If you are researching how to get rid of gout, you’ll find you have plenty of options. But which remedies for gout have the best track record? If you plan on simply going to a doctor to treat your gout, as long as you are compliant with your doctor’s orders, the track record can be considered fairly successful.
Allopurinol is probably the favored drug for prevention among doctors. It works, but it takes time. You can also count on having at least two to three very severe gout attacks before it starts working. In fact, most doctors will give you a drug such as indomethacin to help you get rid of the attack the doctor knows is coming. While allopurinol is ultimately effective, it can be quite unnerving until your body adjusts to the medication.
If you are looking for natural remedies to get rid of this disease, then I think it is fair to say that most people who use alternative methods use cherries for gout pain relief. Bing cherries have been tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to verify other studies to see if cherries do indeed work in helping gout attacks. They found four of the more common identifiers for swelling were reduced after the test subjects ate cherries. You should be able to get similar results by drinking cherry juice, especially after it has built up in your system.
Cherries also have vitamin C and potassium. A study in England showed that a 1000mg dosage of vitamin C taken daily by patients over a six to eight week period reduced uric acid by almost fifty percent. That is astounding! Uric acid is the biggest contributing factor in a gout attack.
An independent study showed potassium was able to take uric acid and put it in a form that kidneys could excrete more easily. Unless you are getting potassium from eating food, any supplementing of potassium should be done under the strict guidance of a physician. Too much or too little potassium can cause heart rhythm irregularities and even death. So check with your physician before taking potassium.
If it were up to me, I’d choose a natural remedy or a prescription medication, but regardless of which you choose, either allopurinol or cherries should help in time reduce your attacks and make the ones you are having less painful.
