Ways To Cure Gout – Cherry Juice & Diet

Types of Gout Cures

Gout is a type of arthritis characterized by severe inflammation in one or more joints that can cause extreme pain. Cherry juice & diet are two ways to help control the inflammation and relieve pain. Since gout is largely caused by excess uric acid in the blood, a proper diet can help lower uric acid levels and keep you from producing more.

If your gout goes untreated, you may have more attacks in the future. Each attack after the first lasts longer, and can be harder to bring under control. Getting proper treatment for gout can help prevent or lessen the severity of future attacks. There are many different gout cures available that can help to relieve your discomfort. Herbal remedies and dietary changes are easy to do and many are right in your kitchen already.

Cherries

Cherries are a very effective natural remedy for gout that can either be eaten or you can drink the juice. Eating cherries has long been a natural anti-inflammatory remedy for many types of arthritis, and they have also been found effective in gout. Cherry juice can also help lower levels of uric acid in the blood, preventing it from forming crystals that deposit in the joints. This is one of the main sources of gout pain.

You can use fresh cherries or buy canned. Try to eat at least one-half pound every day. When using a cherry concentrate you can take one tablespoon daily.

What Foods are Good to Eat with Gout?

Eating the right foods with gout is extremely important. If you do not make needed changes to your diet, your uric acid levels may continue to go up. This means continual pain and inflammation. Avoid or seriously limit any foods high in purines. This includes; red meat, organ meat, sardines, herring, scallops, and beer. These all raise your uric acid levels and increase your inflammation, which leads to more pain.

If you have gout, you also must increase your water intake. You need to be drinking at least 12 glasses of water each day. This helps dilute the uric acid and flushes it out through the kidneys.

Use a Diet Plan for Gout

You can shorten the length and severity of gout attacks, by using dietary changes. You may even be able to stop them from coming back or even happening in the first place. If you start to have gout symptoms or the doctor tells you your uric acid levels are high, you can start right away by eating differently.

Plan your meals. Try to plan them without the above listed foods that are high in purines. Find alternatives for proteins like; lean chicken, turkey, beans, and dairy.
Include fresh fruits and vegetables. When working on your meal plan, include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Eat plenty of vitamin C rich foods to help break down the uric acid in your system.
Eat to maintain your weight. Try to plan meals not too rich in calories. Keeping your weight stable protects your joints from damage.

Cherry juice & diet can help you recover from gout quickly and reduce the severity and frequency of attacks. Using a good meal plan can help you eat right and get back on the right track so that you can heal.

Gout Prevention Tips

How to Prevent Gout

Gout can come on suddenly after hiding in your body for years without you even knowing it. The uric acid that causes gout can build up in your blood stream without any symptoms and then one night you wake up in pain. There are some good gout prevention tips that can help you prevent the attacks from coming on or ease them if they do happen.

Eat a healthy diet – If you are at risk for gout or suffer from gout, you need to eat a healthy diet and eat the proper foods that can decrease your risk. It is also important to eliminate those foods that can increase uric acid levels such as; red meat, sardines, gravies, and organ meats.
Increase your water intake – Drinking more water is not only good for your health, but it can help your body flush out the excess uric acid from your system. It will also help to protect your kidneys from the high levels of uric acid, which could be damaging.
Quit or cut back on alcohol – Some types of alcohol like; beer can increase uric acid levels. If you need to have a drink, try to limit yourself to 5 ounces of wine on occasion.
Get your exercise – Gout may be painful so try to exercise as much as you can tolerate. Even some slow gentle stretches or walking can help keep your joints from getting too stiff. Regular exercise can even decrease your gout risk.
Increase fruits and vegetables in your diet – Adding ½ pound of fresh cherries each day can help decrease inflammation in your body naturally. Vitamin C can naturally break down uric acid in the bloodstream and strengthen your immune system. Eating more vegetables than meat can reduce the purines you get with meals and help keep your weight stable.
Lose extra pounds – Being overweight not only increases your risk of getting gout, it puts added strain on your joints if you do get gout. Extra pounds also put you at risk for other health issues like; diabetes and heart disease.

