In-depth discussion of the causes of gout and its painful symptoms and how to resolve them naturally via diet modification and holistic anti-inflammatory measures.
Gout is an ancient affliction of mankind with documented cases dating back at least five centuries.
Despite its persistence throughout history, there are many misconceptions about this painful condition, so much so that people prone to gout may tend to reject a nutrient-dense, traditional diet which includes full-fat grassfed dairy and other rich foods thinking that this way of eating is surely a recipe for attack.
The confounding thing about gout is that the symptoms are intermittent, which makes identification of the triggers particularly difficult. Strangely enough, each attack usually only affects a single joint at a time, the most common being the joint where the big toe is attached to the foot. Other commonly affected joints include knees and elbows.
Symptoms include redness, heat, swelling, and excruciating pain so much so that some patients cannot tolerate shoes or even a sock on the affected foot. The pain and extreme discomfort last about two weeks in most cases before symptoms begin to retreat. Patients perceive attacks to occur at random anywhere from a few months or even years in between. For some, symptoms may lessen between severe attacks but never really go away completely with fibromyalgia type symptoms suffered on a continual basis.
What are the Real Causes of Gout?
Modern science has revealed that the fluid removed from a gouty joint contains crystals of uric acid. These crystals are pointy in shape which accounts for the extreme pain described by those afflicted with the condition. Doctors diagnose gout via blood test which usually indicates elevated levels of uric acid.
Uric acid is produced when the body breaks down purines, which are natural substances found in all the cells of the body as well as virtually all foods. A relatively small number of foods contain concentrated amounts of purines, and these are also typically high protein foods. The shortlist of high purine foods includes organ meats, grains, fatty fish like mackerel, herring, sardines, anchovies, mussels, and other shellfish. In addition, yeast is surprisingly high in purines.
Other foods that are moderately high in purines include asparagus, bacon, beef, cauliflower, chicken, cod, crab, duck, goose, halibut, ham, legumes (kidney and navy beans, lentils), lobster, mushrooms, oysters, peas, salmon, lamb, snapper, spinach, tuna, turkey, veal, and wild game.
While purines are desirable in the diet because they provide part of the chemical structure of our DNA, some people seem to have trouble with them which is why the typical treatment for gout is the avoidance of high purine foods to lower uric acid levels. Patients are told to choose lean meats, lowfat dairy, and most importantly, avoid fats!
It seems logical, right?
According to Tom Cowan MD, author of The Fourfold Path to Healing, the low protein, low purine intake is overly simplistic and does not get to the root cause of the excessive uric acid production that is triggering the painful gout attacks. He writes:
For example, high-protein intake is not necessarily connected with obesity so why are many gout patients overweight? Also, we now know that gout attacks can occur with almost any change in diet, even to a better diet, or even to a lower-protein diet. In fact, it seems that the precipitating factor is often change, even the particulars of the change. And finally, there is a connection with fat, as your doctor suggested, although the solution is not to eat less fat [emphasis added] (1).
The Root Causes of Gout
More recent research on the causes of gout has revealed that the situation is far more complex than simply the result of a high protein, high purine diet.
Given that most gout patients are overweight, uric acid levels have been found to be high in patients with insulin resistance and the host of risk factors that go along with it known as Syndrome X: glucose intolerance, high triglycerides, obesity, hypertension and a predisposition to diabetes.
Syndrome X and the diet that typically precipitates it – high consumption of refined carbohydrate foods and sugar – have also been shown to raise uric acid levels and trigger a gout attack.
Another contributing factor is that the protein intake of gout sufferers typically occurs in the absence of traditional fats. In other words, gout easily gains traction when a susceptible person consumes a diet high in protein but low in healthy fats and in the presence of a large amount of refined carbs and sugar.
Note that gout was rare to nonexistent even in ancestral cultures that ate large amounts of protein because the protein intake was properly balanced by a large amount of healthy fats and gelatin-rich bone broth with zero refined carbohydrates.
Nutrients and Foods Helpful for Preventing Gout
The best nutrient to assist with the prevention of uric acid buildup is none other than the fat-soluble superstar Vitamin A, which is of particular importance to healthy and optimal function of the kidney. In fact, gout can be seen as a yang kidney deficiency with the inability to excrete enough uric acid to prevent problems with gout.
Foods rich in natural Vitamin A include liver, cod liver oil, tuna, cream, and shellfish. Note that plant foods do not contain any Vitamin A (2). Instead, they contain carotenes which must be converted by the body into Vitamin A, and this process is inefficient at best and nonexistent at worst.
In addition to adequate intake of vitamin A, Dr. Cowan recommends a liberal intake of animal fats and the regular use of gelatinous stocks to be “the key to preventing uric acid buildup and further attacks of gout” (3).
Lemon Essential Oil for Easing Gout Symptoms
In some individuals, lemon essential oil helps to reduce and prevent painful gout symptoms. Externally, a few drops of lemon oil in contact with affected skin and in combination with peppermint or frankincense oil gently applied with a warm heating pad can bring relief.
In addition, a few drops of food grade lemon oil (or a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar) in drinking water can help prevent flare-ups as reported in some personal testimonials (4).
Supplements for Preventing and Resolving Uric Acid Buildup
Tart cherry juice is very helpful for preventing uric acid buildup. The recommendation from Dr. Cowan is 1 teaspoon twice a day. Be sure to get organic tart cherry juice (cherries are a highly sprayed crop) and choose a brand (like this one) without any added sugar! This daily regimen should be continued indefinitely if your medical history reveals a predisposition to gout.
