What Are the Natural Remedies for Gout?

Gout is a miserable condition. It causes intense, excruciating pain, redness and swelling in one or more joints. Often, the pain may start at the base of the big toe, but other joints frequently hurt just as much. While there are medications that can ease the agony, many people would like natural remedies for gout. Which ones work?

Q. Are there any natural approaches for relieving gout? Please help! This attack has put me down for now and I don’t like it. I am taking allopurinol that my doctor prescribed, but it is not working fast enough. Labor pains weren’t this bad!

Natural Remedies for Gout:

A. There are a few natural products that can help lower uric acid in the body. During a gout flare-up, uric acid crystals precipitate into the joints and cause the excruciating pain you are experiencing.

Sour Cherries:

Perhaps the favorite natural remedy to lower uric acid is tart cherries. Fresh, frozen or dried cherries, cherry juice or Montmorency cherry extract all seem to do the job. Healthy women who eat cherries have lower uric acid levels in their blood (Jacob et al, Journal of Nutrition, June 2003).  Even consuming sweet cherries seems to lower inflammation (Kelley et al, Journal of Nutrition, April 2006). There don’t appear to be any clinical trials of sour cherries for gout, however.

Celery Seed:

Another natural product that may help is celery seed. Celery is rich in luteolin, a compound that slows the production of uric acid (Yan et al, Food Chemistry, Dec. 15, 2013). Green peppers also contain luteolin and could be beneficial.

Diet Offers Natural Remedies for Gout:

Losing weight is a long-term strategy that might be helpful for some folks. Including nonfat milk and low-fat yogurt and avoiding high-purine foods like meat and seafood can help with prevention (Schlesinger, Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2005). People with gout who avoid or reduce their consumption of beer and other alcoholic beverages often do better.

DASH Diet:

The Health Professionals Follow-up Study collected data on 44,444 men over 26 years. During that time, those who followed a dietary pattern similar to the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) were about 30 percent less likely to experience an initial gout attack (Rai et al, BMJ, May 9, 2017). A Western-style diet with abundant processed meats, sweets, French fries and desserts raised the risk for gout. People starting a DASH diet have lower uric acid in their blood within a month (Tang et al, Clinical Rheumatology, June 2017).

If you need guidance on how to follow a DASH diet, you’ll find it in our book, The People’s Pharmacy Quick & Handy Home Remedies.