I have had my uric acid levels tested 3
times . All tests were within the normal
range. I developed a lump on the joint of
my left big toe, and had it surgically
removed. My podiatrist said it was gout
tophi. He then referred me to a
rheumatologist who tested my uric acid
levels and swears I don't have gout my
podiatrist thinks he is a quack. In the
past year I have had about 5 attacks,
getting worse all the time.
Just started the baking soda and am
monitoring my urine ph. If this works, is
this something I should do for the rest of
my life? I would rather do this than
spend a life time on drugs. Baking soda
seemed to lesson the severity of the
attack. On the baking soda box it says
not to do this for more than 2 weeks.
Please help I don't want to stop drinking
an occasional beer or stop eating red
meat.
|
JYY2
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 224
Posted: 03-29-05 13:23pm
Baking soda in water is not a treatment
for gout in mainstream medicine. I just
accidentally found it to be extremely
useful for my gout. I have not read
about how much or how long can a person
take it to treat gout. The following is
for your info:
* ask your doctor if it's ok to keep
taking it.
* read the side effects of baking soda
given in paragraph 3.7 of http://www.Icuredmygout.Org .
Stop taking it if the side effects show
up.
* a baking soda box says: "do not use the
maximum dose for more than 2 weeks." that
implies if you don't take the maximum dose
you can take it for longer than 2 weeks.
In my experience, the dose before going to
bed is the most effective one. The
second is the one after getting up in the
morning. If you want to cut baking soda
intake, cut the day time ones and keep the
night time and morning ones.
* the first time I used it, I took it for
2 weeks. Then I stopped it for weeks or
months. I now take it on and off when I
feel like it. I have no problem taking
baking soda in water in past 2.5 years.
* reduce the salt intake while taking
baking soda and monitor your blood
pressure.
* keep seeing your doctor.
|
Wormboy
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 1
Baking Soda And Gout Posted: 07-23-07 12:04pm
Hi there
I am a genetics professor with polycystic
kidney disease, and I do biomedical
research at a major university. In the
last few years I've had gout problems, and
it is getting progressively worse. My
diet has always been exemplary (low
sodium, low protein), since my father had
PKD and we always ate very healthily. My
weight is also optimal. However, I
haven't gotten enough input from my own
physicians on this--they put me on
allopurinol, but a low dose because the
byproducts can harm the kidneys. It was
only marginally helpful. And, as no
surprise to you gout sufferers, I drink
water like a fish (I estimate 140-160
oz/day).
When it got bad enough I started looking
for alternative approaches that would
still protect my kidneys, and I came
across the baking soda treatment. I found
the idea to be very appealing, because
from a chemistry and physiology point of
view, it makes a ton of sense that pushing
the blood to a more basic pH would
counteract uric acid crystal formation. I
have tried it a couple of times, and it
worked great for me.
But an obviously huge concern for a renal
patient (and people with
cardiac/circulatory disease or chronic
hypertension) is the massive dose of
sodium. A single Teaspoon of baking soda
provides 48% of the USRDA of sodium, so
the “recommended” Tsp every 4 hours
would lead to 2.5 times the USRDA daily
sodium (assuming a missed dose at night),
even if the patient is on an extremely low
sodium diet otherwise. Such a sodium
overdose is a bad idea for people with
renal disease, as perpetuating renal
function depends on keeping blood pressure
low; higher blood pressure can accelerate
the progress of renal disease. Given that
one of the most common sources of gout is
people with renal disease, it is critical
to prevent them from ingesting too much
sodium.
So I gave this much thought. I was
convinced that the buffering activity of
the bicarbonate was the critical factor.
Further, I suspect that in a large number
of gout patients, gouty arthritis is a
combination of slightly lowered blood pH,
elevated urate, decreased circulation and
perhaps architecture of extremity joints.
And perhaps certain medications can
exacerbate some of these traits. This
would explain why a horrendous diet can
cause gout (but not necessarily!), but
also explain why many (but not all!) renal
patients experience gout, and furthermore
why some non-renal patients with great
diets experience gout.
After doing extensive research on blood
buffering, I realized that baking soda is
very much a sub-optimal agent to use,
primarily because of the sodium (though
the cost can't be beat!) There are other
sources of bicarbonate; the simplest of
these are different bicarbonate salts:
potassium or magnesium bicarbonate should
buffer just as well, and not be subject to
anywhere near the risks of sodium
bicarbonate (though I should note that
high levels of any salt can be dangerous
for certain people, especially those with
complicating heart, circulation or kidney
disorders. So consult your doctors!).
