[ggrrigson]

Hi guys,

I am impressed by your “team spirit” if I may call it so! There may be a more appropriate English expression but I am not a native speaker.

Fresh news, this time I got rid of my mild attack by just taking baking soda. As you said, now I have begun to understand that the situation cannot really be controlled with a diet. In fact, I got quite controversial results in the last two years. I remember many great dinners with a lot of spicy sausages made of mutton (my favorites) + a generous quantity of wine, without any issue. Next day I went to the lab and the UA test result was very encouraging: 7. Then, in the middle of a “healthy food” period I got 12! It is really hard to understand and to draw correct conclusions when the test results are so paradoxical.

Anyway, it was important for me to understand that some of you take allopurinol and get the expected benefits. I don't know why, but based on my previous readings I have got the impression that it rarely works. Thanks God that's not true. I will consider resuming the treatment, but very honestly the first side effects were discouraging: almost all joints hurt, it was painful to sit, to wash dishes and even to keep the fork in hand. I had got a form of unpleasant reaction every time a joint was touched: for instance when the knees got in contact when I was trying to sleep. These symptoms went away a few weeks after I stopped allopurinol. I wonder if these symptoms had been caused by the already existing crystals in the joints which had begun to dissolve due to the lowered level of UA. This should mean that if I had continued, all the pain should have gone after a while, right? Unfortunately I didn't test my UA level at all during the treatment with allopurinol, so I can't say if it was so.

Let me ask something: the theory says there are two main categories of sufferers: the overproducers and the underexcretors. Assuming I am an underexcretor, why should I choose probenecid instead of allopurinol? Any marked differences in results? This is something I couldn't understand from the internet articles. And another question: could losing weight be enough to lower the UA to an acceptable level?

Many thanks

Dragos

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