The helpful gout prevention tips above can lower your risk of ever getting gout in the first place, or if you do suffer from a gout attack they can help reduce your discomfort. There is never any guarantee that you won’t ever get gout, but education and prevention practices will help you understand it and feel better!

Gout Prescriptions

Medicating Gout

Since there is no actual “cure” for gout, if you are a sufferer, there are things you can do to help control the pain and relieve flares quickly. With the proper gout medication, you may even possibly prevent future attacks from even happening again.

Gout Medication

The onset of gout pain can be severe and most often doctors will prescribe anti-inflammatory medications to relieve inflammation. Commonly used are “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications” or NSAIDS. These can help quickly and return normal use of the joints in just a few days. These need to be started as soon as possible after the attack begins.

For some, the attack is too severe for NSAIDS to work and the doctor needs to use Corticosteroid medications such as; prednisone. Injectable forms can be put directly into the joint. Doctors will often save corticosteroids for a last resort since they can have severe side-effects and health risks to the body.

Another option is colchicine. This is a very common gout medication that can be given either orally or through an IV for severe attacks. Diarrhea is a side-effect and some people cannot tolerate colchicine for long periods of time unless your doctor puts you on a very low dose. Doctors sometimes prescribe high doses in the beginning and then stop using the medication after the attack subsides. This medication works best when given within the first 12 hours of the onset of a gout attack.

Prevention for gout attacks coming back is usually a regimen of NSAIDS or colchicine, dietary changes, and lifestyle modifications. If this doesn’t keep gout attacks away, the gout medications Probenecid or allopurinol (Zyloprim) will be used to reduce the uric acid in the blood.

Here Are Some Newer Generation Gout Medications:

Febuxostate (Uloric) – This drug can reduce the amount of uric acid in the blood, but only to prevent future attacks. It will not treat a gout attack that is in progress.
Losartan (Cozaar) or Hyzaar – Losartan is actually a blood pressure medication that can lower uric acid levels. It is not commonly used unless other treatments fail because it can lower the blood pressure. It also was not found to reduce uric acid level dramatically like other treatments.
Fenofibrate (Tricor) – This cholesterol medication can help lower uric acid in the blood. It cannot be used in conjunction with colchicine therapy due to drug interactions and can have side-effects.
Pegloticase (Krystexxa) – This new gout medication was approved by the FDA in 2010 and is actually the first approved medication for treatment of chronic and reoccurring gout. This medication is given by IV infusions and puts an enzyme into your body to change the way it deals with uric acid, allowing you to flush it out of your body and regulate uric acid levels better. The side-effects have only included; allergic reactions and infusion reactions so far. There may be more reported side-effects after the company collects post-marketing data. What this means is the medication needs to be on the market for longer in order for patients using this new gout medication to report any side-effects they experience.

Gout Medication Alternatives

Natural gout treatments can help prevent uric acid from building up in the body and help the body flush out excess uric acid on its own. Keeping your liver and kidneys healthy can help your body remove anything toxic from your blood, like uric acid. Try some of these gout medication alternatives to help relieve gout pain:

Water – Whether you are on gout medication or not, increase your water intake. This helps remove uric acid from the blood. You need to drink at least 10 to 12 glasses of water each day. If you allow yourself to get dehydrated, your kidneys will not work well and uric acid levels may rise. Use natural spring water for healthy minerals to balance the body’s pH.
Less Meat – If you suffer from gout, you must reduce your intake of meat high in purines. Purines turn into uric acid and can raise your risk for gout flares. If you can eat a vegetarian diet that is best during gout attacks, but if that is not possible reduce your intake of red meat, organ meats, sardines, gravies, and legumes.
Fruits – Cherries are a natural anti-inflammatory and can reduce swelling and pain with gout. Also, increase your intake of any berries and vitamin C rich fruits to help break down uric acid in the body. Black cherry juice is highly effective in relieving gout attacks and pain.
Less or no Alcohol – Alcohol, especially beer can increase uric acid levels. Try to avoid beer completely, but you may possibly be able to tolerate a 5 ounce serving of wine once in a while.
Lose weight – Losing weight can decrease your risk of gout and help you feel better faster if you have a flare.

