If you've ever been awoken at night because of gout, you know how painful and debilitating the condition can be. The pain, redness and inflammation that are the hallmarks of gout develop because too much uric acid builds up in the body and causes deposits to form in the joints. The big toe is most commonly affected by gout, according to the National Institute of Arthritis Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, although it can develop in any joint. Drugs are available to ease the pain of gout, but there are some natural remedies as well.
Soaking Bath
A soaking bath can help alleviate the pain of an acute gout attack. A bath can make you sweat, which helps remove some of the uric acid that has built up in the body. Dissolve 1/3 cup of ground ginger in a hot bath and soak your feet or whichever joints are swollen and painful. Soak for 30 minutes and then rinse with clean water to prevent the skin from becoming irritated. You can also dissolve 2 cups of Epsom salts in hot water and soak the affected joints until the water is no longer warm.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is high in vitamin C, which can help lower uric acid levels in the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. To treat gout pain, squeeze the juice from half a lemon into a full glass of water and drink it. The high vitamin C content in the lemon juice can help dissolve the uric acid crystals that have formed in the joints, which is what causes gout pain.
Eat a diet rich in vitamin C or take a vitamin C supplement to treat gout and prevent future attacks. Good dietary sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruit, bell peppers and broccoli. If you opt to take a vitamin C supplement, be careful not to take too much. Megadoses of the vitamin that exceed 1,000 mg a day have been associated with increased uric acid levels in the body, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Cherries
Another food that can be helpful in treating gout is cherries. Studies have shown that cherries can lower uric acid levels, according to the Mayo Clinic. Consuming the fruit daily can be helpful in both treating the pain of an acute attack and staving off future attacks. Try either drinking a glass of cherry juice or eating between 12 and 15 cherries a day. Other dark-colored fruits such as blueberries, blackberries and raspberries can be similarly helpful.
Gout Diet
The Johns Hopkins Arthritis Clinic recommends that patients prone to gout modify their diets to help prevent the condition. A contributing factor to gout is a diet high in purines, a substance found naturally in the body that is also present in many animal protein sources. Foods especially high in purines include organ meats and other red meats, fatty fish and seafood such as tuna and lobster and certain other fish, including herring and mackerel. The Mayo Clinic recommends that people prone to gout eat no more than 4 to 6 oz. of animal protein each day.
Other dietary recommendations to help treat and prevent gout include avoiding alcohol and drinking plenty of water. The more fluids you drink, the greater your urine output will be. Increased urine output can help flush the uric acid buildup from the body and treat gout pain and prevent future attacks.
