Gouty Arthritis Related Category

If you are upset today with Charles Payne’s ridiculous outburst on Fox, think again.

You have gout, and that is serious. You might feel at the end of your rope, but I am here to help you, and together we can beat your gout.

But this guy has something far worse – terminal ignorance.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the following news clip:

That’s right! He actually said:

“The very poor in this country do have a lot of programs, a lot of benefits. People aren’t dying in America. You know, in fact, the very poor suffer from gout. In the 1920 and 30s, that was called the rich man’s disease.”

Ignorant, ignorant ignorant.

We have moved forward in the intervening century. We know that gout is largely genetic. So could it not exist amongst the poor people a century ago? Of course it could. It must have done, unless our parents came from space. But who would diagnose it? Who would recognize it?

Fortunately, we have progressed since the early 20th century, or at least some of us have. But it is not too difficult to imagine what health care must have been like for poor people during the Depression. I can’t imagine many sitting in the rheumatologist’s consulting room. I can’t imagine them getting the explanation: “You have an inherited defect in uric acid metabolism so stop worrying you unwittingly ate too much filet mignon!”

I do not understand how anyone who claims a poor background can be so careless and ignorant about welfare issues, but this guy’s moral compass is so skewed, he probably can’t understand it either. Let’s hear a bit more from him (do not click play if you are offended by swearing)

No self control. No appreciation of the value of a varied society. No hope.

It is depressing, but look on the bright side.

You and I can work together to fix your gout pain. This idiot can never stop being the waste of space that is Charles Payne.

I love it when gout forum posts trigger new lines of research for me.

A recent discussion about uric acid and heart disease prompted me to take a look at current research. This also tied in with a little bit of reorganizing I am doing. An old post about lowering uric acid levels did not appear to have any relevance to heart disease, but one link led to another, and before I knew it, a whole host of other diseases seemed to connect with gout.

Interestingly, the link between many of these diseases is via new research into allopurinol. I will come back to that at a later date, but for a hint of what is involved, please see Do you have gout with another disease?

Lower Uric Acid

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Hershfield believed that lowering uric acid below 2mg/dL (0.12 mmol/L) would probably be safe ^[1]. On reviewing that report in more detail, I noticed that much of his evidence was based on other diseases. There are conditions where people have the opposite conditions to gout sufferers. I.e., they either cannot produce uric acid or they over-excrete it. The first case is because they do not produce xanthine oxidase, the second because they have genetic kidney defects that stop the kidney from reclaiming uric acid. In both these conditions, people have no known ill-effects with uric acid levels below 1mg/dL (0.6mmol/L)
See how allopurinol helps more than gout

What’s Your Gout And Uric Acid Status?

The biggest problem for new gouty arthritis patients is to know where to start to make sense of all the gout and uric acid information. There are over 500 reference pages on this website, and over 1200 gout and uric acid discussion pages on GoutPal Interactive.

I am working on an alphabetic index, requested by a regular visitor. Once that is completed, I am introducing a new feature where visitors can recommend pages that are particularly useful. In order to make them as relevant as possible, I will incorporate a gout status indicator. Visitors will be able to recommend pages that are particularly suitable for someone seeking a clear diagnosis, or a gout sufferer seeking natural cures etc.

For this to work, I need a list of statements that visitors can mark as being particularly relevant. I have started such a list, but this would mean much more to me, if the statements mean something to you. Obviously, not all statements will apply to everyone, and some will change. For example, a gout patient looking to stop gout pain now, might be more interested in ending future gout pain, once the crisis is over. Some people will find more than one statement relevant.

The statements are currently:

• I want to stop current gout pain.
• I want to end future gout pain.
• I want to lower the uric acid level in my blood.
• I want to avoid gout medicines to fix my gout.
• I want to understand more about how gout works.
• I want to improve my gout diet.

I would like you to think about this list. If any of these apply, please can you vote for your most suitable gout and uric acid statements. Whilst you are voting, if you think of any other statements, please add them as answers. If you can improve the wording, please add appropriate comments.

Thank you for helping me make access to the gout and uric acid pages easier.

Leave this Gout And Uric Acid Page to see how to find gout and uric acid information

At this time of year, I’m often in reflective mood.

Looking back at the past year’s achievements. Looking forward to next year’s challenges.

Today, I am mindful of the social aspects of gout. Who amongst us has avoided the laughter and derision when we share our goutful state within our social circle? We have even had gout forum contributors complain of their doctor’s diagnosis accompanied by gleeful laughter.

It’s not funny! Gout hurts.

But it also hurts and saddens me to see the attitudes to this most painful of health conditions. People perceive gout as some form of amusing self-harming. So we hang our heads in shame, complaining of age and arthritis, scared to mention the G word.

But this is wrong. We have to take charge, and tell the world about gout as a genetic metabolic problem. We need to play down the food aspects. Yes, food is an important consideration in gout treatment, but only as part of a proper gout management plan. Worrying about certain foods as gout triggers is pointless, and only confuses the important issues.

Worst of all is the appalling lack of understanding and valid treatment programs in the health industry. But I digress – let me get back to social issues.

I have come to realize that the only way to make significant changes is to share. So 2012 will be my year for broadening horizons, and pushing gout awareness to everyone who needs to understand it better. Now this is no gout awareness campaign pushed by huge pharmaceutical companies. Nor is it a network of snake oil salesmen striving to create misinformation so they can benefit with “secret reports” and “miracle cures.”

My gout support network will push the values of openness and honest helpfulness that have brought GoutPal to the forefront of gout support. And it all comes down to you.

