Gout

[oneplusone]

Has anybody got any experience of this? I had never heard of it til DH got it recently in his big toe. Apparently it causes excruciating pain (but then he is a bloke so that could well be a complete exaggeration) and last time he had it he couldn't walk. He was given anti inflammatories by the GP which cleared it up but now he has got it again.

I think it might be due to stress as we have had a couple of bad arguements recently.

Has anybody got any experience/suggestions on how to prevent it happening again? Avoiding stress is impossible but I think DH needs to find a way to handle it better as he usually comfort eats but this time instead it seems to have caused the gout.

TIA

Dh has it. I think it might sometimes be genetic and there is not much, in those circumstances, that can be done to prevent it. His dad suffered from it too.

I get really fed up when people say - "Oooh, does he drink a lot then?" He is not one for alcohol and rarely touches it whereas my bloodstream is 90% proof and I don't have gout!

It is excrutiatingly painful - believe your dh on that one. My dh is quite stoical but suffers when he has an attack. He takes preventative medication daily

hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/gout.html

there you go....my dh takes allipurinol

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gout/Pages/Causes.aspx

and this

My granny has gout. It can be triggered by eating certain foods, red meats, red wine being two of the main culprits neither or which my granny eats or drinks. There are other foods that are triggers too, but I can't remember tham at moment.

She also has high blood pressure and the tablets that she takes for this can also trigger attacks of gout.

It's something that she just has to live with as according to the dr's there is nothing they can do for her bar give her anti inflamatories. They could try changing her blood pressure tablets but it's more important to keep her blood pressure under control than it is to sort out the gout apparently.

And thankfully, there are worse things than gout

shellfish, tomatos, rich red meat, fizzy drinks - loads of foods set it off (my dad has it) you can get cherry juice from health stores, he finds that helps - he suffers quite badly and has tried most things!

That's true Nancy - but probably only if you have a none hereditary form of it.

In the latter case, you can do dick all

Info from Arthritis Care on Gout (download). My Dad has gout and has been on daily pills for years (think my gran had it too). He's not made any noticeable changes to his lifestyle though, I think the pills have it under control. I hope your DH gets something sorted out soon - it may be worth trying to note what triggers an attack (eg stress, as you suggest). He may not be able to avoid the causes of stress, but perhaps he can get help/advice/training in how to manage his response? My DH had trouble with panic attacks at his work a number of years ago, was put onto betablockers for a bit, but now has a very different attitude despite having the same stressors and is more sanguine about it all. I think he just figured his health was more important.

Hello all and thank you for your posts. I'm not sure if it's hereditory in DH's case, will ask.

I guess it's just one of those things, as you get older. He doesn't really drink a lot, nor eat lots of red meat, he has a fairly healthy varied diet.

Ok, I think we have to tackle how he handles stress. He's not much of a 'talker', he keeps things bottled up so am not surprised in a way that he has got thisf as i know from my own experience that keeping things bottled makes my eczema flare up.

Thanks all!

DH gets it, usually after too much booze or rich food, he has been prescribed indomethacin by GP, it is very painful (we moved house when I was 32 weeks with our twins, he had just got gout for the first time and was on crutches they misdiagnosed it as a sprained ankle )