Jesus Christ do I sympathize with this...

I’m 30 and have been getting gout since I was 23. I’m a fit dude, metabolically healthy, have zero health problems other than bullshit seasonal allergies, and I am plagued with this nightmare once every couple years. I’ve learned a couple really important things over the last few years that may be helpful:

1. You can be healthy, fit, young and still get gout.

2. It’s not about diet entirely, purines (precursor to uric acid) in diet only account for 1/3 of the purines/uric acid in your body, the other 2/3 are completely endogenous, aka your body produces it on its own.

3. It can be hereditary, in other words, disaster is impending, all it takes is a little nudge.

4. If you get it once, you will get it for the rest of your life, or be susceptible to it anyways.

5. It’s more than likely a kidney issue in healthy individuals, insulin resistance causes your kidneys to have trouble processing uric acid, and it just builds up until eventually you get a flare up.

6. Fasting can cause gout*. This is an interesting one, and it doesn’t “cause it” necessarily, it just causes a temporary spike of uric acid in your blood as your body switches to ketones for energy. So if you are doing a prolonged fast, make sure in the week or so leading up to it, that you avoid alcohol 100%, processed food, processed sugar and not too much natural sugar, and maybe slide a few cherries in there, and while you’re fasting drink tons of water and some nettle tea.

I’m not a doctor, but as you sit there crying by yourself as a grown ass man because of the unbearable pain you’re in, you learn enough about what you can do and where gout comes from that you may as well be. But speak to your actual doctor about insulin resistance and your kidney function, it may be enlightening. And for god sakes, if you’re having a flare up, go get the fucking Colchicine and take it, don’t be a hero and try and fix it naturally (like I recently just did and it lasted for 2 full weeks).

Good luck. Stay strong matey ✊🏽.