Uric acid is a major issue for joints and bone pain.
And when it comes to it, I am what I would call an expert.
You may ask yourself why? Because I am a victim of uric acid and it is not fun at all.
So I thought I would give you a couple of hints, tips, and remedy recipes to reduce its effect on your body.
These have worked for me, so they should do with you.
I shall also share with you my journey towards no joints and bone pain.
This has been a long journey and I feel that you need to know most of the things I have had to go through.
What I will first discuss is what is uric acid.
Then, I shall describe where does such acid come from?
And then I shall discuss the different means to get rid of it.
The quick fix and the medium to long term ones.
I want to repeat myself, I am not a doctor, but someone like you who has gone through the learnings of being a victim of uric acid and work my way to control it and get rid of the pain.
To help you out, I shall give you two recipes to chose from so that you can reduce the effect of this bad acid and prevent joints and bones pain.
Again, these did work for me, so they should for most of you.
My love story with uric acid
I found out that I had uric acid about 10 years ago.
It was an accident really.
I went for a check-up at my usual doctor and he said: “I think you have put a little bit of weight since I last saw you”.
And there it was.
He asked me to do a blood test which I did the following day.
I got a new appointment and the doctor looked at the test results.
He looked at me and said, “not bad news I have to say, but not good news either”.
I did not know what to take from that so I waited until he developed his thinking.
He simply said that I had exceeded the limit of my uric acid and that there was a need for taking action right away.
He also said that I had contracted the “disease of kings”. This meant nothing to me at the time. I’ll tell you what it really means later in the post.
So he prescribed drugs and off I went.
That is the beginning of my long story. More to come below, but first, let’s see what’s uric acid.
Note that you can get your own uric acid test kit from the shop these days. The issue is to know what the numbers mean.
What is uric acid?
Without being too technical, uric acid is produced by your body. (1)
It is simply the waste that your body generates when it processes a number of substances from foods.
The substance that I would call ‘bad’ in this instance is a purine.
When your body processes purine, it does break it down into its constituents.
It is during this breaking-down process that uric acid is produced.
And your body wants to evacuate the substance.
That is why it transfer it to your bloodstream.
As such, uric acid ends up passing through your kidneys and ‘normally’ get filtered.
When the kidneys finish their filtration work, you should have almost no uric acid left in your bloodstream.
If it is the case, the uric acid finds its way out of your body through your urine.
Well, this is the theory. But it does not always work out like that in real life.
There are individuals (including me) that do not get rid of their uric acid.
It is somehow a malfunction of your body and you definitely need to be aware of this and how to deal with it.
What happens when your body cannot get rid of uric acid?
Individuals that cannot get rid of the acid starts accumulating it in their bloodstream and body.
At this time, and when the level starts exceeding the standard acceptable acid in the blood, you become a victim of Hyperuricemia. (2)
A big word for almost nothing really.
Hyperuricemia means that you have high levels of uric acid.
In other words, it means you have a high concentration of acid in your blood.
And this ends up in the inflammation of joints caused by excessive uric acid accumulation.
What are the symptoms of high uric acid?
This is where the fun parts start. And you really need to ask yourselves what causes high uric acid? I’ll answer that one below.
First, you may experience some swelling in your joints at your extremities like toes and hands.
The color of your toes can also change.
But as time goes by, you will experience worse conditions.
Your joints will become really painful.
And it gets even worse in the summer, where the heat adds to your discomfort.
Let us go back a step.
If your kidneys do not eliminate the uric acid as they should, then your excess uric acid will start to crystallize.
This means that uric acid will be transformed into crystals.
There are three main things that can happen when you have Hyperuricemia:
1- The crystallized uric acid will stay in your kidneys and you’ll build up kidney stones. These will hurt you at some point. Very painful.
2- The crystals will move in your body and settles at your joints. This will cause a form of arthritis. This is known as gout.
3- You’ll end up having both of the above.
Note that you may be one of the lucky people, where you have a high level of uric acid, but do not feel any symptoms or side effects.
That’s definitely not me. I am among the unlucky ones.
How to get rid of uric acid in the body?
