Chemistry of gout
Hi,
The purine stuff in my view seems a little spurious on the cause of gout. Might be true, might not be. I haven't seen any scientific studies that I found conclusive on the matter and it seems highly debatable at the moment.
The research done by Professor Lustig which breaks down the exact biochemistry of uric acid production in the blood leads to two causes. Refined sugar and Alcohol consumption. I wasn't able to link to it (not enough posts apparently) but you can google "sugar the bitter truth" if your interested. Its intense so if you want to geek out please watch. Yes, there are also people who have genetic or kidney issues too. Alcohol also damages the kidneys when drank in really high doses so its a double wammy.
When I say sugar I don't mean glucose polymores like starch - bread, potatoes etc. I mean fructose containing foods - lollies, soda etc. Fruit has fructose but barely any and is fine unless your going to eat 20 oranges. Fruit juice on the other hand has A LOT! Stay away.
Anyhow I think I've come down with gout. Over 4 years I've had knee pain 4 times and the doctor originally diagnosed it as petella tendonitis. Doctor gave me naprosin for it and it worked within fixing it in two hours.
I drink around 20 beers a week. Stopped this week and aim to stop for a year.
I still had the box of naprosin and it works like a charm on gout/tendonitis onset. If you get it an onset take an anti inflamatory like that and it knocks it on the head. The next day after I can do squats and dead lifts no problem if I take naprosin in time. Its like it never occured.
What naprosin wont do is remove the crystal build up. Thus it prevents the one attack but wont cure future attacks. To do that you need to reduce uric acid so the crystals dissolve.
As per that lecture above high uric acid nullifies the affect of nitric oxide in your blood which is your blood pressure regulator. My bet is gout sufferers above at the time and after the attack will have a) high uric acid and b) high blood pressure. This is one of the reasons recovering alcoholics have high blood pressure.
So in addition to me quitting drinking Im thinking of going on some meds to put my uric acid *way* down. Dissolve the crystals and reduce my blood pressure.
That the plan. I still don't know if I have gout. I have an appointment with a doctor. Years ago I had some blood tests that revealed high uric acid but I think I had a binge a few days earlier. Unsure if this is a permanent thing.
If you are recovering and have high BP. Get your uric acid checked. Stop eating refined sugar too and consider temporary meds. Or atleast monitor the uric acid going down and BP.
Oh yeah and high uric acid also leads to inflamation even if you don't have gout. Microscopic crystals in small quantities lead to passive inflammation. Correlated with increased cardio vascular issues. So don't leave it. Im kinda kicking myself that I did. I was in my 20s when I got my high uric acid readings and your invincible then! Now 37.
cheers! Hope this was helpful