Home Remedies for Gout
Gout is a problem that is particularly common in people who eat rich, fatty foods or drink too much alcohol. Unfortunately, many people get it every year and suffer from intense pain. There are ways, however, to treat the pain and alleviate the symptoms that you can easily create yourself without a trip to the doctor.
Gout causes swelling of one or more joints, usually the big toe, because uric acid crystals have built up in the bloodstream. The affected area will be red, swollen and hot to the touch with a pain that’s similar to being stuck with hundreds of tiny needles. Once you’ve had gout, it’s likely you will have flair-ups in the future unless you change your eating habits. One of the best things you can do to keep it under control is eat plenty of raw vegetables and drink lots of water every day.
When you do have an attack, try the following home remedies for gout. They usually work better than anything a doctor can prescribe!
Home Remedies for Gout Pain
To alleviate the pain, mix mustard oil with whole wheat flour (not refined white flour) in even amounts. Then slowly add water until you’ve created a thick paste. Dab a generous amount on the affected area and wrap in a soft cloth to keep it in place. The pain will soon subside, and you can leave this mixture in place while you sleep for continued relief.
A salve made from a simple, fragrance free lotion with several drops of juniper oil can also be applied to the sore area. This helps break up the toxins. To flush these toxins away, drink a few tall glasses of water. You should begin to feel relief within an hour.
A cup of thyme tea is also soothing and will help ease the pain of gout. This remedy has been used successfully to treat gout pain for hundreds of years and is just as effective today.
Get Rid of the Gout With These Home Remedies
Drinking a full glass of carrot juice twice a day is an effective way to flush the uric acid out of your body. Some people swear by carrot juice mixed with either beet juice or cucumber juice. All of the work the same way, so you may want to decide which combination is most palatable to you, then stick with it until the swelling and pain are gone.
For severe cases of gout, you should strictly limit your diet for a few days to give the kidneys a chance to get rid of any uric acid build-up in the blood stream. If you can do so, try eating nothing but bananas for three days. If you can’t do this, try adding other raw fruits and vegetables.
Twenty-five cherries a day (as part of a healthy diet) can also help rid your body of gout. If you’d like to keep it from returning, continue to eat ten or so cherries every day.
Most fresh fruits that are high in vitamin C will help alleviate gout symptoms. The vitamin C helps neutralize the uric acid. For this reason, many people mix the juice of ½ lime into a glass of cold water and drink it twice daily during an attack. The citric acid actually helps dissolve uric acid so that your body can flush it away.
You’ll notice that many of the home remedies for gout involve eating raw fruits and vegetables or drinking their juice. In fact, if you want to keep gout from coming back, an apple a day really does help keep the doctor – and your gout – away!