Even calcium carbonate (i.e. Tums or other
stomach antacids) is a possibility, though
such a high percentage of the mass is
calcium that one might get into issues of
calcium over-dose without getting enough
carbonate. From a pharmacological point
of view, balancing the right amount of
carbonate with the minimum potential side
effects is the trick. Since no studies
have been done, the right combination is
still unknown, and one should proceed with
great caution, and under the supervision
of a qualified physician. But one
possibility is to decrease the amount of
sodium from baking soda by supplementing
with other sources of carbonate buffer.
To calculate the amount of any salt that
is bicarbonate, refer to the periodic
table or consult a physician.
I consulted a great friend of mine from
graduate school who is now a nephrologist
(he has an MD/PhD and is practicing
medicine). As you may know, there are few
who understand the flow of salts in the
body better than a nephrologist, since
kidney function is mostly an issue of salt
and fluid flow. He pointed out that there
are other, better bases than bicarbonate
to use. For example, salts of citrate
(sodium, potassium, or magnesium) should
buffer just as well. In fact, potassium
citrate is a mild base that is converted
to bicarbonate in the liver, as are other
salts of organic acids (for example,
potassium lactate or potassium succinate),
so essentially it is just another way of
ingesting bicarbonate. In principle, any
of these has the potential to counteract
gout just as well as baking soda, and as
long as non-sodium salts are used, the
issue of sodium toxicity is avoided. My
hunch is that a combination of salts is
best: for example, low levels of baking
soda supplemented by potassium or
magnesium salts of citrate, lactate or
succinate are the best bet. Personally, I
am going to conduct an experiment on
myself with potassium and magnesium
citrate (since, as a renal patient, I
should avoid sodium entirely). Obviously,
as with any recommended treatment, I will
consult my physicians first.
I should add one additional point. There
is not a single effective dose for all
gout sufferers, but instead people with
different severity of gout probably need
different doses. Consequently, I strongly
recommend to all sufferers, especially
those sticking with baking soda or other
sodium salts, that you bring your dose
down to the “as needed” level. In
other words, do what I am starting to do:
use only the level and frequency of
treatment required to deal with YOUR gout.
Ingesting a large amount of any salt is a
somewhat risky prospect, so to minimize
your risk, it follows that you should
limit your intake. By using far less
baking soda than JJY2 recommends, I have
greatly limited my gout. When I start
feeling a little stiffness in my left
ankle or right big toe (my typical gout
spots), then I take some baking soda, and
that seems to work fine for several days.
By my calculation, I am taking more than
15 times less baking soda than
recommended. But this is just my gout,
and yours may be different. As always,
CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN!!!
Furthermore, people should make sure to
drink plenty of water. I know gout
patients are used to this, but just
because your gout is “cured” does not
mean you are off the hook with regard to
water. High intake of any salt functions
as a diuretic, so you excrete a lot of
water. Consequently, you can get
dehydrated when pursuing a treatment like
this, and it behooves people to make sure
to get adequate fluid intake. And I
recommend continuing the anti-gout
lifestyle, including a low-purine diet and
avoiding diuretics like caffeine, to
minimize the amount of anti-gout agent you
take. Finally, if you have advanced
kidney disease, or other diseases
sensitive to levels of various salts,
please be very careful! Abnormal salt or
water intake can be extremely dangerous,
especially if you are on dialysis or
getting to that stage. One should
coordinate this treatment with your
physician and monitor key signs as
carefully as you would during treatment
with a potent prescription drug. Just
because things are sold without
prescription, or in a grocery store, does
not mean that they aren’t dangerous when
ingested at high levels!
|
JYY2
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 224
Posted: 07-24-07 20:01pm
Thanks for the very useful info.
The dosage for baking soda in my webpage
was obtained from Arm & Hammer and
other reputable websites. It is meant to
be the maximum dosage for otherwise
healthy people during bad gout attacks. As
said in my webpage, the users are
recommended to study the side effects of
BS and have their doctors' permissions
before trying.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a
good replacement for baking soda in
alkalizing the body fluids. As given
below, the capacity of the blood to hold
sodium (Na) is 30, 40, or more, times
greater than that of the other major
electrolytes: potassium (K), calcium (Ca)
and magnesium (Mg). That means we can't
change the pH much by taking safe amounts
of potassium, calcium and magnesium salts
of bicarbonate, citrate, gluconate ...
Overdose of potassium can cause serious
medical conditions including irregular
heartbeat; slow, weak, or absent of pulse.
I wouldn't experiment with potassium
intake regardless of the conditions of my
heart and kidneys. It's too dangerous and
the amount of pH it can raise is almost
zero.
Deficient kidneys can't excrete
electrolytes properly such that the
electrolytes will accumulate in the blood
to cause serious health problems. If I
had deficient kidneys, I wouldn't
experiment with Na, K, Ca, Mg intake
without being able to monitoring their
blood & urine levels very closely.