Extra weight makes it hard for your body to control uric acid levels and can put extra weight on stiff and sore joints. Lose weight slowly because if you lose weight too fast, your uric acid levels may actually increase instead of going down.

If you think you have gout, see your doctor as early as possible for diagnosis. You can discuss gout medications with your doctor and ask about any alternative treatments for your condition. Sometimes a combination of all options can help you feel better and get back on your feet faster.

Gout Prevention

The Best Ways to Prevent Gout

Gout Prevention is one way to try and keep your body healthy and ward off gout attacks. It has been found that diet and lifestyle are major factors in the onset of this disease. If you are at risk, you can practice gout prevention right away to reduce your risk for this disabling and painful disease.

When we say gout prevention, it means that you can make necessary changes to lower your risk. When you suffer from gout, it is caused by increased uric acid levels in the body. Uric acid is a waste product of purines. Purines come from foods including: red meats, some seafood, organ meats, and beer. When uric acid levels get too high, they form crystals that deposit in the joints and the soft tissues around them. This causes your body to increase inflammation to try and fight off the disease resulting in severe pain.

If you are predisposed to getting gout with a lot of the risk factors, there is a very high chance that you will get this disease sometime in your life. If you make the necessary gout prevention type changes, you may be able to decrease your chances or lessen the severity of gout attacks. Researchers have put together a list of risk factors and found successful strategies for gout prevention to help you.

Risk Factors

Scientists have found the actual risk factors for developing gout. It is a known genetic condition, higher in males, higher in those with a family history and influenced by your lifestyle, diet, and environment. The risks increase with age and can affect some women after menopause. Here is a list of some of the risk factors you can greatly influence and reduce yourself:

Obesity/Overweight
Eating a diet high in purine foods
Alcohol consumption
High cholesterol levels
High blood pressure
Uncontrolled blood sugar in diabetes
Medications including; aspirin, niacin, vitamin, cyclosporine, cancer drugs and diuretics

Gout Prevention Tips

Restrict Purine Foods. Lower or cut out foods that are high in purines. These foods include; red meat, organ meat, sardines, herring, asparagus, seafood, and mushrooms. Limit your intake to a few servings weekly 6 ounces or less and substitute foods like; turkey, chicken, cod, tuna, and beans for proteins.

Increase Dairy. You can get needed protein and calcium from dairy foods such as: yogurt, cheese, skim milk, and cottage cheese. Try to eat 2 servings of dairy daily.

Choose Beverages Wisely. Drink lots of water with gout. Increase from 8 glasses a day to 10 to 12 glasses a day to help flush out uric acid and support your kidneys. Coffee is okay if your blood pressure is stable, but beer is a very high purine beverage and should be avoided. A 5 ounce glass of wine daily may be okay. And try to avoid any soft drinks that contain any high-fructose corn syrup, which puts you at risk for gout.

Take vitamin C. Take at least 500 mg of vitamin C each day to help reduce the risk of gout. Vitamin C helps to break down uric acid and flush it through the kidneys.

Lose Weight or Try Not To Gain. Losing weight can help take strain off your body and your joints. Try not to gain too much weight if you are stable to lower your risk of gout. If you are overweight, try to lose weight slowly and do not starve yourself of nutrients.

Keep Your Health In Check. If you suffer from chronic health issues, try to keep them in check. Keep your blood pressure in normal limits, keep your cholesterol in normal limits, and remember to take your medications. See your doctor regularly to make sure your numbers are on target.

Discuss Medications With Your Doctor. If you are on a medication that puts you at risk for gout, ask your doctor if there is another safer medication that lowers the risk for gout. There may be instances where you need to take that medication. If so, practice all other tips above to help lower your risk.

Gout prevention is one way to reduce your risk of getting gout and reducing the severity if you do get this disease. Always talk to your doctor about any concerns you may have.

Gout Helpful Tips

Helpful Tips for Gout Sufferers

If you or someone you know suffers from gout, you may be looking for sources to help relieve your pain and get back on your feet. You may receive many gout helpful tips from well-meaning friends and family and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.

