Written by Recently, some people have ended up at rickknowles.net searching for information about allopurinol and gout. Here’s an update:
It’s been 4 weeks since I stopped consuming added sugar as an experiment in eliminating allopurinol. Scientists say that ingesting fructose leads to increased uric acid production. Excess uric acid can lead to gout. Since I had been taking allopurinol to limit uric production, it made sense to try and cut it off at the source by not taking in sugar instead of taking a medication to support a bad habit. You can read more about it in the post: The Sugar Free Summer Experiment.
I still eat fruit, but not much. Fruit, despite the fructose, is okay because of the blunting effects of the fiber that comes from eating the whole fruit. Other than that, I don’t take in added sugar. Beyond eliminating added sugar, I’ve been gluten-free as well, almost by default of going low-carb. If you read up on low-carb/high fat, Atkins, Paleo, South Beach, etc – I’m eating a hybrid of those styles.
I’ve been off of allopurinol completely for the last 3 weeks. I felt some gouty stiffness in my knee and heel during the first week of dropping to half-dosing. I also experienced a couple days of what seemed to be gouty stiffness in my knee and heel early last week. With no medication beyond a dose of ibuprofen, the symptoms resolved on their own quickly.
So far, the experiment appears to be successful. Although I haven’t dropped any additional weight – holding steady at about 224, I feel better than ever, and after an initial period around day 10 of flagging energy, my energy level has been great and very steady. Like I mentioned in the Sugar Free Summer Update, my tastes have been changing too. I switched to unsweetened iced tea, which I hadn’t been able to stand before and as of today, I drank my first-ever full cup of plain black coffee and actually enjoyed it. My next step is to try and eliminate diet soda. Why? I went for a run last week, weighing myself before and after, just for curiosity’s sake. Over the 4 mile run, I dropped 3 pounds in water weight, so I went to McDonald’s to get a 42 oz Diet Coke to rehydrate after. My wife kindly pointed out how ridiculous it was to eat clean and rehydrate myself with a chemical concoction with unknown long-term effects. Point taken.
We have been cutting sugar as well (although I have not done a total elimination like John has) and I have also noticed my taste preferences changing. We have gone to black coffee and unsweetened teas and I find I really don’t like the taste of sweetened coffee anymore. You can’t taste the actual coffee! That’s really encouraging to hear you are having such good results so far!