Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: San Francisco, CA USA
Uric acid crystals and gout Posted: 12-29-07 19:04pm
Crystals format and dissolve in a person
with gout.
Excess uric acid crystalizes and it is our
immune system that causes pain as it tries
to isolate these crystals by covering them
up with some coating. Once the crystals
are coated they become "invisible" to the
immune system and the pain stops. So far
this explanation is just like at
icuredmygout.org.
When the uric acid drops below some level,
the body uncovers the crystals and starts
to dissolve them to bring up the level of
uric acid. This is where it gets
interesting at goutpal.com: Apparently
this ALSO causes pain because once again
the immune system "sees" and attacks the
crystals before they dissolve. This pain
should go away if (1) all the crystals
dissolve or (2) if the immune system coats
the remaining crystals before they had a
chance to dissolve, or (3) the level of
uric acid goes back up above that
threshold level and no more crystals need
to dissolve and the immune system coats
the remaining crystals. (If the uric acid
goes above another threshold level, then
that would lead to a new crystal deposits
and new pain. So, as long as the uric
acid fluctuates between these upper and
lower threshold levels, you should not get
gout attacks.)
I find this interesting because it could
explain what has been happening to me. I
got my first gout attack about 3 weeks ago
by now. After a very painful period of
about 5 days (treatment consisted of
cortisone injection, colchicine, etc.) the
pain subsided. I then started the baking
soda treatment, following the procedure at
icuredmygout.org. After a couple of days
the pain returned and I couldn't figure
out why because I drastically changed my
diet and I didn't think the baking soda
could make it worse. Now I think that it
is possible that because of the baking
soda I had a significant drop of uric
acid, which led to an uncovering and
dissolution of crystals, which led to the
pain.
Have other people who started doing the
baking soda treatment and who have stated
that it helped them have also had these
secondary periods of pain?
Stan
|
Gwalch
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 8 Location: Seattle
Re: Uric acid crystals and gout Posted: 01-23-08 00:33am
stanl
wrote:
Have other people who
started doing the baking soda treatment
and who have stated that it helped them
have also had these secondary periods of
pain?
Stan
Yes. But not a full-on attack, just a
mild, localized soreness. I've been using
1 tsp of baking soda daily as a supplement
for the past couple weeks, and drinking
little alcohol plus eating less meat. I
have had some pain in exactly the first
place I ever had twinges of gout (outside
of foot), but not in places where I had
recent attacks (big toes). What this says
to me is that the locations that have been
affected the longest are possibly opening
up due to more effective removal of uric
acid. One day I drank a lot of beer and
when I woke up the soreness was completely
gone. Then after a few days of baking soda
and little alcohol (1-2 drinks per day) it
came back.
I interpret this as my body slowly
removing some of the excess UA, and
exposing buried crystals, causing mild
soreness. I'd suggest soaking the feet in
hot water (not too hot) every day to speed
up the process of cleaning the tissue. The
feet are usually significantly cooler than
the rest of the body, so warming them up
for an extra 30 min. per day could have a
significant effect. It feels nice too, and
soothes stiff muscles and ligaments.
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