Goutproof: impervious or resistant to; protecting against gout.
Goutproof.com is here to help you discover ways to reduce uric acid levels and control gout symptoms. A genuine site to help you discover ways to defend and win against gout.
It’s great that you landed here, even though it may not be for a great reason. The most common reason is to find out how to never again experience that excruciating, miserable and debilitating pain only gout brings.
You might be a rookie, new to the gout game and unknowingly woke up in severe pain from a flare up. For you, there’s a lot of fundamental information here on nutrition and physiology that can help you better understand how to approach this disease.
Maybe you’ve been in the game for some time- routinely taking the meds, and trying to eat better, but still unable to defend against gout. There’s plenty of unique and specialized topics here where a small tweak can make a huge improvement in your current regimen.
Whatever your reason or circumstance, my friend, I totally understand and relate. This site is meant to help anyone overcome the confusion, stress and the pain associated with gout.
Hey! I’m Patrick John, but my friends call me PJ.
Here at Goutproof, I am going to arm you with essential health facts, dietary truths and personal insights so you can stop gout from disrupting your busy life. In the process of doing so, your overall health just might improve as well!
I’ve had chronic gout for almost two decades. Unfortunately, it “runs” in the family. Fortunately, I have a lot of family in the medical and health fields that offer valuable counsel. However, in the early years, I did not heed their advice or anyone else’s. I was stubborn, very stubborn.
In the years prior to my diagnosis, two of my doctors considered my flare ups as sprains or tendonitis in my toes, feet or ankles. They thought I was too young. Plus, I was super active and not overweight. For each incident, they just prescribed some wonderful painkillers and I simply “toughed it out”. Gout came back.
The “Oh, Sh-t” moment that made me realize my condition could seriously affect my life was when I woke up one Sunday in tremendous pain. My right knee had swelled up to twice its normal size. (I plan to share the now hilarious details of this four day ordeal from St. Patrick’s Day in a future post!)
Out of the good painkillers, I was stuck at home for three straight days. I could barely sleep or stand because of the relentless pain. Regretfully, I had to miss three important days of work.
On the fourth day, I was able to hobble to my new doctor. He tested for uric acid. The result was an insanely high level at 10.2 mg/dL. The normal range is about 3.4-7.0 mg/dL for men. He could not believe my previous doctor never checked for gout. As a result, I was prescribed two medications; one for lowering uric acid production and the other for reducing inflammation. My life with gout officially started.
Did I learn my lesson then? Nope. Did I change my eating or drinking habits? Nope. I love eating good food and drinking good beer too much! For the next several years I became overly dependent on my meds to save me from recurring gout attacks. I was taking way too many pills, too often. My diet still was terrible and my gout always struck back.
So, do I need to write more to prove I’m a true gout sufferer and not a paid writer? I’m not new to the game of gout. Like I said, I plan to share valuable insights, lessons learned, as well as ridiculously true stories dealing with this so called disease of kings, gouty arthritis.
There’s A Better Way
Only in recent years have I chose to discover new foods and ways to cause a massive shift in my pursuit to become impervious to gout. I have managed to keep my uric acid level to under 5.0 mg/dL in the past few years. As a result, no crippling attacks in almost three years! (Streak ended after 4.5 years. click for my post that tells you why)
I’ll do the best I can to present and clarify scientific information for you on this site. If some posts get a bit techy or rigid, that’s from my mechanical engineering and regulatory compliance background. I’ll improve on simplifying explanations, but one thing I’m trained to do is to include proof or justification to every point. So you can expect details to the why’s and how’s.
Still here? Great. Then please allow me to share three simple tips that can help you start turning things around:
- Start a food journal – Do it daily. Record everything you ate and drank. After a few weeks, you will be able to pinpoint the food and drinks that triggers your gout.
- Drink more water, less alcohol and soda – The water part is easy. Less beer and soda is the challenge. I know! Beer and some sodas are gout triggers.
- Be open to healthy choices – We get so caught up in our busy lives, we routinely and blindly eat terrible food out of convenience. It doesn’t have to be salad every day, but it doesn’t have to be fast food either.
It is an ongoing battle against gout. This site is for all fellow gout sufferers to become and remain GOUTPROOF!!