Some of the best tips are gout prevention tips that can stop attacks from even coming on. If you’re in the middle of a painful flare, it may be too late for prevention, an gout can even hit you overnight. Since gout is a very painful disease and sets in with the worst pain you have ever felt, it helps to have tips available to lower pain quickly.

What to Do when Gout Pain Hits

People at risk for gout need to take good care of themselves before they even experience a gout attack. If you already have gout, using these gout helpful tips can reduce your pain and inflammation faster:

Drink plenty of water – Increasing your water consumption from 8 to 12 glasses daily can help flush out excess uric acid from your system. It will also help with you overall general health and keep your immune system and organs working properly.
Eat properly – Eating the right foods and avoiding foods that raise uric acid levels is important to bring gout under control. Try not to eat too many foods that are high in purines like red meat and organ meat. Try to increase your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially those with vitamin C.
Try not to drink alcohol – Beer is especially high in purines and can cause gout flares. All alcohol can make gout pain worse, but large amounts of beer consumption will prevent your gout from healing. One 5 ounce glass of wine daily may be acceptable.
Get exercise – If you already exercise, keep your normal routine going if you can tolerate it. If you don’t exercise, start with some gentle stretches or walking at an easy pace as soon as you can tolerate activity. This will help loosen your joints and keep them mobile.
Eat more fruit – Cherries have a natural anti-inflammatory property and are actually low in sugar. Try eating a few handfuls of cherries every day. Increase your intake of vitamin C fruits to help breakdown uric acid crystals in the body. Berries are also good for gout.
Lose weight or maintain your current weight – Being overweight increases your risk of gout attacks. It can also put extra strain on your tender painful joints. Keep your weight within a healthy BMI range to help recover faster.
Keep in touch with your doctor – If you think you have gout, get diagnosed by your doctor first. Then you can discuss different gout treatments and alternative therapies to help you feel better. You should also go over all of your medications with your doctor to see if any can cause gout attacks.

When it comes to gout attacks, preventing them is always best, and the above gout helpful tips can reduce your chances of getting gout or help you heal from an acute attack.

Gout Medication Types

Types of Gout Medications

If you are just learning about gout, it can be overwhelming at first. Not only do you have to learn a whole new way of eating and a whole new lifestyle to control the flares, you also have to understand all of the different gout medication types so that you can make an informed decision about treatment. There are many different types of medications to treat gout and they all do something different. Here is a list of some of the medications used for gout:

Allopurinol (Zyloprim)

Allopurinol helps to lower the levels of uric acid in your blood. It keeps levels of uric acid in your body balanced to prevent them from forming crystals that cause gout symptoms. This can help prevent future gout attacks if you take it long-term.

Side-effects include; Stomach discomfort, diarrhea and drowsiness.

Analgesics

Analgesics are pain relievers prescribed to relieve the discomfort of gout symptoms. They do not actually treat or cure gout and do not reduce uric acid levels. They can help the fevers you may experience during an acute gout flare. Simple pain relievers like; acetaminophen (Tylenol), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and Codeine do not relieve the inflammation of gout, but can help pain in the beginning of attacks.

Side-effects include; nausea, vomiting, sleepiness, decreased reflexes, and dependence on Vicodin and Codeine. Acetaminophen does not usually have any side-effects, but too much can cause liver damage.

Colbenemid

This medication is a combination of a popular and long-used gout medication Cholchicine (see below) and Probenecid. Colbenemid works to help with the acute onset of gout and future gout attacks. It relieves symptoms by both blocking the action of uric acid crystals and lowering uric acid levels.

Side-effects include; stomach issues, nausea, diarrhea, dizzy spells, headaches, hair loss, and increased urination.

Cholchicine

Colchicine works by blocking the effects of uric acid crystals in the body to help relieve pain and inflammation. Some people take this medication at higher doses for a short period of time, or smaller doses long-term to prevent future gout flares.

Side-effects include; nausea, diarrhea, headaches and stomach issues.

Corticosteroids

These work by reducing the inflammation in the body. They are not commonly used due to sometimes serious side-effects and risks, but may be used in more severe cases of gout. Doctors often use steroids when people did not get relief from other anti-inflammatory medications. It is either given as an oral medication or as injections directly into the affected joint(s).

