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Thanks again for getting back to me so quickly and for the additional information. I have an appointment with my doctor in 2 weeks and I will try and get a listing of my previous results and request a new one as well and let you know what I find out. I won’t explore home testing if it’s not consistent and won’t lead to some actionable results.
I’m not opposed to a drug like allopurinol but it was my limited understanding that if you start it, that it’s difficult to come off so my intention was to try and avoid it unless it was necessary. I feel now that it’s definitely something that I need to look closer into. I have been relying on colchocine until I was able to meet with the rheumatologist but as I mentioned that referral was rejected for some reason. I have tried to stop taking colchocine but I find after a couple of weeks off, I get a flare up. I tend to rely on indomethicin for pain management when I do get a flare up. Right now, I don’t get full blown pain too often but my feet are in a state of discomfort most days and are often stiff and crack when off them for a little while.
As for diet, as I mentioned I have been trying keto since the start of the year so I have increased my fat and protein. Most of my diet consists of meat (mostly chicken and some beef and fish), nuts (macadamia, almonds, walnuts), veggies (broccoli, brussel sprouts, peppers, squash), and small amounts of fruit in smoothies, hard cheeses, no bread, no pasta, no rice. I also have some dark chocolate for a treat. I do drink a little still with low carb beer and whiskey on the weekends. My normal diet isn’t that much different with the exception of adding back in bread and pasta for the most part and some moderate sugar intake through fruit mostly. I do intermittent fast 6 days a week doing 8/16 eating windows each day. I drink lots of water each day and a couple cups of coffee.
I really appreciate the feedback and it’s given me a lot to think about and explore. In the past I would get a gout flare up and then it would go away and not see anything again for at least a year. Recently I’ve had some pretty severe attacks and they don’t seem to go away or return pretty quickly until I stayed on colchicine. A lot of the information out there centres around diet and foods to avoid so I thought I’d try keto as I was interested in this diet for a number of other reasons and thought it lined up well with helping with gout as well. I didn’t think it would rid me of the problem but I thought the reduction in sugar and alcohol would have a positive impact. I have also been mixing in intermittent fasting as well as lots of water daily.
I definitely have a lack of understanding of what and how much I’m eating as well as activity level (I’m a daily gym-goer) is affecting my uric acid levels. When I’ve had gout flare ups and through my doctor had blood and urine samples taken, most times my levels are normal (in the higher part of the “normal” range sometimes). Is there a good at-home test out there that can provide results so I can journal what I’m eating and record the changes to better understand what affects me most negatively? What are some methods to better understand my uric acid levels? To your point, I’d like to get to the root cause and I would imagine it defers by person.
I had been waiting to talk to a rheumatologist as my doctor referred me to one but I just found out that referral was rejected so I’ll be visiting my doctor in the next few weeks. I have been taking 0.6mg of colchicine daily and I’ve found that has helped keep the attacks away but I get what you are saying, it’s not meant as a long term solution so I will be bringing that up with my doctor. My doctor has suggested allopurinol but I’ve been reluctant to start on a drug that is required for life but am definitely open to it at this point.
Again, thanks for the feedback as it’s hard to find good information out there. IF you have any suggestions on what I can do to help find my own root cause(s) I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks!!
Kurtis
