yourself get dehydrated.” I had my first attack when I had a job with insufficient opportunities to get enough water and much sweatin’ up a storm. And come to think of it, working up a good sweat seem to precipitate the subsequent flares as well.
My brother has it in his elbow. I don’t know what he takes.
My aunt had it, and she drank pomegranate juice for it. My Dad also had it, but I think dietary changes mostly took care of it.
My doctor was surprised I didn’t have it, because she said the Uric acid level in my blood was high. I have occasionally had aches in my joints, but nothing as bad as the descriptions I’ve heard of gout.
The worst thing about gout isn’t the pain, but all the nonsense that “everybody knows” about it’s cause and treatment. If you drink enough water that your urine is clear, you’re not going to have an attack. You’re moving enough liquid through your system that you’re excreting the excess uric acid. I would make an excellent test subject as I can reliably and repeatedly produce an attack just by going thirsty for a day.
I drink a lot of beer, eat a lot of meat, including liver. My favorite foods are on the “avoid” list. But I drink as much water as I can.
My first attack was 06-29-2013. Since that attack I’ve only had two others, and one was secondary to trauma (I was pissed off and kicked something. Boom.).
Water, water, and more water. I haven’t slept an entire night without waking up to urinate, but it’s worth it to not have gout attacks despite enjoying all the beer, liver, steaks, burgers, mussels, etc that I want.
And I take no preventative drugs either. Just water.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. In my experience as well, dehydration seems to always be the trigger for a gout attack (always one or the other of my big toes). Once it starts, it takes several days to a week to pass. And the pain is horrible, like unable to walk - crawling around on my hands and knees.
At first I denied it was gout - that was something my dad got. But I was around 40 when the first one came-on, and had several bad attacks in subsequent years. My main learning was hydration and staying active, along with modest changes in my diet, would prevent attacks. Drugs need not apply.
I eat less animal protein (meat -> purines -> uric acid -> sharp crystals in my big toe joints), but I have not eliminated anything at all - just everything risky is in moderation. Animal protein portion for the day should be no larger than my fist. Also, planning - if I am having a meaty meal, I will go vegetarian the next day or two (and drink a bunch of water), and if I see a meaty meal on the horizon (e.g. Thanksgiving), I will also go vegetarian for a day or two prior (and load-up with a bunch of water).
What works for everyone is different, but it seems the common thing for prevention of gout flare-ups and attacks is proper hydration.
My husband had a puffy, red, hot, painful knee last month. It came out of nowhere, and he had not been doing anything physical in the days just before. Reading this thread, gout pretty much describes what he had. It resolved in a week or so.
Does any kind of alcohol contribute to gout? He drinks whiskey, often to excess.
This article is a bit old, but I don’t think the conclusions are changed since then…
*In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that as few as two to four beers a week increased the risk of gout by 25%. But men who drank at least two beers a day were more than 200% as likely to develop gout as non-beer drinkers. And the more beer they drank, the more likely they were to suffer an attack of gout.
Liquor drinkers also suffered a gouty fate, though not as severely. As little as one liquor drink a month increased the risk, but the chance of gout jumped 60% with two or more liquor drinks a day.
No increase in risk was seen among wine drinkers.*
I got gout almost 20 years ago and it was probably the worst pain I ever felt. It was in my big toe and the toe next to it and it was unbelievable. I don’t remember it being swollen but it hurt so bad. My doctor blamed it on a huge amount of alcohol I had drank at a wedding and my weight and poor diet at the time.
The pain was so great it literally changed my life. Since then I would not drink to excess (with only a handful of exceptions) and I won’t eat red meat two days in a row (that was part of the advice I got at the time; no idea if it is still advice for gout).
The treatment (and again this was a long time ago so maybe it is different now) was basically stay a way from the stuff that triggers it for a while and take a bunch of pills (anti inflammatories). It worked. While I have had some aches that made me think it may come back I never had an attack like that since (thankfully).
I don’t drink alcohol and never have, so it’s not a factor in my attacks.