Gout – Precursor To Heart Disease and Diabetes?
Throughout the world we are witnessing an alarming rate of Heart Disease, Diabetes, Obesity, Cancer, Arthritis and many other Degenerative Diseases. Why do so many of the those diseases have similar risk factors? And why are so many similar diet and lifestyle changes advised to deal with them?
Typically the starting point beyond the myriad of pharmaceutical drugs that are available, including all the new ones that are continually being developed, is Diet.
Gout, like so many of the other degenerative diseases falls into the same category. Gout is overly diagnosed as a condition where the uric acid levels have become too high. This can be an Acute condition where it has spiked and it is an uncommon or infrequent occurrence or it can chronic, meaning that the condition is happening with regularity and is becoming more severe.
While the use of a couple of common prescription drugs (Allopurinol and Colchicine) are prescribed for gout and the associated pain and inflammation, the mechanism that they employ is the interruption of production of uric acid and the inflammatory process.
What needs to get more attention is the buildup of acid wastes. Uric acid like many other organic acids leads to various detrimental and debilitating forms of Acidosis.
Acidosis to a large degree is due to a combination of the following:
- Standard American Diet (SAD)
- Chronic Stress,
- Poor Environmental Conditions, (air and water pollution, toxic chemicals, pesticides, etc.)
- Chronic Unintentional Dehydration.
All too often, because our modern pharmaceutical drugs, we can isolate and over-power a specific symptom. We then develop a dependence and short-sighted approach to the severity of a disease or condition and ignore the long-term cumulative damage that is being done.This is true with gout. This is true with heart disease. This is true with diabetes.
To understand Acidosis we have to observe it from a more “cellular” and “molecular” point of view. Here is a rudimentary explanation of how Acidosis undermines our health:
- Picture a human cell as a bubble. The skin that makes up this bubble is permeable; certain things can soak through it to the inside and what is on the inside can soak through it to the outside. All the tissues of our bodies are made up of different kinds of cells; muscles, organs, blood, bones, cartilage, tendons, etc.
The cells “float” in a fine layer of water called the Interstitial Fluid. This fluid carries nutrients and fuel that passes through the cell walls to be “burned” by the mitochondria in the cells to produce our living energy. The “exhaust” or waste from the production of energy then passes back through the cell wall to outside and is carried off to be eliminated.
Due to dietary neglect and abuse, poor living habits and conditions, metabolic chemicals from stress, and poor hydration, the cell walls become damaged and function poorly. The cells don’t get enough nutrients and fuel, but worse, get clogged and over-loaded with the wastes. The waste is acid waste.
To continue beyond the explanation, our bodies, in their miraculous wisdom then work to deposit this acid waste buildup as far from the vital organs as possible; in our fat tissues and in our joints. In the case of gout, the uric acid get deposited in our joints. A gout attack is excruciatingly painful, however, not life-threatening as in a heart attack.
Gout and the subsequent attacks generally set-in several years before most people have their first heart attack or the on-set of diabetes.
The blood thickening, the arteries hardening, and the clogging of the arteries are all a result of Acidosis.
The cells inability to accept the glucose and/or the insulin is a result of Acidosis.
If you are experiencing a gout attack, your body is doing you a painful favor; it’s letting your know that your systems are malfunctioning and it is time to make some adjustments.
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Because gout, heart disease and so many other degenerative diseases have common contributing factors, eating a low purine diet and avoiding purine-rich foods is a very effective practice that can lead to stronger health overall.
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