Eight tips on preventing gout in summer

1.Reduce the intake of medium purine foods

When people drink beer and eat barbecued meat, the concentration of uric acid rises rapidly, which can easily induce gout. Besides, it is suggested that gout patients should avoid eating a large amount of medium purine foods such as soybeans and peanuts. One hundred grams of peanuts contain 50-100 mg of purine, and the purine content of soybeans is 27 mg /100 g.

Seafood and offal are high purine foods, while beer itself contains a large amount of purine. When people drink beer, alcohol metabolizes into lactic acid after entering the human body. Lactic acid inhibits the secretion of uric acid by renal tubules, which in turn reduces the ability of the kidneys to excrete uric acid.

2.Avoid consuming beverages or desserts

Gout patients should not only resist the temptation of drinking beer and eating seafood, but also avoid drinks and desserts.

Some gout patients know that drinking beer or wine will do harm to their health, so they choose iced beverages instead to stay cool in summer. Although such beverages are not high in purine, most of them contain a large amount of fructose. Consuming a large volume of fructose-rich beverages at one time can also induce gout.

Why does excessive fructose intake cause gout attacks? Because a large amount of fructose intake will significantly increase the level of uric acid in the body in a short time. At the same time, fructose will also reduce the excretion of renal uric acid, causing an increase of uric acid in the body. For gout patients, sugar is the second most unhealthy element after a high purine diet, and the harm of fructose beverages to the body cannot be ignored.

3.Drink enough plain boiled water

It’s recommended that gout patients drink enough plain boiled water, up to a daily intake of 2,000 ml. Those with kidney stones had better drink 3,000 ml a day.

In hot summer, we often sweat a lot. Insufficient water intake will cause blood concentration and increase the level of uric acid. Drinking less water will also lead to less urine volume and excretion of uric acid, which can lead to a gout attack.

Patients with gout should drink more water to promote the excretion of uric acid and avoid the formation of gout stones, so as to delay the progressive damage to the kidneys.

4.Limit the intake of some vegetables and fruits

Gout patients should try to avoid excessive consumption of soybeans, peanuts, mushrooms and lavers.

Many people think that gout is caused by eating too much meat, which is not necessarily the case. If you consume too many such vegetables or fruits as soybeans, peanuts, mushrooms or lavers, gout will be induced as well.

In addition, if you don't eat meat for a long time, the function of various systems and organs of the body will decline, so will the purine metabolic capacity. Therefore, gout patients can consume moderate amount of meat between gout attacks.

5.Choose low purine foods and keep a balanced diet

In order to avoid repeated attacks of gout, some patients are too strict in diet control and stay away from animal-based foods such as fish, meat, eggs and dairy products. This will not only be difficult to stick to, but also lower the quality of life, and lead to malnutrition.

For gout patients, it is not that the less they eat the better, but that they should eat low purine foods and try to maintain balanced nutrition on the premise of controlling total calories. Milk and eggs are low purine foods and contain high-quality proteins rich in essential amino acids.
However, patients with hypercholesterolemia should not eat too much egg yolk.

6.Use air conditioning correctly

Gout patients should not stay in an air-conditioned room for a long time in summer, or be too close to an air-conditioning outlet.

It’s easy to induce gout if the temperature of indoor air conditioning is too low, or you are too close to the air outlet. The urate is more likely to precipitate crystals in a low temperature environment, which will deposit around joints and cause arthritis.

Do not set the room temperature too low, try to keep it at 26 ℃ or 27 ℃, and make sure the indoor and outdoor temperature difference is not too large. It is best to turn off the air conditioner half an hour before you leave the room.

7.Do not increase the dosage of uric acid lowering medicines randomly

It is not recommended to temporarily increase the dosage of uric acid lowering medicines during acute attacks of gout.

If the level of uric acid suddenly drops, the insoluble urate crystals that have been deposited in the joint and its surrounding tissues will fall out and blood uric acid will be deposited in the joint cavity, which will aggravate pain.

In the acute phase of gout attack, patients should focus on controlling joint inflammation and pain. The uric acid lowering medication should be applied after the symptoms are relieved for 7-10 days, and the level of uric acid should be gradually and steadily reduced with small doses.

8.Don’t stop medication without proper guidance

Gout patients need to stick to the treatment regime of reducing uric acid for a long time. Unauthorized withdrawal of medicines will cause the rapid rise of uric acid level and induce gout attacks.

In addition to causing joint deformities, urate crystals may also deposit in the kidneys, causing urinary calculi, chronic renal insufficiency, and even renal failure.

Long-term hyperuricemia can also induce and aggravate diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension and other diseases. Gout patients should pursue a healthy lifestyle on the basis of medicine-enabled uric acid control, have their blood uric acid level checked regularly, and gradually adjust the dosage of uric acid lowering medicines under the guidance of a doctor.