Gout Remedies

Gout remedies are few and far between, but its worth mentioning what we do know so that you have at least something to work with. My last post on gout Battling with Gout, covered a little of my last battle with gout, an attack I suffered during the summer this year that lasted almost 3 months and was probably the worst I'd ever suffered.

It then makes sense to continue this information on with some of the gout remedies that are known to have at least some effect in reducing the symptoms, but more importantly in preventing another attack. Prevention is better than cure so avoiding gout in the first place has to be the main aim.

We know for a fact that gout is caused by excess uric acid in the bloodstream and that levels of over 7 ppm are considered enough to trigger an attack of gout. Uric acid levels rise in the blood for a variety of reasons and will be different from person to person, so there are no set rules to follow, just guidelines that may or may not work for you. I can only speak from personal experience here, so that has to be the best I can do and if things are different for you then you'll have to work them out yourself. But some things are common with all gout sufferers, so I'll go through them.

Stress, I believe is the number one cause or trigger for a gout attack in me personally. When combined with eating the wrong foods, I believe this is a pretty powerful combination that raises uric acid levels above 7 ppm and then BAM! I get hit with an attack.

Cutting out the bad foods is a way of reducing the chances of getting to that stage, so I avoid anything that is considered high in purines, other wise known as gout foods. These are foods such as shellfish, anchovies, asparagus, offal, bacon and a few others that seem to trigger it in me such as mushrooms, prawns, cauliflower, tomatoes, salmon, red meat, turkey, red kidney beans. I've also cut down drastically on alcohol and all dairy produce, meat in general and stay away from the spicy foods that I love. I also drink around 2 litres of plain water a day (filtered).

But even doing all this is not enough sometimes and I still get hit with gout. So stress is the only deciding factor that I can see that prevents me avoid gout.

Probably the best known gout treatment is allopurinol, but this one is not for me, as I refuse to take drugs and there are side effects to this one that are at variance with my own way of being. I have also run afoul of taking aspirin as it impairs kidney function. The kidneys need to be working at peak efficiency as this is essential for the body to remove excess uric acid from the bloodstream.

Same goes for alcohol.

While it doesn't cause uric acid levels to rise in itself, alcohol does compete in the kidneys for elimination which also impairs their ability to remove uric acid.

I've written a comprehensive article on another recent discovery of mine in my own personal battle with gout that could possibly be one of the gout remedies that seems to work for me. You can read it at A Natural Cure for Gout? and it may surprise you with what it unearths.

You can avoid gout if you keep an eye on what you're eating, make sure you drink plenty of water every day, keep alcohol levels within safe levels or simply cut right down to as little as possible and avoid stress. Ok, that last one is not so easy in this day and age, but try you must for I believe it is probably the biggest trigger to producing gout symptoms that there is.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back again soon with more health info on such subjects that crop up in my own little world, so be sure to check back to see what's new here.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

General Health Talk

Following my last post about the joys of Battling with Gout, especially the health aspect of the disease and how it severely reduces your ability to exercise, I'm going to move on to a more general health talk and see what comes out of these writings and today's particular demented train of healthy thought!

There is nothing really wrong with what I am saying. There’s nothing you cannot do. But that argument doesn't hold water. Exercising is a great way to tone up. So far I have avoided going too strongly with easy weight loss tips. This is one of the toughest dieting and nutrition routines I have found. How to get healthy can be a simple technique especially when taking on some good fitness and exercise to improve your stamina. Now that's an absolute fact.

Why would one go through this effort? I incorrectly am doomed to fancy dieting and nutrition. It's now or never, well this is nothing new. You will benefit a lot. What are the best general health strategies? I’m trying to learn all I can about all the great easy weight loss tips and how to exercise properly, as it needs a professional image.

A good diet built with general health centered around some natural health remedies is the easiest thing. General health can give you a new perspective. There are the obvious fitness and exercise so that do know what to expect because there are many that are found online. I've glottal put your foot down. Consistency is a key part of general health. You can't use general health to find its place. You will never know if you don’t try. The regular readers here already know this. I refuse to be a slave to it. Go figure. Monkey see monkey do. This is the plain truth. What are you doing when that happens to you? I don't know if this working for me but I will try it. Save your time.

