All About Gout

Contrary to popular belief, understanding all about gout is not that difficult. Due to the short-sighted approach of manipulating uric acid levels, the facts have been confused and knowing all about gout has become obscured.

There is one simple truth that explains it all when it comes to gout causes: Alkaline is the Opposite of Acid. When seeking to know all about gout, this is the starting point that makes the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

What Is Gout

Gout is an overly-acidic inner body condition. The pain of a gout attack comes from an excess of uric acid that has crystallized in one or more of the joints. Uric acid is a naturally occurring antioxidant that the body produces to help protect various tissues of the body against oxidative damage.

Uric acid is also the by-product of the breakdown process of purines. Purines exist at a cellular level, and they are a substance that is present in all sources of food.

Gout Causes

Due to a wide array of scenarios, gout causes come down to one thing: The kidneys are temporarily incapable of processing and excreting all the uric acid in the body. When this happens, the uric acid is then released back into the bloodstream.

The alternative that the body has created for protecting the vital organs from the corrosive damage is to sequester the uric acid in a joint as far away as possible. The crystallization process in the joints of the feet or hands allows the kidneys to recover and the pH of the body to move towards balance.

Bert,

This email is a bit overdue, but I wanted to touch base and let you know how helpful, effective and encouraging your emails are. I appreciate that I am still on the list despite having difficulty watching your initial program.

The information and pointers that you give for me as a gout sufferer have been a blessing. It has have helped me understand the disease, given me tools to prevent it and have given me hope to overcome it. Regardless of the long term outcome in relation to the gout, your information helps someone live an overall healthier lifestyle,and enables people to think beyond a single-minded paradigm in an approach to beating gout.

This has been a journey for me, and a testing of my perseverance. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 5, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character; and character, hope.”

While I sense that my battle with this disease is not done, I feel like it is definitely going in the right direction, and you have been a big part of guiding me and enabling to stay in that positive direction. And yes, your encouraging words have provided hope.

Please feel free to use anything in this email as a testimonial for your web site/advertising etc. It is the least I can do.

All the best,

Shane

Risk Factors

As mentioned earlier, there are different extenuating circumstances that can lead to an over-abundance of uric acid in the bloodstream. Blindly, genetics and heredity are often cited as the determining factor and the matter is no longer questioned due to sheer ignorance.

However, this is where the mystery all about gout is dispelled. The kidneys balance the pH of the body chemistry. Because gout is all about an overly-acidic inner body environment, the elementary conclusion is that the kidneys are not functioning as well as they should be or once were.

There are three fuels that the body requires for life:

1. Air/Oxygen
2. Water
3. Food

Kidney function is impaired or compromised and increases the risk factors of gout in several ways:

• Incomplete breathing habits and poor air quality cause low blood oxygen saturation and the blood becomes acidic with uric acid if the conditions are right.
• Dehydration makes acid/alkaline balance of the pH difficult.
• Foods are either alkaline-forming or acid-forming. The body needs both in the relatively correct ratio to maintain a healthy, slightly alkaline pH.
• Toxic, acidic synthetic chemicals make their way to the inner terrain by way of the orifices or into the bloodstream through the skin.
• Stress creates acidic hormones that add to the acidic load that the kidneys then struggle to process.
• Lack of exercise and/or sleep compromise the kidneys ability to recover and maintain normal flow and working order.

Symptoms and Stages

As anyone who has ever had a serious attack will tell you, it’s all about gout pain. The red, hot, swollen and inflamed joint becomes an all consuming event.

Gout is most well-known for attacking the joint at the base of the big toe, but can it can also assault all of the intricate and sensitive joints of the feet and hands, the ankles and wrists, and the knees and elbows as well.

There are several stages of gout to describe how it progresses:

1. Hyperuricemia is when high levels of uric acid are detected but no gouty events have yet come about.
2. Acute gout is the initial onset of gout; usually depicting the first few gout attacks. It moves to the next stage with the reality that it will continuously return.
3. Chronic gout is the stage at which gout has become frequent, severe and the attacks run deep and last several days or weeks.
4. Tophaceous gout is when lumps or nodules of Tophi – deposits of urate crystals – form around the joints of fingers and toes and other parts of the body.

When gout is unattended or ignored, (if that is possible) high levels of uric acid can create renal problems, kidney stones, and even permanent joint damage.

Gout Treatments

Treatments for gout fall into two distinct categories:

1. Allopathic medicine and pharmaceutical medications
2. Holistic and naturopathic medicine and natural remedies

As typical with western medicine and pharmaceutical drugs, the drugs only seek to mask the symptoms and provide temporary remission of the true problem.

The most common drugs used for gout treatment are allopurinol and cochicine, with others entering the market as gout becomes more widespread.

Allopurinol attempts to limit the production of uric acid but is no guarantee against future gout attacks. Colchicine is a plant-based derivative that has been used throughout history for relieving inflammation.

Holistic and natural remedies use various herbs, minerals, diet and foods, naturopathic medicines, and other healing modalities to correct metabolic imbalances and restore homeostasis.

Prevention

Gout prevention comes in the form of maintaining a healthful alkaline body pH. To reiterate; gout is an overly-acidic inner body condition – alkaline is the opposite of acid.

Staying healthy and staying alkaline depend on full breathing, proper hydration, a diet of clean alkaline-forming foods, good stress management, avoidance of toxic environmental chemicals, and ample exercise and sleep.

   ☆ Remember!  Knowing all about gout is just commonsense…it’s all about gout prevention.