DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A Medical Doctor and I am not giving any advise or suggestion to be followed; I am just reporting my experience. Please whatever you do with your health, do it responsibly and always check with your GP.

I have had my first gout attack. Several years ago the doctor found i had high uric acid in my blood which since then it’s been more or less under control.

But I had never had a real gout attack. It started  3 or 4 days before Xmas. One afternoon after work I came back home limping and with this sharp pain on my right foot, at the junction where the big toe bone joins the rest of the foot. No swelling, no redness and no exterior sign.

For various reasons, although I knew this had to be gout, I also suspected something traumatic (a person had fallen on exactly on that point of my foot a  week before).

The doctor in the ER in Perugia, Italy, was certain it was gout and 25euros and an Xray later the diagnoses was confirmed.

What triggered it, I don’t know, but there are many clues that I can put together.

This was the 24/12. Since then, due to the whole Xmas eating business, I have been worse; a  lot of meat has been eaten, a lot of cold cuts and sweets. Silly bastard. My foot has been a sharply painful reminder of that.

On 4/1/10 I decided to act on it. I took a slow release Ibuprofein tablet on the 4th, on the 5th and on the 6th. This morning, giving the improvement, I didn’t take any tablet. Also on 4/1  I started looking for diet ideas. Although there isn’t a dietery resolution to the problem, there seem to be various things one can do:

1) drink a lot of water, which i have done, in excess of 3 lit. a day, Evian;

2) drink or eat cherry, especially a special variaty; health products shops like holland and barrett carry some of these products;

3) eat less, eat vegetables; and I have also cut completely meats and fish and sea food;

4) I don’t drink alcohol so that is easy.

Yesterday evening the pain was much better and today i can walk almost normally and the pain is almost completely gone!