Side-effects include; bone loss, weight gain, fluid gain, disruption of the body’s natural steroid production (serious), and increased susceptibility to infection.

Losartan (Cozaar, Hyzaar)

This is usually used as a medication for high blood pressure, but has been found to help lower uric acid levels in the body. This medication may not be used with people who already have low blood pressure.

Side-effects include; dizziness, changes in your heart rate, muscle cramping, fatigue, headache, wheezing, cough, and more. There is a major drug interaction when taken with NSAIDS, so you may need a different anti-inflammatory medication along with it.

NSAIDS or Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs

These medications lower inflammation in the joints and can also help relieve pain. They can be taken during an initial flare up, but not usually used for long periods because of the effects on the stomach. Aspirin is an NSAID but not used for gout because aspirin can increase uric acid levels.

Side-effects include; nausea, vomiting, ulcers, and increased risk of bleeding.

Probenecid (Benemid, Probalan)

Probenecid can help lower the levels of uric acid in the body by increasing the amount of uric acid excreted by your kidneys. This medication is often used for people with chronic gout.

Side-effects include; fast heart rate, rash, puffy eyes, lower back pain, trouble urinating, cough, and fast breathing.

Sulfinpyrazone (Anturane)

This medication helps the body balance uric acid levels and can even help with prevention of gout attacks. It is commonly used in people who have both chronic gout and those who have intermittent gout flares.

Side-effects include; stomach upset, ulcer, anemia, and sometimes rashes.

Regardless of the medication you and your doctor decide is best for you, it is important to make healthy lifestyle and dietary changes to help you heal from gout faster.

Gout Natural Antibodies

Natural Antibodies and Gout

Gout is a form of arthritis that is said to be one of the most painful forms one can ever experience. It begins in the great toe, but can affect any of the joints in the body. This condition stems from an overproduction of uric acid that forms into crystals which deposit into the soft tissues and joints. This can irritate and inflame the joints and cause severe pain and swelling.

What Is Uric Acid?

Uric acid is a waste product that helps to break down purines in the blood. Under normal circumstances, your body breaks down the uric acid and flushes it out via the kidneys and urine. There are certain factors such as; heredity, medications, diseases, and being overweight that can predispose you to gout.

When your body cannot break down uric acid, crystals form and deposit inside the joints and the soft tissue near them. The inflammation can cause severe disability during an acute flare and interfere with normal daily tasks including: walking, standing, wearing shoes, and certain movements.

Anti-inflammatory medications such as; Advil or Naproxen Sodium can help relieve the inflammation and pain. There are several home remedies that can also be effective in controlling gout symptoms.

Home Remedies for Gout

For centuries, certain herbal substances have been safely used to treat pain and inflammation. These home remedies for gout are all-natural with no reported side-effects or even drug interactions. These remedies may even be in your cabinet ready to use and if not are actually quite inexpensive:

Cherry – Eating whole cherries or drinking cherry juice can help lower uric acid levels and can relieve the inflammation associated with arthritis. Try drinking cherry juice a few times daily or eat a couple handfuls of cherries as snacks. Not only do they help relieve symptoms, they are very good for your health overall!
Charcoal/Flaxseed poultice – Take ½ cup activated powdered charcoal and 3 Tbsp. Ground Flaxseed and mix with warm water to form a paste. Apply the paste to the affected joint or tissues and wrap it in a towel or plastic. You can leave this on while you sleep or during the day for 4 hours at a time.

Cod Liver Oil – If you can tolerate it, try taking 1 teaspoon of cod liver oil by mouth daily. This contains high amounts of vitamin A that helps to flush out uric acid.
Berries – Increase the amount of fresh berries in your diet. Berries can help reduce uric acid levels in the body and include: strawberries, blueberries, goji berries, raspberries, and blackberries.
Epsom Salts – Epsom salts are pure magnesium salts. Magnesium helps to relax muscles and relieve inflammation and swelling in the body. You can add a cup or two of Epsom salts to your bathwater or 3 Tbsp. to a pan of hot water for a foot soak.

