Staying Healthy Newsletter

Content

• Diet And Gout
• Some Nutritionists Recommend  Eight Cups A Day Of Liquids, At Least Half Of Them Being Water
• Reduce Meat, Poultry And Fish Intake
• Preventing Gout
• Gout Remedies That Work
• Foods To Include
• Asymptomatic Hyperuricemia

It occurs when there is a buildup of uric acid in the blood, leading to the formation of uric acid crystals in the joints and other areas of the body. Frequent alcohol intake is known to cause chronic hyperuricemia, increasing the risk of gout and gout attacks. Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects one joint or multiple joints at a time. It occurs when there is too much uric acid in the blood, causing a buildup of uric acid crystals in joints, fluids, and tissues throughout the body—often causing severe swelling, redness, and pain. For many people with gout, diet changes alone are unlikely to be a single solution. Uric acid from food only makes up about 15 percent of the uric acid in your body, which makes medication a crucial piece of treatment for gout.

Diet And Gout

However, as the condition advances, so does the frequency of the attacks. Without treatment, gout can cause permanent damage to the joints and kidneys. There are actually several types of foods that may help protect against gout attacks. These include low-fat dairy foods, complex carbohydrates, coffee, and fruits, especially citrus fruits.

Some Nutritionists Recommend  Eight Cups A Day Of Liquids, At Least Half Of Them Being Water

Gout occurs more commonly in those who regularly drink beer or sugar-sweetened beverages or who eat foods that are high in purines such as liver, shellfish, or anchovies, or are overweight. Diagnosis of gout may be confirmed by the presence of crystals in the joint fluid or in a deposit outside the joint. The European League Against Rheumatism recommendations for the treatment of gout recommend lifestyle advice for all gout patients. Advice on diet includes the avoidance of alcohol, sugar-sweetened drinks, heavy meals, and excessive intake of meat and seafood, reflecting a purine-low diet . This diet seems an obvious choice for the management of hyperuricemia and gout, since urate is generated through the degradation of purines. Increased intake of purine-rich products as meat is indeed associated with higher SUA levels.

Eating skim milk powder enriched with glycomacropeptide and G600 milk fat extract may reduce pain but may result in diarrhea and nausea. Beer and distilled liquors are associated with an increased risk of gout and recurring attacks. Moderate consumption of wine doesn’t appear to increase the risk of gout attacks. Avoid alcohol during gout attacks, and limit alcohol, especially beer, between attacks. Alcohol molecules in your body tend to increase uric acid levels, so drinking can push you over the edge and into a flare-up.

An optimal diet for this patient group not only reduces SUA but also reduces cardiovascular risk factors. In this review, the number of studies investigating the effect of the different diet interventions on cardiovascular risk outcomes was little and again the quality was low to moderate. Furthermore, it should be noted that some interventions were quite demanding and difficult to implement in the daily life of gout patients not admitted to hospital. The studies in which cardiovascular risk factors were also considered are listed in Table 2 with a summary of the outcomes for blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose, and body weight.

Some studies find wine drinking raises your risk, but others have found that moderate wine drinking does not. The most helpful carbs are found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Sweet potatoes, beans, apples, and popcorn can all be served in wholesome and delicious ways as part of a healthy gout diet.

Preventing Gout

Long-term coffee drinkers (4-6 cups per day) have less risk of developing gout than people who don’t enjoy the popular brew. Coffee’s ability to prevent recurring attacks of gout once you’ve had one bout are not as certain. Drink at least 8 glasses of nonalcoholic beverages a day – plain water is best. And if you’re having a flare, increase your intake to 16 glasses a day! Cut back on saturated fats, like those in red meat and fatty poultry. Instead, eat more foods rich in fatty acids, including cold-water fish like tuna and salmon, flax and other seeds, nuts, and olive oil.

Almost any ‘non-diet’ drink contains a significant amount of added sugar, often in the form of fructose. Not only does added fructose contribute to uric acid build up, it also contributes negatively to making the other chronic diseases worse. Added sugar is one of the biggest enemies of the obesity epidemic, and comorbid conditions that go along with it.

Gout Remedies That Work

This is believed to be partly due to their effect in reducing insulin resistance. Long-standing elevated uric acid levels may result in other symptoms, including hard, painless deposits of uric acid crystals known as tophi. Extensive tophi may lead to chronic arthritis due to bone erosion.

Are potatoes high in uric acid?

Plenty of starchy carbohydrates
These may include rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, couscous, quinoa, barley or oats, and should be included at each meal time. These foods contain only small amounts of purines, so these along with fruit and vegetables should make up the basis of your meals.

These episodes are often referred to as ‘flares’ or ‘attacks’ that happen when uric acid levels become too high in the body. A flare happens when uric acid settles into affected joint spaces and forms crystals that cause both inflammation and pain. Acidic foods such as tomatoes, citrus and other fruits, beans and dairy products do not necessarily lead to higher uric acid levels. People often assume they do simply because of the word “acid,” but acidic foods and uric acid are not one and the same. Popping a supplement might be easier, but talk to your doctor about the dose.

The effect of specific alcoholic beverages on blood uric acid levels varies. Beer is high in purine and increases uric acid more than spirits, while moderate wine intake appears neutral. High intakes of red meat and seafood are associated with a greater risk of gout because of their high purine content and impact on uric acid production. Without treatment, an acute attack of gout usually resolves in five to seven days; however, 60% of people have a second attack within one year. Those with gout are at increased risk of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and kidney and cardiovascular disease and thus are at increased risk of death.

In the category of Mediterranean-style diets, the DASH is most probably best defined and evidence based regarding cardiovascular risk factors. The ultimate objective is to define an appropriate diet for hyperuricemia and gout, one that addresses both gout activity as well as the traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Patients with gout who follow the recommended dietary guidelines can significantly lower their uric acid levels and decrease the number and severity of gout attacks. Following such as diet and losing weight through exercise can also improve overall health and general wellbeing.

The risk of gout increased by 30% by consuming one drink a day, compared to people who did not drink alcohol at all. Two drinks a day increased the risk to 50% and three drinks a day increased the risk by 100 percent. There were some differences in the types of alcohol consumed. Two glasses of wine a day did not increase the risk of gout at all when compared to men who drank no wine.

Best Foods For A Gout Diet

Organ meats include liver, kidneys, tongue, sweetbreads, pâte, and tripe. The worst for people with gout are trout, scallops, sardines, mussels, mackerel, herring, haddock, cod and anchovies. Salmon and certain types of shellfish such as crab, lobster, oyster and shrimp are lower in purines.