There are two main methods to get rid of uric acid:
- The medical drug approach
- The natural approach
I have used both and below I will share with you my findings.
1- Get rid of uric acid with drugs
Using drugs is a perfectly appropriate method.
Here is the continued part of my personal story — When I first found out about my Hyperuricemia disorder, I was prescribed a number of drugs.
Here is the list:
First, you need to know that Delursan was prescribed to protect my liver and not my kidneys.
At the time, my doctor was worried that my liver would be hit by my symptoms, so he decided to protect it.
I can tell you that I was shocked. With time, I understood that I had what the doctor called a fatty liver and that is why he wanted to protect my liver from getting worse.
So he was right in prescribing this drug to help me out. Click here for more information about fatty liver and what to do if you have it.
Now onto the colchicine – I had my hands and toes all inflated (like the doctor said).
They were painful too (arthritis due to the presence of crystals).
Like my doctor said – “I have to give you an emergency treatment”.
So he gave me some colchicine.
This is a drug that is only used in severe acid uric problems.
If the doctor prescribes it for you, then you know you are up there with the condition.
However, colchicine can only be used for a limited amount of time.
This is where allopurinol comes into it.
Allopurinol is more in the long run.
You need to drink it every day.
And depending on the severity of your condition, the doctor will increase and/or decrease the dose.
In my case, I was given 300mg per day.
This is quite high I have to say. But my condition needed it.
What happened next?
Well, I did not see my doctor for three months.
At the end of this period, I did a blood test and got to speak with my doctor.
We noticed a real improvement in my condition and the symptoms were under control.
No issue with my hands and toes anymore.
I was happy. The doctor asked for more tests on my liver to see if I had been affected by the fatty liver and uric acid.
It took two months to get an appointment and get the tests done.
The results were not flattering.
The doctor said I had to find a way to stop drinking.
I said this is funny as I have had no drink for over 10 years – Another story, but I had a friend who died because someone ran him over when drunk. That day I promised myself I would never drink again.
Anyway, the doctor said that my condition was a no brainer.
He said, “You have to change lifestyle from fat dietary to a nonfat one.”
And this is when I decided to move on and get rid of my fatty liver and work towards reducing the use of drugs for my gout condition.
Below, I’ll tell you all about the different things that I have done to reduce the amount of drug and fatty liver at the same time.
By the way, the above medicine worked for me, so it should hopefully work for you.
How can you lower uric acid without taking any drugs?
This is a really good question and I have some of the answers.
However, you need to understand one thing.
Though the below worked for me, it may well not work for you.
Remember, we are all different. So if one method does not work, try another one.
1- Better diet
What you will hear from people is that you need to stop fatty meals, especially the ones that contain meat and their derivatives.
Well, they are right.
Any ingredient that has a high amount of purine must be removed from your diet.
Why? Because these ingredients convert really well into uric acid.
As such a better diet will reduce your gout syndrome.
2- What meat shall I avoid?
This is what I did and you may want to do it too.
- I removed any type of meat
- Red meat
- Any organ meat, such as liver, kidney, heart.
- I removed game meat
- No pheasant
- And no venison
- Finally, no rabbit meat either.
And I can tell you that I did like to eat some meat.
Not too much, but once a week.
This was not too hard, as my preferred food intake was fish anyway.
3- What fish shall I avoid eating to reduce uric acid
This was the hardest part for me.
As I said, I am not a heavy meat eater, but I love to fish.
So I can tell you it was hard.
- I removed seafood:
- I love seafood but had to remove crabs.
- Mussels were off the menu too.
- And then shrimps.
- Any other type of shellfish disappeared entirely from my table. I wanted to cry.
- Small fish
- Well, I had to forget about anchovies. I used to love anchovies on pizzas. No more pizzas and anchovies.
- No more herring.
- And barbecued sardines are a no-no.
- I am a big fan of mackerel, but yet again it is forbidden.
- No sprats.
- And forget about whitebait trout.
- Any fish roe is gone.
- And finally my favorite – No more caviar (well I do not eat caviar as it is too cheap ;), so this one was easy).
To cut a long story short, most of the meat and fish that I ate and loved were taken away by acid uric.
