Gout

There are hundreds of gout pages on the internet now, partly because people want to do SEO and sell ad placements for gout cure products like cherry juice and diets.  Having bought some, I know they're expensive, and the commissions are probably pretty healthy.  While they have some merit, the more scientific stuff coming out is way more interesting, so this gout page will try to focus on that. These also point to possible food-based cures, but my sense is that a lot of things are being discovered about the connections between hyperurecemia, gout attacks, high blood pressure, and stroke that will support the use of drugs to reduce uric acid in the body.


In the middle of the video, it describes how a monocyte swallows a uric acid crystal.  It states that H2O then enters the monocyte, the K+ (potassium) drops, and that causes the formation of IL1 (interleuken-1).  A study that inhibited IL1 prevented a gout attack.  Looking around for info about the effect of elevating K+ on IL1 I found a page that says that putting cells in K will inhibit the formation of IL1.

I'm not a scientist, but perhaps increasing consumption of potassium, by eating potatoes and bananas, can reduce the amount of IL1, and thus reduce inflammation.  Salt substitute, which is potassium chloride, might also help.  (Also, if you have hypertension, you might benefit from eating more potassium.)

Other Refs:
Renal inflammation is modulated by potassium in chronic kidney disease: possible role of Smad7.

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An Awesome Cut Cross Section of a Gouty Toe

There's really nothing to say about this awesome video that explains what a tophus is.  It starts off with a preserved toe with little tophi all over a joint.  A tophus is a mass of uric acid crystals and, presumably, the corpses of monocytes (white blood cells), encased in foreign body giant cells. (Look up multi nucleated giant cells.)  It's a pustule that can invade your bone.  I feel like donating my body to science so they can cut my toe in half just like that, so they can make more disgusting videos for stubborn people like me who refuse to get on the necessary drugs.


DNA and RNA digestion; High Uric Acid Levels and Death

Uric acid is a waste product of DNA and RNA digestion.  So avoiding foods with a lot of DNA and RNA means the high risk foods are meats, beans, seeds, and eggs.  It also means reducing weight, so that fluctuations in weight don't also result in more uric acid.  If you're slim, going up or down 5 pounds is a big deal.  If you're fat, you can see your weight fluctuate 10 pounds over a week.  Most of these changes are in the amount of water, but heavier people burn more calories, so their weight change is also a result of burning fat.  Digesting fat, even your own, probably leads to digestion of DNA in fat cells.

I bring this explanation up because this doctor starts with that, and then goes into an explanation about the process of creating gout in your body, and the risks it presents.



Another awesome video of a joint being cleaned of inflamed gouty tissue.  You can see the deposits of uric acid crystals.

Imagine if you cracked open a chicken leg's joint and instead of a smooth joint, you saw it was pitted and caked with a pasty white material.

It's interesting how the little shearing probe is branded, so that when people watch this on TV, they get to see the name of the company.  That's marketing.




Here's one if you like watching pustules drained.