If you suffer from gout

I got a nice note from a Facebook friend, thanking me for an article I wrote about gout. In case you missed the article, here is a brief summary. If you suffer from gout, this is important information.

First, almost everybody who suffers from gout is overweight. If you are fat, you should go on a diet pronto.

There are some simple steps to do this, but they’re a challenge. You need to eat less, preferably one good meal per day; no snacking allowed unless it’s celery or lettuce. You also need to eliminate sugar from your diet as much as possible. Skip the holiday candy; it contributes to gout. This also includes soft drinks, cakes, pies, and other delicious treats. Want to stop the gout pain? Skip the sugar, and this includes most fruit juices.

Also, exercise has been shown to help people with gout because it helps to normalize insulin levels. Therefore, it can help to reduce, or balance, sugar levels in your bloodstream. This is a good thing. Even walking 15 minutes a day is terrific.

Get some Bragg’s apple cider vinegar; nothing else. Bragg’s contains the “mother”—that is the apple pectin and other healthy bits. Put a tablespoon of the vinegar into some water and drink it. It will help your symptoms almost immediately. Do this three times a day.

Drink water with a ½ tsp of baking soda. This helps to neutralize the acid that contributes to gout. Do this twice a day. I don’t recommend combining the baking soda with the vinegar, however. Drink these potions separately, and your gout will improve.

Visit SwansonVitamins.com and order “HiActives Tart Cherry.” Two bottles of 60 caps will cost you $8, plus shipping. Cherry Extract is a sure-fire remedy for gout pain.

If you visit the Swanson site, also order Bromelain (an enzyme from pineapples) and vitamin C (“Supreme C”). Both of these nutrients can help with gout pain. You can also get Bromelain from eating fresh pineapple, but there’s a lot of sugar also, so just take Bromelain supplements. You don’t need more sugar in your diet!

Do not eat sardines or anchovies. These little fishes contain lots of uric acid, and you absolutely do not need it if you suffer from gout.

Drink a lot of water. The main cause of gout is excess uric acid, and drinking lots of water will help to flush it out. Even better, add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the water. Lemon is alkalizing in the body and can help to neutralize the acidic part of uric acid.

If you’re in a restaurant, ask for water with a lemon wedge instead of a Coke, beer or wine. Soft drinks and alcohol are to be avoided, if you’re really serious about resolving gout pain.

This next part is a huge challenge: cut way, way back on eating white rice, white bread, and any form of pasta (noodles). They convert to sugar (no good) in the digestive tract; plus eating these foods can make you fat. There is not enough nutrition in these foods to justify eating them.

I feel compassion for anybody who suffers from gout, but there are remedies available, and I have listed them above: lose weight, go for walks, drink Bragg’s vinegar in water, drink baking soda in water, and be sure to get some cherry extract. Cut out sugar as much as possible (no diet drinks either!) and avoid white rice as much as possible.

Russ Mason, M.S.
As Teo, Saipan