4- Avoid these vegetables, fruits, and legumes
As if avoiding meat, fish and shellfish were not painful enough.
I had to remove vegetables and fruits that are naturally high in purines.
So, back to the drawing board really. Here are the foods that I removed from my diet:
- Beans of all types
- Mushrooms – Any type
- Peas – I love peas
- Bananas – I used to eat bananas to avoid cramps
- Lentils – In winter lentil soup is a thing of the past
- Kiwi fruit – I used to go with my mom to collect these at a neighbor plantation
- Avocado
- Cauliflower
- Pineapple
I did underline Pineapple because there is a little bit of controversy around this fruit.
Some experts say that eating pineapple increases uric acid in the bloodstream. And others say the perfect opposite.
My choice was simple. As there is a doubt, it is better to stay away from the fruit.
At the end of the day, I do not eat pineapple every day. So this one is easy.
5- Avoid drinking alcohol
Many people would say that you need to cut back on alcohol and would add you need to completely avoid beer.
Well, I’d say that you should cut alcohol altogether.
I know it is your choice, but beer is known to dramatically increase uric acid.
So, best to cut it out once and for all.
Other types of alcoholic beverages are also dangerous.
And though you will be advised not too, I repeat myself, just cut it from your meal menu.
It is easier to say this is forbidden than to say, I can have one here and there.
6- Completely cut eating saturated and processed fat
This is definitely a no-no.
French Saucisson is a no-no.
MacDonald burger and any other type of burgers, fries are not to be eaten.
Simply put, if you eat saturated fat, then you’ll inhibit your kidneys to process uric acid.
Do you want your kidneys to dysfunction? If not, then avoid this processed food at all costs.
I did this, and it worked wonders for me.
7- Do not touch any high-fructose corn syrup ever again
I removed anything that contains fructose. This must be avoided at all costs.
It strongly promotes the production of uric acid.
As such you need to be highly vigilant as we use these types of syrup everywhere.
Beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup are to be avoided.
You’ll find that may desserts will contain this ingredient too.
Fructose is hidden everywhere and you better read all of the labels to be sure.
This one was hard as I had to read all sorts of labels.
But through the time I developed the habit of reading these and now I am really good at identifying what is good for me and what is really bad.
I even receive phone calls from relatives asking for advice.
That’s how good or how nerdy I am on this food matter.
I have one life and it better be a good one with healthy food.
Why Uric Acid is the “disease of kings”
Now that you know about what you cannot eat, I shall tell you why gout is called the “disease of kings”.
In ancient times, only people who ate meat had gout.
As such, only powerful people could have this condition as the poor did not have enough food to eat.
Having very little to eat and work hard during the day was common to most people – The poor.
Therefore, hard workmanship meant that you were not likely to have uric acid.
If you did work hard, you do not put on weight, then your body evacuates all the toxins including uric acid.
On the other hand, kings did not do much apart from partying and eating.
And they were the first to eat very rich and high fatty food.
Therefore, they contracted uric acid conditions.
This is why nowadays doctors and people refer to it as the disease of kings.
In the past, I would have loved to have something that belongs to a king.
However, sharing a disease or condition with a king is definitely not on my list of things to share 🙂
What action can you take to reduce uric acid without drugs?
Apart from avoiding a certain type of food, you can act on many other things to improve your conditions.
In the below, I provide you with a number of things that I did and worked for me.
1- Drink lots of water
It is clear that if you increase your fluid intake, you will urinate more often.
It certainly did for me. I used to urinate about 3 times a day.
Since I increased my water intake, I started to urinate 5 to 6 times a day. That’s a substantial improvement.
As you drink more water, your kidneys will process more liquids during the day and evacuate a lot of the excess acid.
So, if you want to flush some of the acids from your body, you can use this simple trick and you should reduce the number of crystals in your joints.
This will lead to a reduction in pain too.
It would be good if you can drink a lot more such as 8 to 16 8-ounce glasses on a daily basis.
If I do it, you can do it.
Here is another trick for you. You can always drink herb tea to give you some more taste.
2- Reduce your weight
You definitely need to watch out for being overweight.
Gout is associated with overweight.
When you have this condition, your kidneys will not able to process all of the uric acids.
