For me, any unexplained athletic ‘injury’ is an indication that an attack is starting. But once it hits, you will know it! The weight of a sheet - or the foot itself is absolutely unbearable. You won’t be able to sleep! In really bad cases like mine, you’ll get deposits of uric acid crystals that form in certain joints and appear bone-like. These are called tophi and they will mess up your feet and your ability to get into cycling (or any other) shoes.
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My understanding is that the body is very good at regulating the blood ph. It will use all the foods it gets to keep it stable. But if you only give him acidifying food, the body will get stressed and lots of troubles will follow.
I see all the bad articles on the alkaline diet, but it worked amazingly for me. It’s quite amazing how bad of a reputation this diet got, when the only downside ever cited is lack of evidence. It’s not like eating more vegetables and less meat/sugar could destroy your health.
For me it looks quite simple: try it for 2 weeks, not even strictly, and see if you see any difference.
I don’t see anything amazing about a treatment for a very painful, unhealthy medical condition, that’s failed to show effectiveness, getting a bad reputation. 
Especially as the alternatives work.
I think you’re conflating the point of the diet with a cure. It’s like smoking and lung cancer. You get lung cancer, it’s recommended you stop smoking. Not because that will cure your lung cancer but bc you don’t want to feed your cancer.
There is no cure for gout. It doesn’t always hurt; you don’t always have an attack. But just because you’re not having an attack today doesn’t mean your gout has been cured.
There is no inconclusiveness that a high purine diet causes gout and you want to reduce consumption of foods with purines. Google the “gout purine food” for a list of things to avoid. You also need to avoid alcohol and sweet drinks. You’re still going to have attacks. That’s your life now. But a low purine diet before you got gout would certainly have prevented it.
There are meds that can lower your uric acid and they have been mentioned in this thread. You can take alipurinol to lower your uric acid and another one (colch___ something) for the first 6 months to prevent the acute attacks the alipurinol would cause. Neither med is risk free (possible side effects include “fatal skin condition”) and if your kidney function is too low when you take them you can end up with severe nerve damage.
But gout can always get worse. The attacks can be more frequent. They can be more severe. They can involve more and more joints. Continuing to consume the same foods and drinks that caused the condition in the first place just because eating right “won’t cure me” is ill-advised.
I suffer with it. My advice:
- google “gout purine food” for a list of things to avoid.
- absolutely give up any thoughts of “100g of carbs/hour” - any high carb “fuel” is going to trigger it.
- try to get carbs in some sort of package that isn’t purely carbs and water. eg, Cliff Bars are better because you’re taking in “food” along with the carbs. I can also handle Endurox after hard rides because it includes protein
- give up alcohol
- increase fiber (whole grain crackers, whole grain breads, fruits and veg). These are all things that will help mitigate the effects of your high-carb diet (you’re a cyclist so you can’t avoid carbs altogether.)
- stay hydrated as your already doing.
This is a personal choice but my advice is to try these things first and see how often your attacks are coming, how long they last, and how debilitating they are. Then decide if you want to go with medication. Alipurinol will lower your uric acid levels but while your body is flushing it out, it will trigger some attacks. You can take something called “colch____ something” for the first 6 months to prevent those. Then it’s my understanding that the alipurinol will actually prevent future attacks. I’m waiting until this winter to start mine bc if I do have more attacks from the meds I’d rather not miss prime summer riding.
Got it. I just had some blood work done and my Uric acid levels are a little high (that’s with zero symptoms now) so I think this is at least something for me to consider. Also on the health list is slightly higher LDL cholesterol than I’d like to see. So, a diet change is in order for me…
I appreciate that. From what I Remember of the attack it was enough to keep me off the bike for a week or so and I was limping a little, almost like a bad sprain. I said mild, because some descriptions sounded much worse than mine…
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This thread went from diets that have no proven effectiveness - but are harmless and probably healthy - to advice that is outright dangerous.
I’ll make a final statement: if you get a gout attack, get advice from a medical professional. You probably want to do that even if it’s only one attack and it subsides by itself.
How about telling us which one of my bullet points you think is dangerous?
Or is it the info I passed along about medication? Medication which is by prescription only so it’s implicit that the OP would have to consult a medical professional. Oh wait, did you think I was inviting him to grab some pills out of the trunk of my car?
While I don’t claim to be a doctor, I am having my gout treated by one. The point of sharing my experience with the OP is that some people do not go see their doctor and mistakenly assume they just have to suffer. By letting him and the rest of you know that the medication is available as well as the pros/cons of said medication, you can decide if you want to explore that route with your doctor or if your attacks are infrequent enough that you’d rather just ride it out.
FFS
Saw a specialist at the beginning of the week who went over various aspects of my body. Have started my Alipurinol now, naproxen to help with the inflammation. omeprazole to help with the sickness (weridly i have felt more hungry recently and i feel like this could be the cause).
Been off the bike for nearly 3 weeks now so itching to get back on. I can now fit my cycling shoe on so we are nearly there! thanks for all the replies.
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