What is gout?

Gout, also called metabolic arthritis, is a complex disorder which can affect men and women, but more men are affected. Women are more susceptible to gout after menopause. Gout usually affects the large joint of your big toe, but also in your feet, joints, knees, hands and wrists. Gout is treatable and there are ways to reduce the risk also.

The symptoms are always acute, occurring suddenly at night and without any warning, intense joint pain and inflammation with swollen, tender and red joints.

Gout is caused by an accumulation of uric acid in joints, tendons, ligaments causing excruciating pain in the respective areas. The source of uric acids is:

It is our body’s natural antioxidant when food source of antioxidants are low and if necessary the body produces its own uric acid.
As a bye product of the metabolism of purine and pyrimidine bases of high protein foods and drinks

Side effects of drugs in the increase of uric acid:

If you are on diet, then uric acid is elevated and this could be used to control the persons about their diet.

The important risk factors are the intake of food that is extremely rich in proteins, e. g. persons who eat everyday three times lot of fish and the side effects of the drugs which produce excess of uric acid.

Inform your doctor everything about your other sicknesses as well as the drugs including the over-the-counter drugs because the drugs to reduce uric acid concentrations in the blood may for e. g. increase blood pressure or blood sugar as their side effects. Your doctor has to decide which drug is good in which dose.

The best life style to reduce the risk is to reduce your consumption of animal protein, avoid alcoholic beverages and drink plenty of water, four to five litres where 70% must be normal, pure drinking water.

Coffee and vitamin C can lower the uric acid level in blood, cherries can also help to reduce, it may be because these dark cherries have lot of antioxidants, and thus our body need not produce more uric acid as an antioxidant to safeguard it.

Excessive uric acid in the blood may create urate kidney stones also. It is also one of the main reasons to kidney failure.

Is it harmful to take more protein if you do regularly sports and gym?

High protein diet can be harmful to your health and it also does not help to get better performance of good muscles. Excess of the protein is more dangerous than the low protein food.

When the high amount of protein is broken down in the liver it produces ammonia that is poisonous to our body resulting physical unfitness.

It is harmful when you take above 2 gram per kilogram of body weight per day.

High protein diet makes vitamin B6 deficiency and also causes calcium loss. The uric acid amount can go up in your blood and the result is gout with unbearable pain.

What are the natural antioxidants in our body?

Cholesterol, bilirubin and uric acid are the natural antoxidants in our body. If somebody is eating only junk, fast and processed food, te intake of antioxidants are minimum from their food.

Antioxidants are very important in the detoxification and in the management of dangerous free radicals. Free radicals are the weapons to destroy the bacteria and virus which enter inside our body, but in excess they destroy our healthy cells, joints and organs.

In this extreme case the levels of cholesterol, bilirubin and uric acid are increased to do the antioxidantal functionsa also. 25 years before we had no explanation for that, but today these are well understood.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are very important for our health. Our food must contain always vegetables and fruits. I could understand the argument that sometimes without processed food it is not possible to adjust. But, there will be always time and place for carrots, cucumbers, apples and other vegetables and fruits. With this good action the bad effects from the processed are not completely eleminated, but you give the body the necessary antioxidants so that the natural antioxidants from the body need not do this work also.