Take care.
|
RBoesche
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 3
Control My Gout Posted: 12-02-07 23:21pm
Please go to the Icuredmygout.org noted on
this page, for the best relief hundreds of
us have received. He is the "gout guru"
for home remedy relief and has great
advice and safe info to help you with a
great malady. I'm thankful for his site.
|
adarshseth
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 4
I succesfully used famotidine Posted: 02-05-08 01:26am
I have had gout for 17 years and tried
everything from NSAIDs (Indomethacin
helped), allopurinol (reduced uric acid
level, but attacks continued) and
Colchicine (fairly effective) recently. I
still would get about one gout attck a
month.
After reading this forum I decided to try
alkalizing my body.
To reduce acidity, instead of Sodium
bicarb (which I did not want to take
regularly, being a cardiac/ blood pressure
patient) I tried famotidine. Famotidine is
taken to reduce acid production in
stomach.
It worked. After years of painful
existance I am living comfortably
I have not had a gout attack for about 3
months now. Even the body/joint pains are
gone. I think reduction in acidity in the
gut somehow reduces body acidity and
crystalization of uric acid in joints.
|
mrbill123
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 07-09-08 10:58am
Folks: I have come back to the web to add
my 2 cents worth, but wishing there was
more I could do for the gentleman who put
up the icuredmygout site. It was one of
those too easy and too simple things that
didn't cost anything either, so I tried
it. I had been fighting recurring bouts
of gout and had been to the doc and gotten
the usual round of meds, but they were
almost as bad as the gout pain. And they
didnt CURE it, just treated it. So I read
the site, and took the half tsp several
times the first day, and then twice a day
for two additional days. I knew in 24
hours that something was up, as I felt the
circulation in my toes, and the joints
loosened up. I have now been pain and
symptom free over a month, and had come
back to read more and see if there was a
general agreement on a maintenance level
of BS. It is remarkable how this has
worked. I am on Allupinorol also, and my
last UA level was a 5.0, so that also is
good, but had been experiencing episodes
for months WHILE on the drug. So it is
certainly no panacea! The biggest problem
so far? telling people about this, and
watching the look on their faces -
(another poor old delusional old man who
thinks he cured himself) - that look. Sir
- the web site guy - I wd appreciate your
comments. And thanks.
|
mrbill123
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 07-09-08 10:59am
Folks: I have come back to the web to add
my 2 cents worth, but wishing there was
more I could do for the gentleman who put
up the icuredmygout site. It was one of
those too easy and too simple things that
didn't cost anything either, so I tried
it. I had been fighting recurring bouts
of gout and had been to the doc and gotten
the usual round of meds, but they were
almost as bad as the gout pain. And they
didnt CURE it, just treated it. So I read
the site, and took the half tsp several
times the first day, and then twice a day
for two additional days. I knew in 24
hours that something was up, as I felt the
circulation in my toes, and the joints
loosened up. I have now been pain and
symptom free over a month, and had come
back to read more and see if there was a
general agreement on a maintenance level
of BS. It is remarkable how this has
worked. I am on Allupinorol also, and my
last UA level was a 5.0, so that also is
good, but had been experiencing episodes
for months WHILE on the drug. So it is
certainly no panacea! The biggest problem
so far? telling people about this, and
watching the look on their faces -
(another poor old delusional old man who
thinks he cured himself) - that look. Sir
- the web site guy - I wd appreciate your
comments. And thanks.
|
JYY2
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 224
Posted: 07-15-08 10:05am
Hi mrbill,
Thanks for your post. I am very glad you
have successfully treated your gout with
baking soda.
I am glad you keep your blood uric acid
level at 5.0 mg/dL. As to the baking soda
dosage, I do not have additional info
other than what's said in my webpage. I
would watch out for its possible side
effects, such as high blood pressure and
edema, and use it carefully.
I've read most of the posts on this site.
I have also printed and studied all of the
information on JYY2's ICMG site and am
deeply appreciative of all of this
information and shared experience (even
including the recurring and continual
reminder on this board about sleep
apenea).
I was diagnosed five years ago, have an
active lifestyle, low BP, and a family
history (Grandfather had gout). Since
being diagnosed I beginning to notice an
increased frequency of attacks during a
year - I'm now up to about three or four a
year.
The BS method of alkalizing was new for me
and I just found this during my most
recent attack. Some questions:
1. What is the best brand of Urine pH
testing stuff to buy?
2. What is the preferred pH range to see
for daily pH urine tests?
3. I've seen contradictions on the acidity
vs. the alkaline measurements of different
foods. Is there a simple list somewhere?
4. Is there a recommended Gout
Sufferrer's Cookbook?
5. Finally, I usually exercise vigorously
and frequently (when not sufferring from
gout) and have heard that lactic acid from
the exercise can bring on an attack. Will
BS also reduce this type of non-food
acid?
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