Do you have gout? I don't, thank God, but a lot of my patients do and when it hits, it's hard to think of something more painful.
My wife's grandfather always pronounced it as if it was spelled G-R-O-U-C-H and as a little girl she thought it must be called "The Grouch," because it made grandpa so grouchy.
Gout happens when uric acid in your blood gets too high and forms crystals in your joints. This usually happens because you have a hereditary predisposition for it and something in your diet has triggered it.
These crystals have little sharp edges, and the reason gout hurts so bad is that those sharp little crystals jab and poke and slice into your sore joint every time you move until your body is able to flush them out.
The most common drug prescribed for gout is Colchicine, and believe me, if I was having a gout attack, I would want that drug. However, Colchicine has some pretty nasty side effects and whereas it’s only used to be prescribed for acute gout attacks, I am seeing patients more and more who have it prescribed for them to take every day as a preventative.
This concerns me, as the risk of side effects increases the more you take a drug. Perhaps there is a better preventative.
You may have heard that cherries or cherry juice helps gout. One study showed that eating just six cherries per day prevented future gout attacks.
Black Cherries are in all the supermarkets right now, and they are cheaper than now more than ever.
So go buy as many as you can fit in your freezer and eat six per day through the rest of the year. If you don't have room to freeze that many, try canning them or juicing them and freeze the juice. Have a small glass of cherry juice mixed with water per day and see if you have less gout attacks the next year.
Dr. Vincent Mendes is the owner and clinic director of Marion Chiropractic Center.
He can be reached at 423-4263. http://www.marionchiropracticcenter.com/ or www.twitter.com/drvincentmendes.
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