As such, you build a big stock of uric acid and your body starts aching at your joints.
I had this condition, and I changed the way I ate.
No more fatty food was my motto at the time.
You ask anyone in my family and they’ll tell you I am crazy about fatty food, meaning I do not eat it and do not like anyone to eat it either.
So try to eat more nuts (different types) and fibers to help you get away from the bad food cycle and lose weight.
3- Reduce your stress level
I was working in a very stressful environment in the past and my stress levels were skyrocketing.
I did not know that this could affect the production of acid.
When I learned this, I decided to move on from my job and did something completely different.
This resulted in my blood pressure to lower, and I believe that it did improve my levels of acid.
I do not have a proof for this one, but more of a gut feeling.
Anyway, this cannot harm you really.
I also added sport and meditation to help me out.
Again, I do not know if any of these two things helped me with my condition, but I can tell you that they did improve my mental health.
In addition to these, I started to enjoy long bathing and sleep 7 to 8 hours a night.
In essence, I was feeling better, happier and more energetic than ever.
And I was less of a nightmare at home and when out gathering with friends and family.
4- Aim to treat the underlying causes
This is what it comes down to.
You can absorb as many medicines as you want, reduce weight, avoid eating a certain type of food, etc. but you still may not know the real problem with your body.
This is the most important factor.
Understanding where the problem originates could provide you with a better means to deal with it.
In my case, this is what I have done.
As my condition is related to not being able to urinate uric acid out of my body, I decided to go and visit a urologist and a specialist in kidneys.
I told them about my condition and wanted their expert advice if any of my organs could be dysfunctional to the state that I would need other medical or natural support.
To my happy ending story, I was told that all of my organs worked properly.
A friend of mine learned about my condition.
He went and did a blood test and he had an even more severe condition than mine.
Here decided to do something completely different to me.
He went to see an Iridologist (5)
I did not know before then that this type of medicine existed on this planet.
An iridologist follows an alternative medicine technique.
The aim is to use your iris to define your condition.
What these practitioners do is to look in your eyes and tell you your conditions.
Funny enough, the iridologist told my friend that he had kidney blockage (without my friend telling him his condition).
This is a little spooky – isn’t it?
Someone looks at your eye and tell you what is wrong in your insides.
Funny, enough the iridologist gave him some herbal prescription and told my friend to stop eating fatty food.
That’s all.
My friend ate plenty of parsley and other herbs for several weeks (6 months) and then did a blood test.
Well, he had no more uric acid issues.
So sometimes alternative medicines could provide a good answer to your problem.
I have to say that many will tell you that alternative solutions are nonsense.
Well if you read up to this point, then you may have formulated a different opinion.
You need to try it first and then make your own judgment.
Don’t let others take this from you.
Other reasons for contracting uric acids
Now you may be saying; I eat a lot of fatty type of food, drink a lot of fizzy stuff, etc. That’s why I have uric acid.
Well, you may be wrong. It could be that you have one of the below conditions:
- You may have an enzyme defect. This defect can make it extremely hard for your body to break down purines. Hence, a high acid level in your body.
- You could have gout because you are too exposed to lead in the environment. That is a fact and difficult to diagnose.
- Unfortunately, if you have had an organ transplant, then you have higher chances to have this condition
Get rid of uric acid with homemade remedies
There are many different remedies for you to try. Note that if one remedy does not work for you, then try another one.
You can always mix them too.
You also need to know that the below remedies did work wonders for me.
So I hope they will do so for you too.
Also, note that some of the below remedies take a long time before they start affecting your body positively.
If you are in for a quick solution, I am afraid the below may not suit you.
1- Citric acid to fight the acid uric condition
Citric acid is the remedy that has worked really well with me.
It has allowed lowering my Uric acid levels very effectively. (6)
It has also worked for many of my friends who have this condition.
You’d be amazed how many of your friends have this condition and they do not know.
It is a very sensitive subject.
And one that is hard to discuss. No one wants to find out that they have a condition.
But if you have a very strong friendship, it is your duty to tell your friend to do a blood test to find out.
At the end of the day, you have done all of the hard work.
So, they just need to learn from you.