The decision for treatment is up to you and your personal physician, and it is important to receive an accurate diagnosis before beginning gout treatments. No matter which treatment you use, always include a healthy diet, lifestyle, and exercise to help relieve the symptoms and improve your total body health.

Gout Relief

Relieving Gout

Anyone looking for gout relief is often overwhelmed by the many treatments for gout on the market today. If you are suffering from gout pain, you may be frantically looking for anything that can help reduce your symptoms. When gout comes on the pain can be severe, walking may be nearly impossible and your quality of life is diminished. The good news is with a little education, you can begin to find the gout treatment best for you.

Finding the right form of gout pain relief will help you feel better faster. Always make sure that you see your doctor first for proper diagnosis and to discuss any treatment methods you are thinking of using.

What Causes Gout Attacks?

In order to know which type of gout relief you need, you need to know what are the causes of your gout attacks.

Gout triggers can differ from person to person, and what triggers someone else’s gout, may not trigger yours and vice-versa. Keep a diary of what you do, what you eat, your weight, and your activities. Also, journal your pain and symptoms. This way you can match up what is making you feel bad. This will help you use the right gout relief methods for you.

Gout Relief Options

Most gout relief options focus on reducing the uric acid levels in your body, reducing inflammation, and reducing pain. When gout first strikes, you will need anti-inflammatories to help reduce the inflammation and pain that occurs. After the initial attack subsides, you will need to start doing something to start lowering the excess uric acid in your body. Some people with severe enough inflammation may need steroids to get them through the initial flare-up.

Important note: One medication not approved for gout relief option is, aspirin. Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory, but can actually raise the uric acid levels by stopping the kidneys from flushing out the excess. If you suffer from gout, do not take aspirin.

Over-The-Counter Gout Relief

Once you have checked with your doctor, one option for gout relief is over-the-counter medications. These come in pills, lotions, sprays, creams, and patches. They are designed to relieve pain or numb the affected area. Your doctor may even recommend over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications like Advil or Motrin. Know that any medication can have side-effects or drug interactions, and you must check with your doctor first to make sure what you choose is okay to take.

Natural Gout Relief

You may decide to use one of the many all-natural gout relief options out there on the market. Choose carefully and make sure the product you choose has plenty of ingredients to help relieve and treat gout. It needs to contain ingredients to reduce inflammation, pain as well as, uric acid in the body.

You also need to check with your doctor before using natural remedies. These can be found online and in local health stores.

One important point in treating gout naturally is that you have to modify your diet. Omit any foods high in purines such as: red meat, organ meat, sardines, and alcohol. Foods high in purines raise uric acid levels because uric acid is a waste product of purine digestion.

Eating cherries is a known way to reduce inflammation in the body naturally. Cherries contain chemicals that block the effects of inflammation in types of arthritis. You need to eat at least ½ pound of cherries a day or drink cherry juice.

Wear properly fitting shoes. If you have pain in your big toe, you will need shoes that allow room for the swelling and reduce the friction to the area. During the first acute attack, you may just be comfortable in slippers for a little while.

Whatever you decide for gout relief, make sure you discuss it with your doctor, and follow your treatment plan carefully to prevent future attacks.

Natural Gout Treatments

Gout can be a very painful condition, and natural gout treatments can help the body heal from gout safely and naturally. There are many natural substances out there known to help relieve the pain and inflammation of gout, reduce uric acid levels in the body, and help repair joints.

Gout is a type of arthritis caused by the build-up of uric acid in the body. This results from eating a diet in high purine foods, and other risk factors that may put you at risk for getting gout. Risk factors include: family history of gout, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and beer consumption. Even having just one risk factor for gout means you may get it.

The symptoms of gout are; severe pain in one or more joints (it commonly affects the big toe), redness, heat, swelling of the affected area(s), difficulty moving joints, and sometimes fever. Men over 50 are most prone to gout, but women sometimes get it after menopause.

Natural Gout Treatments

Natural gout treatments involve making certain dietary and lifestyle changes to lower your risk of future gout attacks. Avoid high purine foods including; red meat, sardines, beer, and organ meats. Try to lose weight, get exercise every day, and increase your water intake from 8 to 12 glasses of water daily. This will help flush the uric acid out through your kidneys.

