You wake up with severe, burning pain in the joint at the base of your big toe, and it’s swollen and red.
Chances are, you may have gout!
This is a type of arthritis that is of metabolic origin---too much uric acid in the blood causes sharp crystals to collect in a joint, usually the big toe, and more commonly in men than in women.
This happens because you consume too many foods high in purines, organic water-soluble compounds that oxidize to form uric acid.
Meats are high in purines; so is beer, seafood such as scallops & sardines, beans such as garbanzos or lentils, vegetables such as asparagus or mushrooms, & wheat bran & wheat germ. Inflammatory foods such as sugar and wheat (all wheat in the U.S. is highly hybridized, thus containing foreign polypeptides that are highly inflammatory) are also culprits.
Your chances of getting gout are higher if you are overweight, drink too much alcohol, eat too many foods containing purines, or drink beverages sweetened with fructose (fruit sugar) or foods with high-fructose corn syrup (soft drinks, ice cream, sports drinks, breakfast cereals).
Gout is successfully treated by changing what you eat and drink. It is important to drink lots of pure (devoid of chlorine or other chemicals) water to help your body flush out waste products and toxins.
