Help avoiding gout on my birthday
Posted , 7 users are following.
Hi all, its my birthday this weekend and will be celebrating with friends over a couple of bottles of red and some nice food. I know that this is likely to flair my gout and I'm looking at medication options to reduce the impact as well as drinking a lots of water to stay hydrated.
I am currently on 100mg of Allopurinol a day to reduce possibility of an attack but I also have access to 0.5mg tablets of colchicine and 25mg of prednisolone.
I know that the simple answer is to avoid triggers like alcohol and purine rich food, but I am willing to risk it to celebrate - your only 40 once right! 
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
0 likes, 23 replies
rustygecko jfsmoose
Posted
Increase the colchesine t two tabs for a couple of days before?
Sochima822 jfsmoose
Posted
alex247 jfsmoose
Posted
jx41870 jfsmoose
Posted
As long as you don't do the worst - drink a lot of beer, eat a lot of herring - generally if you're on medication I think you can splurge for one meal every week or so, without triggering a flair.
?I'd recommend celery and/or celery seed, before and after, but I have no idea how that might work with allopurinol.
21Dewsbury jfsmoose
Posted
Do you take it every single day?
Was your dosage ever reviewed?
Allopurinol can be the key to total gout free life ... other treatments can confuse things.
rustygecko 21Dewsbury
Posted
I think his problem is he’s on too low a dose. (Which is common).
21Dewsbury rustygecko
Posted
Indeed...everyday is correct...
I'm just making sure that he does.
There's a lot of confusion over the dosage and in particular how long it takes to become effective.
I have been taking Allopurinol for about 3 or 4 years ...... gout free.!
rustygecko 21Dewsbury
Posted
21Dewsbury rustygecko
Posted
I met a guy a couple of years ago .... youngish with bad gout...
His story: Was prescribed Allopurinol but after using it for a couple of months ... he stopped and then started again after a another few months ... no relief...
Totally WRONG approach.
Allopurinol can take over a year to work and people need to give it time.
My consultant (a specialist in the area) pretty much told me that lifestyle and diet was much less critical than the right medication, specifically, Allopurinol.
rustygecko 21Dewsbury
Posted
All we can do for lifestyle is slim down stop sugar reduce alcohol and drink water like a fish.
jx41870 rustygecko
Posted
Rusty, I don't know about this "for life" thing. My father was prescribed allopurinol about fifteen years ago just for the high urates, I don't think he even had an attack, and after maybe a year doctor told him to stop, and just hold onto the pills in case it changed in the future. I think that's still a common treatment mode.
rustygecko jx41870
Posted
21Dewsbury jx41870
Posted
Was it full blown very regular gout over a period of months or years?
jx41870 21Dewsbury
Posted
I believe my father had had one real gout attack that I know of, somewhat over ten years before the period I'm talking about. He may have had a previous attack, I'm not sure - and he's been gone some years now so I can't ask him. He had no further attacks for at least ten years after this event, and passed on in reasonably good shape up to his last days in his eighties. I found the old bottle of allopurinol in his nightstand.
rustygecko jx41870
Posted
Another reason for stopping taking allopurinol would be if the patient had kidney problems.
However, it is now known that keeping blood urate low is good for health and may have contributed to his longevity.