[QUOTE=Lenin;3112742]Phlox,

HIGH Uric acid for a gout sufferer is about 5 mg/dL. Those "normal" ranges that are published with our test results are hooey. Any doctor who relies on those ranges for uric acid normalcy should absent himself from ANY involvement with gout.

I have several GOOD ;) theories on uric acid crystallization but that's for a different time and place. Maybe I'll start a GOUT thread on the ARTHRITIS page, but last time I did, nobody was interested. :D:(

Flower Girl,
I am absolutely CONVINCED that nobody who can restrtict his sodium to 1800 mg./day needs a diuretic and that anyone who takes a diuretic while restricting to 1800 mg. is going to wind up in trouble.

If you start a thread on Gout over in the arthritis section Lenin, please let us know--Im sure a few of us are definitely interested in keeping our Uric Acid level down considering the inaccuracy of the bloodwork. I know what you mean about there being no interest, I couldnt find much in that forum I think because most people still dont realize that Gout is a form of arthritis. Perhaps we can delve into why the tests are so unreliable--that is still driving me crazy, lol! One thing I did want to ask you in this thread though: I was curious what "trouble" someone taking a diuretic while on a sodium restricted diet can get into? I ask that because of a relative, who has had several problems and is in the hospital right now...low sodium restricted diet while taking diuretics. I know the doctors are "supposed" to know more than us, but she doesnt seem to be improving so when I read that statement you wrote, it made me curious.

Flower--the most common & effective preventative med for keeping the Uric Acid levels down is Allopurinol. I started taking it twice, but both times I started getting mild itching all over and stopped taking it. My primary Doctor & several other doctors left the office due to some drama (silly stuff, too)...so I have been in a "limbo" there for the last few months and not sure how to proceed. There is a great Physicians Assistant that I continue to see, but sometimes I see the difference in expertise and knowledge between her and the doctors. She doesnt seem to know how to proceed anymore than I do at this point, with regards to keeping the Uric Acid down and getting an accurate idea of what my levels really are.

As my previous post and Lenin said, getting a "normal" result from the bloodwork is phooey....and thats where it stands for me. Maybe the Gout thread Lenin was talking about starting is a better place to go into that though, hehe, because at this point Im just not sure how to track that level accurately. Your idea of 24 hour urine tests is interesting, maybe I will ask about that being a possibility!

Fam...........bah I just read something of yours I wanted to ask you about and I just completely blanked after thinking about the Uric Acid testing, lol! I guess I'll have to dig it up again, hehe. :)

[QUOTE]Other than medicating gout AFTER it develops, is there anything one can do to PREVENT a high concentration of uric acid in the body?

Yes, there is a fairly benign drug called allopurinol...cheap too. aken every day it causes the body to make less uric acid. It has far fewer side effects than the drugs to remove more of it.

Cozaar is probably the ONLY antihypertensive that casues more uric acid to be excreted. So if one is going to try an ARB, that's the one to take.

Last and very much least is a diet that eliminates PURINES from the diet...these are foods that are high in nucleic acids. Toruble with the diet cure is that it is bothe tedious and usually inefffective, But before allopurinol that;s all they had...until the patient died of gout.:(


[QUOTE]I was curious what "trouble" someone taking a diuretic while on a sodium restricted diet can get into?

That trouble is a very low serum sodium, aka hyponatremia or water intoxication, which mannifests as shift of water from the plasma into the brain cells. One can develop nausea, vomiting, headache and malaise and worse, , confusion, diminished reflexes, convulsions, stupor or coma >>>death.

It's sometimes seen in marathon runners in the heat who keep losing salt and water and replacing the fluid with only water.

Less horrifying is the drag-around condition someone experiences from walking aroung with a low serum sodium in the 120's...that bedevilled me for years while taking HCTZ even though I was eating salt like Lot's wife. If I's STOPPED eating salt I'd probably have keeled over.

(Lasix doesn't do this.)

Ahh thats good to hear, that is what she is on, the Lasix. She should be good then! :)

Its scary to read about the Gout since I am still not taking anything after tryign the Allopurinol...I really hope that eating cherries everyday helps enough for now (something my doctor told me to do, because they help make your body excrete the Uric Acid).

My LONG experience: Diet's effect on Gout control = ZERO.

AND they are so silly...one would think the main component of the American diet is SWEETBREADS (like a $$zillion$$ in a restaurant) and ANCHOVIES...cut me some slack here.

The Gout Diet was for a time when gout was pretty much a slow death sentence but doctors HAVE to charge for SOMETHING.
So NO SWEETBREADS. (I guess Henry VIII must have eaten them a lot.):jester:

You know, there is a very well researched connection between gout and high intelligence....fer real! :D

Beth,
Yeah, low dose aspirin is counterindicated for gout sufferers not on gout meds. It's part of the reason that I take 650 mg.per day, but even that is apt to conserve uric acid.:( The opposite efffect is that if one can STAND the 6 gram dose that people with RA once took, you can dump uric acid at an incredible rate...grams a day. But whose stomach can stand 6 grams of aspirin...like 16 of them. :eek: I tried it a couple times: NOT MINE!

ANYBODY with gout...please go on allopurinol. Even if the gout isn't crucifying your joints, it is slowly destroying the delicate structures of your kidneys with it's needlelike crystals...and probably your coronary arteries as well.

(Psst, allopurinol is a LOT cheaper than cherry juice. :D)

N.B. I started a thread in the Arthritis Forum called GOUT aka GOUTY ARTHRITIS...let's have a good discussion there.