Natural Remedies for Gout
Gout Treatment You Can Do At Home

These natural remedies for gout will help get rid of pain and ease swelling. You can combine your traditional gout treatment with gout home remedies to help you feel better and decrease your number of outbreaks. Before we look at some home remedies for gout let's look at what it is and what causes it.

What is Gout?

Sometimes called the rich man's disease, gout is associated with people who eat rich foods. It's charactered by tenderness and swelling in the joints and usually only affects one joint at a time. It most commonly occurs in the big thumb, but can occur in the fingers, elbow, knee or other joints. The conditions can be quite painful, so painful in fact that the area affected by the condition can't even be touched without experiencing intense pain. An outbreak usually lasts from 3 to 10 days. Then the joint will return to normal until the next outbreak.

It's caused by a build up of uric acid in the blood stream. The body doesn't know what to do with this build up and monosodium urate crystals are deposited on the cartilage around the joints.

Sometimes the body products too much uric acid on it's own, but most commonly the condition occurs because the affected person is eating a diet too rich in purines which are converted to uric acid in the body. Purines are found in beef and seafood. It's also found in some alcohol like beer or port.

If left untreated and uncontrolled monosodium urate crystals can start to be deposited in the kidneys eventually causing kidney failure.

Treatments

Gout is diagnosed by your doctor by taking some fluid from the affected joint and testing it for high concentrations of uric acid.

Once it's determined that you have the condition, you'll be treated with perscription medication. There are a number of them used, but they all have side effects that can damage your health over time.

I'm not suggesting that you stop taking your medication. It's important to keep the condition under control to prevent kidney problems.

Natural Remedies

You can use natural remedies for gout to keep it under control. There are a few remedies that you can easily do at home.

Diet and Lifestyle

Changing your diet can be one of the most affective natural remedies for gout. Many people who have gout are overweight. Getting down to a good weight for your height will help you control your symptoms. Avoid foods that are high in purines, like rich desserts, seafoods, goose and turkey, red meats, yeasty foods, alcohol, and fried foods. Try to cut down on your sugar intake.

Eat foods that will make your body more alkaline like dark green vegetables. To get enough vegetables into your system to alkalize your blood, I'd recommend juicing vegetables and drinking a cup of freshly juiced veggies a day.

Dairy can reduce your levels of uric acid, but exchange the heavy cream and ice creams for milk and yogurt.

Stay well hydrated. Drink plenty of water and cut down on alcohol consumption.

Cherries

Cherries are the most common natural remedies for gout. You can eat a cup to a pound of cherries a day. I would recommend eating fresh cherries, but it doesn't matter whether you eat them fresh or sweetened or in juice. You can buy cherry capsules from most health food stores.

Vitamin C

Taking vitamin C supplements will lower the amount of uric acid in your blood. This is one of the few proven natural remedies for gout. You can also eat more foods that are high in vitamin C like citrus fruits, strawberrys and bell peppers.

Other Vitamin Supplements

• B complex
• vitamin E
• fish oil
• bromelain
• L-glutamine
• L-glutathione
• L-glycine
• L-methionine
• magnesium citrate

Epsom salt

You can soak the affected joint in warm water with 2 cups of Epsom salt.

Baking Soda

Taking a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with your meal will make your blood alkalize your blood to prevent the build up of uric acid, but this may not be a good solution for people who already have high sodium levels in their diets. The increased sodium intake may increase your blood pressure.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Add 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to 3 cups of warm water and soak the affected joint. The vinegar draws the acid out of the joint.

Herbs

Herbs can be used as natural remedies for gout. Some herbs neutralize uric acid and help bring down inflammation.

• Alfalfa
• Black cohash
• Nettle
• Celery seed
• Devil's claw
• Hawthorn
• Red clover
• Yarrow
• Ginger root

If you found this information useful, check out my complete listing of herbs at my Herb Index. You can find a listing of ailments and their natural treatments on my Free Home Remedies page.

Do you have a favorite home remedy that works great? Let us know about it. Share your favorite natural remedies here.