The main cause of gout is eating and drinking habits. An unbalanced diet and excessive intake of some foods and insufficient intake of others can lead to this disease. However, another condition that affects your metabolism may also trigger you to have gout, or you may have inherited this disease genetically. Florence Nightingale Hospitals Internal Medicine specialists answered all questions about the causes, symptoms and treatment of gout, which is more common in men.
What is Gout Disease?
Gout is a metabolic disease that occurs as a result of the accumulation and inability of uric acid to be eliminated from our body. When too much protein is taken, uric acid can build up in our body. A healthy metabolism removes uric acids from the body, but gout occurs when the body cannot remove them and uric acid increases in the blood.
Normally, uric acid needs to be dissolved in the blood and excreted from our body through the kidneys. However, some problems in our metabolism prevent the removal of uric acid from the body. The problem may not only be related to excessive protein intake, so the disruption in metabolism should be carefully examined and appropriate tests should be performed.
What are the Symptoms of Gout Disease?
If you usually wake up in the morning or in the middle of the night due to joint pain and swelling of the joints, you may have had gout. Since the most important symptom is joint pain, the disease can be confused with rheumatic diseases. However, gout is generally linked to a problem with your metabolism and is therefore considered a metabolic disease.
If a problem with the excretory system and kidneys has caused gout, symptoms such as abdominal pain, low back pain, stones or blood in the urine may also occur.
How to Diagnose Gout?
In addition to the physical examination, the patient's detailed history should be listened to. The most important data is high levels of uric acid in the blood. However, the definitive diagnosis is still possible by examining the joint fluid. Joint fluid is aspirated with a syringe. The diagnosis of gout is confirmed by examining the uric acid crystals under the microscope. lyre
How to Treat Gout?
If you think you have gout symptoms and you don't take action against it, serious damage may occur to your joints. For this reason, you should definitely see a doctor and you should not use any medication other than what the doctor recommends during your treatment. Even if you take medicine for swelling and pain in the joints, they are not for treatment.
The treatment is arranged according to the course of the disease in your body and according to your painful or painless periods. If you are in a painful period, your doctor will recommend "anti-inflammatory" drugs. You should also rest during these periods. If there is a problem with the kidneys, a treatment can also be applied to prevent the formation of kidney stones.
How should patients with gout be fed?
Grain foods, all vegetables except limited ones, almost all fruits, white bread, rice and cereals can be consumed. However, care should be taken while consuming them and overeating should be avoided. Foods such as cherries, strawberries, blueberries and vegetables containing plenty of water such as zucchini and cucumber help to maintain the uric acid balance in the blood.
People with gout should consume olive oil or hazelnut oil. Eating celery has also been observed to reduce the symptoms of gout. In addition to all these, the important thing is not to take large amounts of good foods, but to consume them carefully and regularly. Before gout affects your metabolism more, you should try to eat healthy, organize your meals and stay away from snacks.
You should pay attention to the consumption of water in addition to what you eat and do not neglect to drink water.
Although protein is the basic building block of our body, excessive consumption of it, as in everything else, can harm our body. Gout patients should reduce their red meat consumption. He should not consume more than two palm-sized meats in a day and should also avoid very fatty meats. Spleen, tripe, heart, sausage, bacon, salami, sausage, duck, anchovy, sardines, shellfish, goose and small fish are also not recommended for gout patients.
Eat low-fat lamb, beef, turkey, chicken or fish, not exceeding the daily recommended amount. knows. When meat is eaten, it is necessary to take foods such as milk or yogurt with it. Because they help balance uric acid.
Gout patients should also pay attention to the consumption of legumes and should not take foods such as lentils, dried beans, chickpeas other than six or seven spoons in one meal. In addition, vegetables such as spinach and cauliflower should not be consumed more than eight tablespoons, and peas, mushrooms and asparagus should not consume more than two tablespoons. There is no limitation for other vegetables.
Yeast foods and nuts are also dangerous for gout patients. Mint, salt, parsley, vinegar and fruit can be eaten as desired. Unless there is a special condition, a person with gout should avoid brown foods. Brown bread and other brown foods can be consumed only when a dietitian recommends it for gout patients who need to lose weight.
Carbonated foods, meat derivatives and full-fat foods are also among the foods that are definitely not recommended for gout. Gout patients should not eat full-fat yogurt, milk and carbonated foods.
If you have gout, you should definitely not eat fried eggs, but instead choose boiled or soft-boiled eggs. As with many other diseases, during gout, you should remove unhealthy fats such as margarine, solid fats and tallow from your life. Nutrition is the most important thing for gout. You should try to make this diet continuous to protect both your kidneys and your metabolism in general.
Gout patients should definitely stay away from alcohol.
He/she should pay attention to drug use and should not take aspirin. He should eat small and frequent meals. Light walks and light sports should not be missing from his daily life.
For the treatment of gout, the diet recommended by the doctor should be strictly adhered to. The gout diet is very important to reduce the discomfort in the patient and not cause much damage.
What is Good for Gout?
A healthy lifestyle, doing sports, avoiding stress, heavy meals at dinner, improves the quality of life of a person with gout and reduces the course of the disease in the long run. affects and hinders its progress. Besides, sick It is essential to reduce protein intake, which is the most basic cause of the disease, and especially to limit red meat.
Getting rid of excess weight and maintaining your ideal weight protects you from gout as well as from many other diseases. In general, adopting a healthy life and making it a part of your life should be an ideal that you should never give up. You must be treated. When you feel the symptoms of the disease, you should consult a specialist doctor without delay.
You should be examined in detail so that it is not confused with other diseases and does not cause serious damage. Inflammation and joint damage that may occur during illness can harm your body. At this point, putting ice on the inflamed area can reduce the pain, but it will not affect the treatment of the disease. Treatment is possible by providing the right diet along with the medications recommended by the doctor.
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