How Do You Control Uric Acid Levels in Your Body?

Welcome back! I'm so glad that you're finding "Natural Gout Remedies" so useful. John Cielo

Since your gout attacks are caused by high uric acid levels that lead to gout crystals in your joints, you need to reduce these levels and control them at healthier, lower levels.

Now, if you’re in the middle of a painful gout attack, the first thing you’re looking for is to reduce the inflammation and relieve the pain. Then, once having eliminated your gout symptoms, you will want to continue to control your uric acid levels to help prevent further gout attacks, which can lead to permanent joint damage and kidney problems if they happen enough times.

You could use mainstream drug-based treatments prescribed by your doctor, and these can work quite well for most sufferers. But they do have some horrible side effects that put people off using them, and so they turn to natural home remedies for help…

For example, cherries have natural anti-inflammatory properties as well as being able to lower uric acid levels in the body. Eating lots of cherries every day can be very beneficial during an attack (30 to 40 cherries every 4 hours), and longer term (say, 30 cherries a day) in helping to control your uric acid levels.

Another natural home remedy for gout is the drinking of celery seed tea. Celery seeds have loads of natural anti-inflammatory properties too. Make a tea by boiling 1 tablespoon of celery seeds in 2 cups of water. Drain off the seeds and drink half a cup four times a day until your symptoms have gone. [Note: these seeds are diuretic, so don't use this remedy if you're pregnant or suffer from kidney problems of any sort].

In terms of controlling the uric acid levels in your body to prevent recurring gout, one of the most important things you can do, is to follow a low-purine diet. Purines are natural chemical compounds in our body and in our foods, that when they break down, produce uric acid.

So if you’re like most folks and your daily diet is full of high-purine foods, you’re only adding more uric acid production to your already high levels.

Foods that are highest in purines are things like fatty red meat, organ meat, game, some fish, shellfish, poultry, legumes, etc. You need to discover which foods within these groups need to be avoided, and which you need to reduce.

Sensible foods for gout sufferers can generally be found in essential fatty acid foods, complex carbohydrates, low-fat dairy products, high vitamin c foods, vegetables (especially green-leaf), fruit, etc. But, even within these groups, there are some particular foods that should be avoided or reduced.

You can get more information on gout diets here.

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What Causes Too Much Uric Acid in the Body?

Too much uric acid in your body can lead to urate crystal formation in your joints causing gout. The symptoms — redness, heat, swelling, stiffness, inflammation and very great pain — are caused by these needle-like crystals. The condition of high uric acid levels in the blood is called ‘hyperuricemia.’ 

Uric acid is produced during your body’s natural metabolization process. When chemical compounds called ‘purines’ breakdown during this process, uric acid is produced.  

Usually, your kidneys take in the uric acid, process it, and then excrete excess through your urine. Unfortunately, under certain conditions, either too much uric acid is being produced in the first place, or, your kidneys cannot deal with ‘normal’ acid production efficiently enough. When one, or both of these occur, you are left with high uric acid in the body, eventually leading to a gout attack.

So, one of the causes of too much acid in the blood, is kidney damage or kidney disease.  And there are certain other conditions that can also lead to elevated uric acid; for example liver disease, some cancers, low thyroid functioning, pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, even obesity.

Certain medications can also lead to hyperuricemia. These are things such as warfarin (to thin the blood), aspirin, niacin, diuretics and some drugs for treating lymphoma, leukemia and tuberculosis. Also some immunosuppressant drugs.

And the purines mentioned above, also exist in our foods at different levels. Foods such as fatty red meat, game, organ meat, some fish, shellfish and poultry, etc. can have high to very high levels of purines in them. Alcohol, especially beer, is also a trigger for high acid. So a high purine diet could be producing just too much acid for the kidneys to handle.

Please look around the website for tips and suggestions on how to lower your uric acid levels and prevent gout. There are tons of natural remedies to help eliminate the symptoms of a gout attacks, as well as to prevent future attacks. Please pay close attention to the articles on low-purine gout diets for gout-prevention.

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