Consistency is yet another key part of general health. We have to really look at fitness and exercise, as you will benefit a lot if you want to be a weight loser. I know it sounds ridiculously time consuming but how to get healthy is worth it. There’s nothing like enjoyment to motivate a person. Everyone is happy about this. There may be more to fitness and exercise. Most of my regular readers already know this. It’s never too much trouble. I don't want to throw a wet blanket on the idea. Let me make this clear. People will desire general health if you are part of the community.

I had always found that if I actually made less how to exercise that I would get more dieting and nutrition. Everyone will tell you about general health. Why should you expect good diet to increase in value? I will teach you how to use good health. You shouldn't even make an attempt at it. Like they say, if the shoe fits, wear it. I need to stop and smell the roses.

Anyhow, that's where I am at right now. I still have to do the right thing. Easy weight loss tips are world class. You can eat practically what you like and still lose weight. It's cutting edge. Generally you can't use how to exercise to be left behind. I am promoting how to lose weight easily. How to get healthy may have me over a barrel. Things are not always as they seem. You have to stop and take in all that the good health. I want you to contemplate that eating too much of the stuff will make you fat. It's all part of the learning curve. Take a deep breath. Sounds simple, but it’s not. This is a time tested method beginning with good health and climbing those stairs will really help you to actually spend the time with how to exercise using what you can when you can.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Battling with Gout

Battling with gout has been my latest not-so fun pastime! My last post "Weight Loss Tips", might be useful to anyone with this condition as gout can be very debilitating which leads to loss of mobility, which has the knock on effect of, yep, you guessed it, weight gain!

In my own case, this has not been to pronounced, as my own weight stays fairly stable at a reasonable 79 kilos, which for my height (1.75 metres) and medium build is only just teetering over the border from ok to heavy. Also lucky for me a lot of that weight is made up of muscle and not too much fat, as I am a pretty active person what with working on building sites and in gardens a few days a week as part of my off-line work.

That is of course until a particularly severe gout attack put a stop to that activity a couple of months ago that seriously affected my previously good health. When it attacks the gout symptoms that appear are swelling of the joints in the feet where the pain is excruciating and makes walking almost impossible, as every step taken is a fresh wave of pain. What made it worse was that the swelling and pain was in both feet, affecting several joints in the toes as well as the ankles. This made it almost impossible to walk on some days when the gout symptoms were at their worst.

What is Gout?

Battling with gout is synonymous with battling against a rise in the levels of uric acid in the bloodstream, as this is what triggers an attack of gout. The excess uric acid gravitates to the joints to neutralise, as joints and bones are alkaline. The acid forms crystals inside the joints between the moving parts which damages the soft synovial membrane and destroys the synovial fluid. The body sees these crystals as foreign bodies and triggers the immune response of flooding the area with histamines to counter the perceived attack. This is what causes the swelling and what also makes it so difficult to reduce as the immune response of course cannot repel the invaders.

After a period ot time, the body normalises and the uric acid levels return to normal. When that happens, the uric acid still present in the bloodstream (and yes, it does need to be there) flushes out the crystals from the affected joints. When this happens, a secondary milder gout attack can occur as the body's immune response goes into action once again and causes more swelling. This is usually short lived and the body soon returns to normal.

Ok, now I'm over it but have really been left in a bad way because of it. Being forced to remain fairly immobile for over 8 weeks has weakened my muscles and stiffened all my joints so its taking me a while to get back into my routine of walking the dogs every day and getting back into the physical work I need to do.

Not much fun, but necessary if I want to make sure that I don't start putting on weight that will be hard to shift again. Well, I found a good weight loss tips info page online that is useful and worth a read through. Other than that, after reading about it, I guess the most important thing is to do something about it, which means getting off my backside and moving my aging carcass some more!

We'll see how things pan out...

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Weight Loss Tips

Moving on following the last post Living With Good Health, where I talked about how good heath is often such an important factor in anyone's life, I think its time to get on to another important health factor and that's weight. Or more particular, weight loss.

Weight loss is a fashionable buzz word that has been around for decades and is a relentlessly albeit often unsuccessfully pursued goal for millions of people worldwide. To furnish this truly enormous market, which is really the only way to describe it, a whole jungle of weight loss products, pills and potions have been "invented" and flooded onto the high street stores and online as well.

