Hi Jack,

If you've reduced carbs and have the genetic tendency, Gout is likely the
result. I've had it since last December but my kidney function tests come
out fine. My doc says it's the reduced carb and weight loss doing it. IIRC,
part of the fat metabolism process during weight loss produces uric acid
above what your body would normally have to handle. The allopurinol is a
common first step, I'm on 300mg/da.

There are many dietary things you can do. Try to google on gout & foods and
variations of that. Also google for anti-inflammatory & food. Inflammation
is a big part of gout.

I've added to my diet, black cherry juice concentrate, more yogurt and sour
cream, cider vinegar, more garlic, celery seed, fish oil, and occasional
fresh black or sour cherries.

I've eliminated coffee, red wine (really miss both) beef and chicken broth,
and drastically reduced all forms of beef. Spinach is high in purine but may
not have much effect on gout. There's much debate on vegetables that contain
purine wrt gout.

Push fluids. The more water you can process, the less likely to develop
kidney stones. It also dilutes the uric acid in the blood and can help
dissolve the uric crystals in your joints. In the same manner, if you're on
a diuretic, ask your doctor if you can stop or reduce the dosage. I had my
worst gout events when I was on one and no major ones since I quit.

You can also take NSAIDs to help reduce inflammation (helps the bg too) and
pain. Here again, work with your doctor to pick the right one for your
situation. I ended on generic Tylenol even though I prefer aspirin.

Gout is a challenge, I have it in both feet, my left hand and maybe my left
knee. I developed tophi until I made my dietary changes. Now things are
slowly improving again.

I wish you luck, my friend,
Peter G.


"Tiger Lily" > wrote in message
...
> Jack..... i'm adding a couple of other newsgroups
> so that you get wider coverage for your question
> here
>
> kate
> --
> Join us in the Diabetic-Talk Chatroom on UnderNet
> /server irc.undernet.org --- /join #Diabetic-Talk
> More info: http://www.diabetic-talk.org/
> http://www.diabetic-talk.org/freeveggies.htm
> I have no medical qualifications beyond my own
> experience.
> Choose your advisers carefully, because experience
> can be
> an expensive teacher.
>
> "Jack" > wrote in message
> ...
>> I think my diabetes has started to degrade my
> kidney function, because I
>> have been having attacks of gout. Gout comes
> from precipitation of ureic
>> (sp) acid crystals into a joint, like the big
> toe, from the blood, mainly
>> because the kidneys are not adequately cleansing
> the urea in the blood. I
>> am told that one defense is to cut way back on
> foods rich in the purines,
>> such as the organ meats. I have been unable to
> discover just exactly the
>> purines are nor a database of purine contents in
> foods. I am getting good
>> results on the BG front from dietary control and
> exercise, but need to be
>> able to do a better job helping to avert gout
> attacks. My internist has me
>> on allopurinol and that seems to be helping. But
> the affected toe always
>> feels just on the verge of flaring up. Gout is
> so very painful that I'd do
>> almost anything to avoid it. I even asked about
> amputating the affected
>> toe but the doc said it would just show up
> somewhere else. Arrrgh.
>>
>> --
>> John Ferman
>> Minneapolis, MN
>
>