The costs to go see a Dr every time you get a swollen big toe joint and then add on the cost of any medication he may tell you to take and you are easily looking at a hundred dollars or more. While I can not tell you that I know some miracle home remedies or magic cure for gout that I know about but no one else does I can tell you a few things that you can and should be doing to help yourself.

Start doing things to prevent your next gout attack rather than waiting till you wake up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain and then wish you had taken more notice.

Before you start mixing up home remedies for gout you can start changing what you eat.

• Cut Out Game Meat
• Stop Eating Liver and Organ Meat
• Drink More Water
• Cut Down on Red Meat

Increasing your water intake will help your kidneys deal with the uric acid that you do take and since game, organs and red meat are all high in purines (which become uric acid)  cutting those out of your diet will help your body deal with the uric acid that is one of the root causes of your gout.

Many people ask that, part of the problem is that gout has long been thought of as a disease that only affects people who overindulge in rich food and to much alcohol. Henry the eighth (king of England) was one person who suffered with very painful gout, while his was most likely caused by to much drinking and eating to much game, this isn’t usually the case.

So what is gout, gout is when you have a build up of uric acid crystals in your joints. The uric acid crystals are knows as Tophi. Gout is similar to arthritis but in my experience gout is more of a stabbing agony rather than the dull throbbing pain that I experience with arthritis.

The build up of uric acid crystals happens over time and the pain of gout will come and go, however when you have a gout attack you will definitely know about it as the agony can be excruciating.  Many gout attacks first start in the joints of your big toe, they also seem to happen at night. You will often wake in the middle of the night in excruciating agony in your big toe, sometimes it hurts just to have the bedsheet touch your toe.

The build up of uric acid in your system that causes gout will usually be caused by a mixture of genetic predisposition and diet, if you have gout in your family history then it is worth keeping a eye on your diet. Watching what you eat and drink may be enough to stop you experiencing the horrible pain that is gout.

Gout treatment needs to deal with not only the pain but the inflammation or swelling of the joints. There are many medical solutions that seem to treat either the pain or the inflammation, treating both while also keeping the user lucid and active is the ideal solution.

Today there are several different kinds of medications that are used for treating this condition but in many cases, alterations to a person’s dietary habits need to take place as well. Ideally a person suffering from gout is required to avoid a diet that contains foods which are rich in purine and they also need to increase the amounts of fluids they intake. By doing this, they are actually helping to reduce the risk of the gout becoming any worse and preventing further attacks in the future.