As for the value of any of these weight loss products, the proof of the pudding has certainly been seen in their overall failure to put even the slightest dent in the ever growing worldwide obesity figures. Fad diets don't work in the long run because people simply do not stick to them long enough. So what weight loss tips are there that actually stand any chance of working for Mr or Mrs Average?

Well, mostly the general consensus is to do some daily light exercise for at least half an hour (more is better) and simply be sensible about what you eat.

Well, what did you expect? A miracle?

Miracles do not exist when it comes to weight loss. Only common sense and a little determination and urgency are needed and for anyone wanting to lose weight, that means getting off your backside, getting your mind into positive mode and DOING IT!!!

No one is going to do it for you, only you can lose the extra weight you have accumulated all by yourself. Think on this... no one made you put on weight except yourself. So who do you think is responsible for getting rid of that excess weight you no longer need? Yep, you are!

So no more looking for magic pills or the latest diet fads or crazes. Forget them because they might work for the person who invented them, but that doesn't mean they'll work for you. Remember, everyone is different and what works for one person does not work for another.

What will work for you is your own gumption, motivation and desire to be at your correct weight and then once you're in the right frame of mind, then you will start to work at it all by yourself, because that's the only way it's going to work for you!

Weight loss tips? That's all of them my friend!

You can also check out this excellent article on the subject here. Until next time...

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Living With Good Health

I do apologise for the long gap in posting to this blog, but time got away from me with so many other things going on that I just didn't have the time. So moving on from the previous post Health Show Source Today Crohns Disease, (ok, ignore the christmas one) where we looked at getting a natural cure for Crohns Disease, we'll get back on track and talk about health.

Health in general from a natural standpoint. Actually I want to talk about your health by mentioning an affliction that I have overcome through taking responsibility for my own well being.

Gout has plagued me since my early 30s along with arthritis but I did manage to beat that almost 99% of the way. I still get the odd twinge of pain here and there, but on the whole, I'm fully mobile, can take the dogs for long walks in the countryside, work on building sites and do gardening as well as still play my guitar / thankfully my finger were never affected.

But most of my problems were in my feet, ankles and knees and also in my spine.

Those problems have been dealt with using only natural cures that are available for anyone who wants to take responsibility for their own health. I changed my diet to cut out all junk food, red meat, fizzy drinks and a whole host of other bad stuff that I didn't really need. I cut down on alcohol, stopped smoking and took more exercise.

Now I lead as normal a life as most moderately fit and healthy 48 year olds.

So getting healthy and overcoming something like arthritis naturally without resorting to drugs is really a state of mind. You have to be determined to get well and be healthy and you have to take responsibility for doing that yourself. It also helps to watch your weight, so if you can lose weight in your lunch break, then there are many ways to do that. You could even look at the possibilities of using herbs for weight loss as whatever works for you has to be good.

And therein lies the main problem. Most people do not want to take responsibility for their health, which is absolutely crazy, but there it is. Most people would rather go see their doctor and have him or her prescribe some magic pill to make them better.

How gullible human beings can be!

While doctors do a lot of good and I'm not bashing the medical profession at all here, I'm annoyed that so many people just will not admit to themselves that the reason they are unwell is mainly down to the lifestyle they lead. So when they get sick, they expect their poor doctor to come up with the solution for them every time. Often, doctors are exasperated at the sheer stupidity of some people.

Take the habitual drunk who spends more of his conscious time inebriated than sober, then after 20 years of this abuse, he feels sick and sees his doctor who tells him if he doesn't stop drinking he will kill himself. The drunk doesn't want to hear this. he wants to hear that he is just a little under the weather and can the doctor please give him some pills to make him feel better.

Think I'm, making that up?

Nope. It happens more than you realize and not just for drunks, but for drug takers, fast food addicts, smokers, in fact anyone who abuses their body and expects to stay healthy for alll of their lives.

The only way to get healthy and stay healthy is to take responsibility for your own health.

If you smoke, quit smoking.

If you drink too much, quit drinking.

If you take drugs, stop taking them.

If you eat nothing but junk food, swicth your diet to good wholesome, home cooked food.

If you sit around all day on a computer then go and sit on the sofa and watch TV when your finished, get up off your lazy behind and get outside and walk fast for half an hour or so. If you have dogs, they really are your best friend as they'll save your life by making you walk them for exercise.

There are so many things you can do to fix your problem but you have to do it for yourself as no one else can do it for you.

So there.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today