Swollen and painful limbs due to gout, what should you pay attention to during the holidays?

Maintain regular use of gout medication

Doctor Bui Huy Can - Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, branch 3 - said that during the holidays, gout patients need to pay attention to their diet and daily activities to prevent the risk of acute gout.

If you have been examined and diagnosed with gout, you need to pay attention to re-examination and ask for a prescription to take medicine to get through the holiday.

In particular, you should maintain regular daily medication use. If you do not take medication regularly or stop taking it on your own, the disease will easily relapse.

In addition, if you are taking additional medications to treat other diseases, you should consult your doctor for advice. Avoid self-medication that can increase uric acid/blood.

While taking the medication, if an acute gout attack occurs, the patient should go to the hospital to be examined by a doctor and treated to reduce the gout pain.

Don't eat and drink freely.

As for diet, on the holiday, every family's dinner table has many dishes, these dishes are rich in calories.

Therefore, gout patients should not eat too much and must abstain from foods that directly affect the condition.

Specifically, you should avoid drinking soft drinks and energy drinks because these will increase the risk of urate precipitation in the renal tubules, increasing the risk of kidney disease and kidney stones.

Patients should not use alcohol, beer, or carbonated drinks because these drinks directly and indirectly increase uric acid production and reduce uric acid excretion through the kidneys.

For sweets, you should limit eating white chocolate (milk) and candy to avoid being overweight or increasing blood sugar/blood levels, which is not good for people with diabetes and worsens gout.

According to Dr. Can, people with gout should absolutely avoid eating red meats such as beef, buffalo, goat, horse, dog, etc. because they contain high protein content.

If the patient eats it, it will lead to excess protein, producing and increasing uric acid/blood, causing gout attacks.

Especially avoid eating animal organs such as heart, liver, intestines, spleen, kidney, and lungs because animal organs contain high levels of cholesterol and purines that can cause acute gout attacks at any time.

In addition, patients also need to limit eating foods rich in fat such as fat, animal skin, fried foods, processed foods with lots of fat such as instant noodles, fast food.

With plants, you should not eat foods that contain a lot of purines such as asparagus, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, beans, mint (tao wormwood)... which can easily trigger acute gout attacks.

People with gout should avoid eating turkey, goose, duck eggs, seafood, shrimp, crab... because these are foods high in purines, rich in protein and fat.

Instead, you should increase your intake of fiber-rich foods such as cucumbers, cassava, tomatoes, etc. to help slow down protein absorption and reduce the formation of uric acid/blood.

Prioritize eating lots of fresh fruits rich in vitamins C and E such as: cherries, strawberries, pineapples, grapes, watermelons, apples, pears, ripe papaya, vegetables such as green mustard, cauliflower, celery, spinach, Malabar spinach, betel leaves, watercress, carrots, gac fruit, tomatoes, pumpkins... because they are rich in vitamins C and E and help eliminate uric acid/blood, which is very good for gout patients.