Dr. Cowan also suggests 1 teaspoon per day of high vitamin cod liver oil (this brand and this brand are vetted for quality) to ensure sufficient vitamin A.
As mentioned above, this nutrient nourishes the kidneys and encourages normal kidney function to adequately excrete uric acid as it is naturally produced. Arginex from Standard Process can also prove helpful (1-2 tablets three times per day) as this supplement, like Vitamin A, helps to stimulate normalized excretory function.
If you are already in the midst of an attack, Dr. Cowan’s suggested remedy for anti-inflammatory relief instead of NSAIDS like ibuprofen is Boswellia complex (1-2 tablets three times per day).
Hopefully, this article will help you navigate through the confusing information about gout that predominates today even in a conventional doctor’s office. In particular, it is so important to be aware that the modern diet, not just one high in protein, is what tends to trigger episodes and that it is very possible to prevent the causes of gout naturally and resolve painful symptoms without drug intervention.
Cherry extract pill. The strongest you can get. It is an enzymatic therapy that works. I know personally. I take two a day faithfully and don’t have that awful pain in my toe. When I first started I was instructed to take 2 each meal for the first day and the pain would to gone. It worked! I’m not an expert but I think gout has something to do with our enzymes we lack as we get older. I don’t fit the typical profile at all. I was about 45, good diet, 5’3″ and 106lbs. Healthy but has family history of gout and arthritis. I’m active in life and sports with my beloved cherry pills. You can never drink enough juice, plus all that sugar is not good. I’m 58 now and on the move! Test it out and see????
Tumeric. Tumeric, Tumeric. Buy some tincture and put two dropperfuls in your water a couple times a day. This is the cure all for me and is also good for any issues caused by inflammation. This is a great article but it left out Tumeric.
In the past I have been to a doctor the gout was so bad and he said I did not have the gout because my uric acid levels were not high. Another doctor and I were talking about gout once and I told him about cherries curing gout. Well he just called me a lair. He said there was nothing in cherries that would cure gout. Okay!
I keep cherries around all the time for gout. If there is a emergency when I do not have any I run to the grocery store and get Marciano cherries and eat four. the gout is within tolerable levels over night. I take organic Tart Cherry Juice. I sleep better too, it has melatonin in it.
I love you articles, and always learn so much. But I find it frustrating that after you go through all the trouble to indicate and itemize your references, I can never access them. How might I do that?
Thank you.
I I take the herbal organic dietary supplement GC – 1 capsule x 3 a day when I have a flare-up, and 1 x a day for maintenance dose. This is a great help. I keep completely clear of calcium carbonate supplements, Unfortunately pasteurised dairy is full of this form of calcium, which we cannot absorb and causes calcification of heart and arteries. See Angioprim to reverse this build-up and stick to raw unpasteurised organic grass-fed dairy which contains Vit K and many other nutrients to aid absorption. Eat plenty of leafy green vegetables (brassicas) for optimum absorption of calcium.
my grandmother feels very uncomfortable because of the gout pain but she is suffering from the diabetes and the high blood pressure.
Can you suggest something for my grandmother specifically
I notice you link to doTerra lemon oil. Could you comment on their oil vs. other brands? Is there any difference between using this oil and one I buy at the health food store?
doTerra is a good quality essential oil that my massage therapist uses when I get an essential oil massage, so I know it is good from personal experience. However, there are many other good brands out there as well so you will have to evaluate based on price and how they work for you to obtain the results you are seeking.
Interesting and informative, I have mild gout symptoms and will see if I can get any of your products in Canada. Any ideas on brands there would be helpful…Thanks
Hi Steve, the suggested remedies such as from Standard Process linked to in the post I’m sure can be shipped to Canada. If not, your holistic practitioner can likely order them for you.
Very useful information, I recently found out that I have gout, and the medicine they gave me had all types of side effects, so I want to get better using a more natural approach. Thanks
While your article on gout seems informative, and the solutions may work for some people. Through my history with gout ,the only solution was to supplement with magnesium citrate. It seems that gout is an issue with the body’s ability to digest the daily meals at any given point. A deficiency in magnesium slows the metabolism and stops the body from producing enough digestive bile to thoroughly digest the food taken in, which creates the undigested food product called Uric Acid. Since I started supplementing with Magnesium citrate I have not once had gout return.
Interesting Robert. How long have you been taking magnesium citrate?
I’ve been using Magnesium Citrate for 2 years. I believe that the only cure for gout is to better metabolise food. If you are magnesium deficient you will not digest your food fully and will accumulate uric acid crystals. The American diet is loaded with calcium and if it is not balanced with magnesium it will create everything from gerd to calcification of the heart and hardening of the arteries. This imbalance also creates all forms of arthritis, as bone growth is malformed and weakened due to the lack of magnesium. Magnesium will be pulled from your bones to aid in digestion if it is lacking in the food you just ingested.Lack of magnesium will age your body and degrade your health a little at a time.
I started taking magnesium citrate a while back but don’t take it regularly. The problem is that people say that virtually everything is vital to your health. I should take Vitamin C but rarely do it. I take some raw ginger occasionally and it works. I take Curcumin for arthritis and it also works great. I even give it to my dog that has hip displaysia. Where does it end? I’d live on supplements if I followed all the advice. No room for food.
The problem is none of the food you eat today has sufficient vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy. Our farming practices have bled the soil dry, this is why you must supplement.