Gout is one of the most painful and debilitating ailments that has plagued man for centuries. However, like everything else, many people have tremendous success in eliminating it with proper nutrition. To help others understand how, in this article I would like to share the insights of a doctor that has had lots of success treating gout.
Dr. Thomas Cowan is one of my favorite doctors, and a board member at the Weston A. Price Foundation. I include an excerpt from his writings, as well as a link to his full article below. However, I am summarizing it here with product links to make it easier for people to review, and adding in some of my own research:
To supercharge your diet with some specific things to combat gout, add these on a daily basis:
- FCLO – Fermented Cod Liver Oil (1 teaspoon per day)
- Cherry juice (1 teaspoon twice a day)
- Bone Broth (homemade bone broth, meat broth, bone tea)
- Animal fats (butter, lard, tallow, fatty meats, bacon, etc.)
- Personally, I also recommend kefir, which I explain more below.
- A shortcut to jumpstart or compensate all the above (Detox/Superfood combo).
AVOID alcohol, sugar and flour (and processed foods that contain them or other refined carbs). This is important because there is a very high correlation between gout and high insulin levels, and the body produces insulin to deal with sugar and carbs:
“Higher levels of insulin circulating throughout the body inhibit uric acid elimination by the kidneys…” [How Fat Affects Gout]
For severe situations, during a gout attack, try these:
- Arginex (1-2 tablets 3 times a day)
- Boswellia Complex (1-2 tablets 3 times a day)
- Natural hydrated nano zeolite (sublingual 3 times a day). I only recommend this specific brand, PBX, from Touchstone Essentials.
Many people think that protein is the cause of gout; however, this is a bit of a misunderstanding. The problem is uric acid, which comes from breaking down purines, and purines are associated with protein, especially from red meat. About 90% of people don’t remove the uric acid effectively enough, and about 10% produce too much uric acid for their kidneys to handle. And guess what? The zeolite helps to remove uric acid from the blood directly, as it raise pH by absorbing acids and taking them out of the body.
Not all protein is the same, and your food preparation and digestive system have a huge impact on how food breaks down and what load your kidneys experience. If you add bone broths, soups, etc. to your diet and build a healthy gut, your proteins will not be as much of a problem. However, if you consume too much sugar and carbs, your kidneys will be overwhelmed with insulin processing and not be able to handle the uric acid.
The key bottleneck is the kidneys, and a proper diet will eliminate this bottleneck. Again, everyone is different, but the guidelines remain the same. Even if you have a genetic defect (about 10% of sufferers) that causes you to produce too much uric acid, your diet can still compensate without pharmaceutical drugs. Everything mentioned here is either a food or a supplement derived from nature. Again the zeolite helps here because of it is helping with general detox – it is actually a cage structure that captures and stores toxin on its way through the body – there is no metabolic overhead or metabolites necessary for this, as it is a passive action, and the zeolite then passes effortlessly out of the body with its toxic cargo intact and inert.
As we can see, the one outstanding item here is zeolite, and it can be critical because it is a powerful and fast acting detox tool. The key is to get the right kind of zeolite, and in this case I am again talking about something natural. Avoid synthetics! There is a lot of bad zeolite out there. Furthermore, I am talking about a nano sized zeolite that is already hydrated and taken as a spray, so that it goes directly into the blood, and thus bypasses any digestive issues. This also makes it much faster in action, and it can act throughout the body at the cellular level. People are finding great success with this particular zeolite. It is the only one that I am comfortable with.
Protein becomes a problem when our gut is out of balance, which is likely for most people; thus, you definitely do want to limit your protein intake. However, my own recommendation for maintaining good protein intake is this:
Dr. Cowan does not mention kefir or dairy in his article below, so this part is from my other research here, here, and especially here. And read my kefir link above to really understand why kefir is so powerful. A key point to emphasize is using raw milk.
There is a lot more that we have learned about gout in recent decades, and you can read some of that below in this excerpt from Dr. Cowan:
“Finally, it will probably come as no surprise to the readers of Wise Traditions that the specific nutrient that seems to prevent the buildup of uric acid is vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin that is particularly associated with the kidney. In fact, gout can be seen as a problem of the kidneys not being able to excrete enough of the uric acid to prevent the buildup, rather than simply a matter of excessive protein intake.
In my years of treating patients with gout, a program of decreasing protein intake along with liberal use of all the usual animal fats and the regular use of gelatinous stocks has been the key to preventing uric acid buildup and further attacks of gout.
As for other medicines, cherry juice is a virtual specific for preventing uric acid buildup and further attacks of gout. I have patients with gout take 1 teaspoon 2 times per day of cherry juice concentrate (without the sugar), literally for the rest of their lives. I also make sure they take 1 teaspoon per day of high-vitamin cod liver oil to supply the vitamin A, which antagonizes the uric acid buildup and also nourishes the kidneys. Of course, the patient should avoid refined carbohydrates and alcohol (which contributes to syndrome X).
As for medicines, I use arginex from Standard Process at a dose of 1-2 tablets three times per day. Arginex is made from fermented beets and helps stimulate excretion via the kidneys. For acute attacks, I use the antiinflammatory Boswellia comp from Mediherb 1-2 tablets three times per day. Hopefully, with these measures your client will be able to overcome the tendency for these painful attacks.”
The full article here:
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/ask-the-doctor/gout/
The worst gout attack I ever had was the first one. At that time I was following a vegan diet. I had not eaten red meat for years. There are vegetarian sources of purines such as nutritional yeast and spirulina, which I was using at the time. I no take homeopathic colchicine as a prevention.
Excellent examples Tom. It is nice to see a comment from someone with firsthand experience. A good reminder that lots of healthy food from all spectrums are high in purines.