Subject: Re: gout

From: [email-masked] (Don Scott)
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 03:21:15 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:

>Hi,
>My parents are currently living on the atoll of Tarawa, in Kiribati. 
>It's very isolated.  My father, on New Year's Eve, had an attack of gout. 
>He had some medication with him from a previous attack of gout and began
>taking that.  He's since been getting very bad side effects from that
>medication, and, following the advice on the leaflet with the medication,
>stopped taking it. This meant, however, that he is in great pain from the
>gout, which has become worse again.  
>Because of where they are, there is no chance of them getting any different
>type of medication before at least 2 weeks., as it has to be flown in from
>New Zealand from his doctor here.  
>We were wondering if anyone knew of any homeopathic or herbal remedies that
>could help him, either to alleviate the symptoms or the attacks of gout in
>the first place.  He is also on civicor retard as a result of heart problems.
>Please let me know if you can help, and also if there is a more appropriate
>newsgroup I should be posting to.
>Thank you,
>Sharyn Marshall
>[email-masked]

Sharyn:  I would think sci.med would be a mor appropriate group, but judge by 
your answers.      

Symptom alleviation is important because of the damage it does, not only the 
pain.  Colchicine is an old fashioned --effective--  widely available natural 
drug to alleviate the attack.  I found it to work within 14 hours.  Dosage 
starts low, and is increased to the point of nausea to get the effect.  

I presume you know he should avoid meat gravies, yeast-containg or 
yeast-producd products (ie: beer) --I hope New Zealanders are not as fond of 
their beer as Australians are-- and other nucleic acid-rich products such as 
Vegamite.

Gout attacks are ddependent on elevated blood uric acid levels, but they 
usually occur where there has been some joint injury.  They can also be 
precipitated by an emotional or stress factor.  One of my worst was when my 
dog was killed in an accident.  So try to keep him calm and comfortable.

Once the acute attack is over, there are some products that should be used to 
prevent recurrences.  I take allopurinol, now, and haven't had an attack in 15 
years.

Hope this helps.

- - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 [email-masked] (Don Scott, P.O. Box 611, Elk Grove IL 60009-0611)
     "Maybe you have big problems, but remember, if you don't
      have big problems, the little ones look like big ones."
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