What you need to know is that this remedy works best if you take some lime juice mix with warm water.
At that work extremely well if you drink it in the morning before breakfast.
It should be a daily thing for it to work and it may take about 3 months before your uric acid starts to decline substantially.
As I said, it is not a quick fix, but it took you years to build this acid, it will take some time for you to get rid of it.
2- Absorb celery extract
There are other alternative methods that you may want to try. (7)
These are very healthy and natural.
Try to absorb some celery seed extracts. This should lower your levels of uric acid.
Scientists have investigated this and they have had great results in reducing gout levels.
3- Turmeric and moringa
I have written about turmeric benefits here – Turmeric benefits – Here Are The Best 7 Ways To Use It
And about moringa benefits here – Moringa Powder – All you need to know about this magical powder
But I would like to further strengthen the fact that using both of these ingredients in your diet will reduce the acid levels in your bloodstream. (8, 9)
4- Blumea balsamifera to combat uric acid
Blumea balsamifera is one of the best anti-acid natural remedies.
It did work a treat with me.
I used them in capsule and tablet form.
Just buy them and absorb some water. That’s all. (10)
5- Apple cider remedy
I am not a big fan of this one though it did work well.
First, I fear that I am trying to get rid of uric acid with another acidic product.
Weird no?
Well, apple cider vinegar is really good as its acid manages to dissolve crystals of uric acid.
So the pain in your joints will disappear. (11)
6- How to optimize allopurinol with a natural intake?
Researchers have demonstrated that if you eat cherries on a daily basis in conjunction with allopurinol, then your acid levels will drop dramatically.
However, they added that the risk for a major acid recurrent attack is lowered 7 times out of 10. This is a great improvement.
Read on the benefits of cherries here – 25 amazing beauty and health benefits of cherries. I describe the research results in this post.
Additionally, consumption of cherries can be beneficial and there is some evidence to suggest that the risk of developing gout is reduced in people eating a diet rich in dairy products. (12, 13)
7- Vegetable broths to fight uric acid
You can make soups/broths with some nice and delicious purine-poor vegetables.
An example of such vegetables are celery (remember the previous point about celery seeds?), some onion, a bit of leek, why not adding parsnip and/or turnip).
Such soups will definitely increase urine amounts.
As such they will increase the excretion of uric acid.
In addition to the above, the different vegetables are good for your bowels.
So you should have a cleaner inside at the end of each meal. (14)
Note that it was demonstrated the tomatoes can trigger a gout attack, but that this attack does not last long. (15)
8- Probiotic yogurt for uric acid
Probiotic yogurts are also really good for your condition.
I eat a lot of these and they promote a healthy microbiota in your body.
They are now widely available in supermarkets and as such you should not avoid these. (16, 17)
Conclusion
Uric acid is a common condition that many of us have.
And that many of us do not know they have.
If you have it, and you have friends around you, speak to them.
They may have the condition and it is in their interest that they are checked.
In this article, I have given you my personal story with gout condition.
I told you that this is the disease of the king and there are are some drugs and natural ways to deal with it.
Lime juice with warm water did work best for me. I drink it in the morning and I am done with it.
I have also given you a number of recipes (more remedies really) to alleviate the effect of acid on your body.
Note that some of these will work for you and may not work for your friend.
You have to develop an inquisitive mind were you try things. It may not work. then move on to the next thing till you find the one that works for you.
You can try turmeric, moringa, celery seeds extracts, cherries, etc. So many potential remedies that you can experiment.
I know this may not be what you like to hear and learn, but your body is different than mine and others.
It is only by trial and error that you will find what your body likes.
And remember, doctors try things first and if they do not work, then they investigate more and try another strategy.
This is the exact same method you are going to do. The difference is that you may use a combination of drugs prescribed by your doctor such as allopurinol, but add to it some natural remedies.
Note that cherries are really good and work in conjunction with allopurinol. It acts as a catalyst. So here you have the best of both worlds.
The medical world and the natural health world.
Back to you
I hope you’ll start applying all of the above remedies and that you understand better what is gout, the disease of the king, uric acid, crystals and all of the other terminology.
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See you soon in another Omigy post.