I wrote earlier about the importance of you in improving gout support services for everyone. To get more people involved, I have pushed forward with two of the biggest social networks.

GoutPal On Facebook

I set up a GoutPal Facebook page some time ago, but never really got round to learning how to develop it properly. I have revamped it, and I want to improve it during 2012, but I heed your help.

Not only do I need you to Like my page, I also need your input about what to include on the page. At the moment, it is mainly a series of automatic posts from the GoutPal websites, but I am sure it can be a lot more than that. I do not want to detract from the gout forums on GoutPal Interactive, so I am not keen on using it for questions and answers. What would you like to see there?

Also, Facebook has a blog following service. Is that useful, or would you prefer my regular email/RSS update service?

Follow this blog

GoutPal On Google Plus

Google have been keen to ride on the success of Facebook, and introduced a Google Plus service, where I have recently added a GoutPal page.

This service is very new to me, and I have yet to explore it’s potential. Have you used it? Like Facebook, what do you think is the best way to promote gout awareness through Google Plus pages? I have added PlusOne badges to the top and bottom of all pages here – have you shared your favorite pages with the rest of the world yet?

Reclaim Social Space For Good Gout Support

I’m unsure how successful my network expansion plans will be, but I am certain of one worrying fact. The online world of gout continues to be manipulated by self-serving pharmaceutical companies masquerading as information sources and self-serving snake-oil salesmen masquerading as reliable product sources. They have taken over Facebook, and I see that Google Plus will be the next target. With your help, we can stop this abuse of social networks by sharing the good stuff.

If you have ideas or questions about expanding the gout support network, please share them in the GoutPal Improvements Forum.

I have hinted at new services to extend the depth and reach of my gout support services.

From my clear realization that better gout support services depend on you, I now have a clearer vision of how gout support services can improve. There are many opportunities for helping gout sufferers fix gout quicker, and there are many opportunities for gout patients to improve their own knowledge and understanding.

Though I will introduce several new gout support service improvements through 2012, now is a good time to lay the foundation for networking these services so that they grow quicker from our collective efforts.

You can be involved in the GoutPal network in many different ways.

Though I listed several opportunities in my earlier article, there are many other ways to contribute to a global gout support network. The expected benefits or rewards are:

• Knowledge
• Rewards
  • Sell your products and services
  • Earn commission on 3rd party products and services
  • Earn advertising revenue
• Influence
  • Promote your own business
  • Promote a good cause or charity

How can you contribute to the global gout support network?

In my last post about improving gout support services, I touched upon the value of other contributors. I’ve also realized the vital importance of involving other people. I’ve realized how writing about your gout can help you understand and fix your own gout, as I am doing with mine.

Improving Yourself With Gout Support

There are many ways to improve your health, your wealth, or both.

• Ask great gout questions.
• Provide helpful gout and uric acid answers.
• Share gouty arthritis experiences and opinions.
• Link your contributions to:
  • Charities
  • Product/service commissions (affiliate schemes)
  • Advertising programs
  • Your own web business
• Write guest articles.
• Build your own website.

If you have the knowledge to do any of the above, I’ll be publishing detailed guidelines of how you can get involved. If you cannot wait for that, please submit your proposals privately via my Contact Form, or publicly through my gout support improvement service.

If you have no writing or publishing knowledge, please do not worry. The Health Writing School is on it’s way, and it will support you in realizing your dreams for earning whilst learning about gout (or any other subject that interests you). Again, if you cannot wait, use the links above to tell me why I should involve you now. I’d much rather build the training facilities with some volunteer trainees than plan everything in splendid isolation. If you do not mind a few rough edges, let me know why you want to help provide better health support services, and we will get started straight away.

Pathways To Better Gout Support

I am developing the pathways for you to get involved with gout support services. I have hinted at these in the list above, and to be more specific, the outline is:

1. Learn to contribute by using the new gout forum, or show me your work elsewhere.
2. Contribute to debates, and earn links to other websites, revenue generating schemes, or charities/community services
3. Write guest articles on this website
4. Work with me to develop yoursite.goutpal.net

I will kick off with the first of what I hope is many guest articles very very soon. If you do not want to miss it, be sure to sign-up for the free update service:

In the midst of upgrading the GoutPal Support Forum, it’s time for a little reflection. Not just for self-indulgence, but as an insight into why things are the way they are, and a glimpse of good times ahead.

I am working hard on completing instructions and guidelines for the new format gout forums. I’ve tested the forums in all major browsers, with no problems, so at last, Microsoft Internet Explorer users, who have upgraded to version 9, can breathe a sigh of relief. Before I complete those instructions and run a series of articles explaining the new features, I’m prompted, by a new charting toy, to see a link between mending the GoutPal Support Forum, and mending GoutPal, the man.

In reality, I’ve stopped referring to myself as GoutPal, as forum contributors started abbreviating it to GP. I’ve nothing against abbreviations in the right place – it is the only way I can talk about DNA without a dictionary. But saddling me with a common doctor’s abbreviation is asking for confusion, so I’ve reverted to Keith. It was good enough for my parents, so it’s certainly good enough for the forum, if not quite as unique. But I digress.

Gout Sufferers Helped (click for chart details)

Many of you will be aware of a similarly titled GoutPal On The Mend article from earlier this year. My new charting toy made me realize how my own fall is sadly mirrored in the fall of visitors here.

On the bright side, it seems that the fall has bottomed out, and I look forward to more visitors, and more gout sufferers finding their path to gout freedom. But there is a more interesting view in the detail behind that chart.

A view that shows the importance of you.
See why you are vital to mending GoutPal