How to Reduce Uric Acid Levels in the Body Naturally With Diet
By: John Cielo
Submitted: 2010-05-18 08:26:41 | Word Count: 635
Why do you need to reduce uric acid levels in your body? The key reason is that high uric acid levels -- a condition known as hyperuricemia -- leads to the formation of uric acid crystals in and around your joints. These cause the symptoms of gout; redness, swelling, stiffness, heat, inflammation and horrible pain. Here, you'll discover how to naturally lower uric acid levels in the body through your diet.
Once having been diagnosed with gout, your doctor will normally prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs to combat the existing gout attack symptoms, and, drugs to reduce your uric acid levels over time to help prevent future attacks. And you really need to prevent recurring gout because this can lead to some serious long term issues such as kidney stones, other kidney problems and permanent joint damage.
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Now, these acid reducing drugs -- such as Allopurinol -- can work well as long as you are taking them. When you come off them there really isn't anything to prevent your uric acid rising again causing more gout attacks.
So, in order to reduce and maintain your levels in the long term you need to keep taking these drugs over the long term. Apart from the cost implications there are some nasty side effects like diarrhea, nausea, allergies, etc. Which is why gout sufferers are increasingly looking to natural remedies for gout...
There are a whole plethora of natural home remedies for gout out there. But, at the heart of any natural approach to reducing your acid levels, is your diet. In fact, this is a very important issue even if you go along the drug-based route. And the reason is simple: natural chemical compounds in your body and foods -- called purines -- are the producers of uric acid. We don't need to go into how this happens here, it's enough to know that they just do.
But the equation is clear: more purines = more uric acid. So, as a gout sufferer who needs to reduce uric acid levels in the body, you need to reduce the amount being produced by purines. And a critical factor is your diet, because purines exist in our foods, as well as our bodies.
You have to reduce your intake of high purine foods and replace with relatively low-level purine foods...
Generally speaking, high purine foods to be avoided are, fish, shellfish, fatty red meats, offal, poultry, yeast and yeast extracts. Foods like sardines, anchovies, herring, mackerel, mussels, scallops, heart, liver, kidneys, brains, gravies, partridge, and goose are particularly bad.
And alcohol is known to be a key trigger for gout attacks. So you must avoid all alcohol, but particularly beer, because of it's association with yeast.
Now foods that make up a good gout diet are, low fat dairy products, complex carbohydrate foods (cereals, rice, pasta, etc.), high vitamin c foods (fruits, red cabbage, red bell peppers, etc.), essential fatty acids (tuna, salmon, seeds, nuts, etc.), vegetables (parsley, cabbage, kale and other green leafy vegetables etc.), and fruits (especially cherries, strawberries, blueberries and grapes).
Of course, you shouldn't make any significant dietary changes without first consulting your doctor. But diet isn't the end of the story. Other things like your weight, lifestyle issues, family history, medications, etc., can have an impact on your ability to get rid of your gout for good.
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So next, for more information on how to get fast gout pain relief, plus, prevent your gout returning in the future, go to http://gout-relief-today.blogspot.com and discover how you can quickly do both without expensive drugs with their horrible side effects.