Many people try to use natural gout treatments over prescriptions because of the side-effects of medications. Doctors usually prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications and corticosteroids to help reduce the inflammation in gout. These medications have side-effects that can cause; bleeding problems, bone loss, nausea, diarrhea, slow healing, and stomach ulcers. While in gout, sometimes anti-inflammatory medications are necessary, there are plenty of natural remedies that can be just as effective and good for your overall health. Here are a few of the good natural gout treatments:

Vitamin C – You can take a vitamin C supplement every day or try to drink one or more cups of citrus juice daily. The antioxidants in citrus can help breakdown uric acid and reduce the levels in your blood. Try to drink juices that contain no added sugar and use caution with juice if you are diabetic.

Cherries and Cherry Juice – Cherries contain natural anti-inflammatory properties that can be affective for any type of arthritis, including gout. You can eat a few handfuls of cherries each day or drink a cup of cherry juice.

Increase Fresh Fruits – Pineapples, grapes and cherries can all help the symptoms of gout. They also provide vitamins and fiber to help strengthen your immune system.

Apple Cider Vinegar – This one home remedy is receiving a lot of attention lately for many different conditions. Apple cider vinegar can help to balance the pH in the body. It can also help break down uric acid levels in the body. A tablespoon in water daily can help to cleanse your system.

There are many more natural gout treatments that can help you find relief quickly. Many are also safe enough to be used with traditional treatments, but always check with your doctor first.

Stabilizing Gout

How to Stabilize Gout

If you have suffered from your first acute flare from gout, then your first goal is to lower the inflammation and pain in your body. Stabilizing gout takes the use of anti-inflammatory medications, dietary changes, lifestyle changes, and rest. This reduces your symptoms and gets your body ready for the actual gout treatment.

After your done stabilizing gout and the inflammation levels are lower, you and your doctor can decide on the best treatment to reduce your uric acid levels. Uric acid is the main culprit in gout attacks and high levels need to be brought back to normal in order to fully heal from gout.

Stabilizing Gout

Once you have seen your physician and received a diagnosis of gout, he or she will begin medications to help your body in stabilizing gout. This means reducing the inflammation in the body to help with pain relief and make your body more responsive to treatment. The following medications can help:

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory medications (NSAIDS) – This is usually the first line of treatment at the onset of an acute flare. Stabilizing gout requires the inflammation in the body to come down first to help alleviate the severe pain and begin healing. This treatment is stopped after symptom relief is obtained.
Corticosteroids (Prednisone) – These are only used if the above NSAIDS were not effective in reducing inflammation and pain. Doctors can prescribe a dose pack and taper them down or give a single injection. Corticosteroids are never used long-term due to the risk of adverse effects.
Colchicine – Colchicine blocks the effects that uric acid has on inflammation in the body. It does not reduce uric acid levels, but keeps the body from reacting to it. It has some side-effects, so doctors usually use the lowest effective dose to help reduce the inflammatory response.

Treating Uric Acid Levels

Once you have stabilized, you can begin to work on reducing the uric acid levels in your body. There are many therapies out there that help lower uric acid and encourage the kidneys to flush it out. Doctors can prescribe other medications to help with lowering or blocking uric acid in the body.

Treatment also requires lifestyle and diet changes to prevent future attacks to the body. Chronic recurrent gout attacks can cause permanent joint damage. If you continue with lifestyle changes, dietary modification, and treatment, then gout symptoms will eventually subside and you may be able to live normally for the rest of your life.

People who have the following risk factors should keep uric acid levels low in their bodies:

High uric acid levels in the blood
Kidney stones
Osteoarthritis
Family history of gout
Colchicine treatment failure during acute gout flares

If you have suffered an acute gout attack in the past or you are at risk for gout because of the above risk factors, follow a healthy diet plan and lifestyle to prevent gout attacks. One important thing you must do in stabilizing gout is to lower your consumption of red meats, organ meats, seafood, and alcohol. Drink extra water, start to exercise and try to lose any extra weight.