Facts of Ginger, Turmeric, Vitamins, and Coffee for Gout!

Gouty arthritis is a joint disease that has better prognosis than other kinds of arthritis. Though it can be so painful during flare-up, but some sufferers never get another attack after the first attack of their gout. Some natural remedies are available for coping. These include the use of turmeric, ginger, coffee or supplements containing certain vitamins (especially such as vitamin C).

Unfortunately, most of these remedies are not scientifically proven yet, though some studies have been done to analyze their effectiveness for arthritis. However, some of them (such as glucosamine and chondroitin) have been widely used to help treat arthritis.

There are lots of issues of health advantages derived from ginger. It is an East traditional medicine. It is so popular in some countries in Asia such as China and India. But not all claims from ginger are confirmed yet.

Some medically-valid health advantages from ginger

So far, ginger has been confirmed can help improve problems related to the digestive system such as upset stomach and nausea. It can help improve nausea by directly affect the stomach, not through the central nervous system.

Now it is also widely used to help reduce nausea associated with pregnancy, vertigo, viral infection in the gastrointestinal system, and after taking a surgery (post-surgery nausea). Gingerols are one of essential substances in ginger that may play a key role in helping to relieve nausea.

Ginger may help ease pain and reduce inflammation

Other essential substance is shogaol and gomgerol. These substances may help provide pain relief and have potential ability to act as anti-inflammatory agent. And it’s confirmed that gouty arthritis is an inflammatory health condition.

For this reason, ginger is claimed to play a role in helping to treat arthritis (including gout). But in fact, this claim is not substantiated yet. Currently, ginger is not commonly recommended yet for arthritis.

However if you think that ginger may help for your gout, it’s recommended to consult first with your physician.

The result of studies that analyze the effectiveness of ginger is promising. But there are potentially medicine interactions and side effects, too.

This traditional herb has a long history for treating a variety of health conditions, from digestive problems to the role of fighting against cancer. It may help decrease inflammation, too.

But like ginger, most of these claims are not supported by sufficient evidences. Even some results of studies that analyzed the effectiveness of turmeric showed conflicting evidence.

Curcumin is the essential substance in turmeric. It is thought as powerful antioxidant and may help decrease the levels of some enzymes that trigger excess inflammation in the body.

Since turmeric is thought may help reduce inflammation, some herbal practitioners believe that it may help improve pain due to inflammatory arthritis such as gout. Unluckily, there is still insufficient evidence to support this claim.

When taken as spices, turmeric is considered safe for most people. Even it has been widely used for cooking in some Asia’s countries.

But if it is taken as herb, it’s recommended to discuss first with your physician! Because there are some possible side effects (such as stomach upset) and interactions with medicines that you are taking!

The most common misperception, some people think that arthritis (including gout) is linked to deficiency of vitamin D and calcium (two essential nutrients for bone strength).

But the cause of gout has nothing to do with cells of bones, though overtime it may lead to complication related to the health of bone. See more this issue in this post!

How do you get gout?

This arthritis starts to occur when the uric acid level in the body increases higher than normal. However, not all people with high uric acid in the blood develop gout. This suggests that there may be a tendency of hereditary factor for some people to have gout.

Normally, the excess uric acid will go away with urine. But in gout, the elevated uric acid level fails to be regulated and restored by the body. This can occur due to too high uric acid in the bloodstream and/or if the kidneys don’t work optimally in filtering the excess uric acid from the bloodstream.

Uric acid is produced from protein called purines. And purine can be found naturally in some foods. Read also foods very high in purines!

The excess uric acid then can accumulate in certain parts of the body. One of common sites where they stay is in the joint, especially the larger joint of big toe (a very common site where gout occurs)!

The accumulation of this acid can create buildups of crystals, needle-like crystals called urate crystals in the joint, causing inflammation what we call as gouty arthritis.

Vitamin C

This vitamin may help control and decrease the body’s uric acid levels. But too high vitamin C in the body may become counterproductive since this may contribute to the increased uric acid.

In general, the use of supplements containing vitamin C is not common option for gout treatment. This vitamin has not been observed and studied for treating gout, too.