Does diet help?

[Mkj]

Hi

Initial concern
My father is 80 yrs old and has a heart problem. His medication consists of: Simvastatin, Carvedilil, Rampril, Aspirin and Furosemide (diuretic). For the last two weeks he has incredibly painful periods of joint pain - gout. I have inflicted a strict gout type diet on him - tons of fruit and so on - but allowed him to have an evening meal of his choice which consists of meat and veg normaly. I thought we had it under control but he has had another nasty outbreak in his wrist (caused by the meat?). What I am wondering is whether it is worth altering his diet at all from what it was before these gout episodes as it seems that a side effect of the tablets is to raise the uric acid levels in his blood. Does the diet help enough to make any difference or is the only way for him to get relief is to take more tablets.

Update to initial concern
He has now been given 2 more tablets - Naproxen and Omeprazole. Are these the answer to his gout episodes or should he combine these with a low purine gout type diet?

Really what I am wondering is as above - does a low purine diet help at all in people with the above medical problems?

Regards

[cwowinningham]

Mkj

I have had gout since I was 25 years of age and I truly believe diet is about the only thing that has ever helped me. It is crucial and also very difficult to maintain....in my opinion it is very person specific on the moderation of meat. You just can't eat too much of meat that is high in purines for sure. chicken and fish are what i try and eat....and occassional beef.

If he has been in the habit of taking a lot of red meat and especially pork or sausage...and man it is good....it will be harder to break....but for me it was a must.

I would have outbreaks almost every other month....for several weeks....

Also, I could not take any of the preventatives...it caused major stomach problems.

I have found a solution and if you want you can contact me for more info. cwowinningham@yahoo.com

Norm