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I have been taking the fish oil that my doctor prescribed since I had a stent seven years ago.
Since my gout diagnosis in October, I have been eating vegan except for 2 to 3 eggs a week and the rare cheese pizza. Inexplicably I did not think about the fish oil until today.
I ran into a woman at Whole Foods giving samples of fish oil and we got into a discussion. She said that I’d have to take 20 Flax capsules to get as much Omega 3 as a single Fish oil tablet. (Mind you, I had not lost sight of the fact that she was selling fish oil). But she took me to another part of the store and showed me this (rather expensive) Algae-based Omega 3 supplement that she said would be great for gout. She also showed me a powdered vitamin C that was derived from oranges and cherries.
Anyway, I had some frozen mock-meat breakfast burritos thawing in my cart so I did not spend ANY time actually reading the labels. But I figured I’d toss it out there and see if Keith or anyone else has done the hard lifting on this topic.
Will Vegan Algae-based Omega-3 Supplement help my Gout?
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As a 4 year gout sufferer whose Rheumatologist is reluctant to prescribe Allopurinal for, I am always looking to eliminate the next “major” flare up. Again, since I’m not on Allopurinal, I have had to do everything I can in my power to lower my UA on my own. I have changed my entire lifestyle, and like you Rhys, I’m almost leading a pseudo vegan lifestyle. I never eat red meat, I haven’t had a beer in over a month, I will occasionally have a cocktail (once a week), and veggies, yogurt, fruits and cherry juice are my new main staples in life.
If fish oil, or flax seed, or algae-based Omega-3, is proven to work I will be all over it. Anything to help lower my UA, I’m in. I will be paying close attention to this thread, just in case.
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Patrick, sounds like you are approaching this in a similar way to me. I tried allopurinol for 6 mos. couldn’t hack all the side effects it gave me, was worse than the gout. Right now am hesitant to try uloric but may eventually have to go there. Total vegetarian diet for close to 2 yrs now, no booze, helps a lot but large amounts of beans, chickpeas, lentils definitely affect me, and of course sugar is the worst. I just upped the amt of cherry juice to 3 plus cups a day spread out and since doing that it has helped immensely, I think before I wasn’t taking enough of it so am going to go this route for now, also have upped the dairy products as well.I am definitely better than when first came off the allopurinol.
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I think gout control is the same whether you rely on pharmaceuticals, herbal medicines, or something else.
Some things help uric acid. Some things help inflammation. Rarely, some might help both.
Whichever mix you chose, you can only control gout if you measure the results of whatever you are taking. Gout will never go away until you get uric acid below its crystallization point. If you know that uric acid is below that, then any gout pain is a sign that old crystals are dissolving, and you are recovering from gout.
Returning to Rhys’ original question about omega 3. I think there are enough studies around to prove the benefits of omega 3. My problem is that I can’t relate these to gout in any meaningful way. The science suggests that they should help inflammation. I cannot see any difference between different sources of omega 3. As for uric acid, I reviewed a 2011 investigation at http://www.goutpal.com/5334/flaxseed-and-gout-a-uric-acid-update/. I cannot see any improvements on this research to include humans. If anyone knows recent research on uric acid and omega 3, please share the links.
The biggest issue for me is context. I.e. is it right to worry about different sources of omega 3? Or is it more important to correct bigger problems with gout diet first?
We know from recent research that vegan diets are generally the worst diets for gout. Now, those are just statistics, so what really matters is the individual.
There’s one thing I’m certain of. Nobody will ever prove that omega 3 is good for all gout. It has to be considered on an individual basis. That individual has to be prepared to keep some detailed personal records.
Does everybody realize that gout diet has to be personal?
Is anybody prepared to share there own experiments with managing their diet to control gout?
Sorry! Reading back, that’s not particularly helpful. I’ll repeat Rhys’ question:
[has] anyone else has done the hard lifting on [omega 3 and gout]
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I have just realized that my fish oil supplement of which I 4x per day is very probably one of the causes of my regular gout flare-ups.
I also suspect mushrooms, asparagus as well as eating smoked salmon regularly.
I would like to eat meat twice a week, fish twice a week eggs, dairy
I eat a wide range of vegetables and salads but I am still having these flare-ups.
I drink 2litres of water per day.
My mother was a gout sufferer. is it genetic????
I have water first thing in the morning,
An anti-constipation herbal drink, wait half an hour and then have a large cup of chocolate with full cream milk. drink water. I don’t eat until lunch time, have eggs salad, or meat salad or fish salad.water, water water. cup of coffee.
dinner have roast, fried, or grilled meat with a variety of four vegetables and salad.-
Hello Elizabeth, my gout is similar triggered by mushrooms, chickpeas, beans and lentils if I eat too much of these things. No alcohol or meat for almost 2 years now as any kind of meat triggered it. Sugar is still bad too, can’t eat much sweet stuff at all. I was on allopurinol for 6 mos. but way too many side effects for me, so quit it. Doc will put me on uloric if needed. The most effective thing for me is cherry juice, after going off the allo, I went back to the juice, wasn’t working really well until I upped the amount, probably drinking 3 plus cups a day spread over 3 or 4 drinks. After upping it, no more minor flares which I was getting without the allopurinol. I just wasn’t taking enough to be really effective. In my case both sides of my family had gout so is definitely hereditary here. It would be really interesting to see if an algae based supplement helps, keep us posted, thanks.
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Since Keith didn’t answer and in case you’re reading this Liz:
a) Genetics is usually part of it but it’s often also got to do with aging and/or people’s lifestyle (not just what you choose to eat). Sometimes the disease can be prevented and other times the genetics are unfavorable enough that there’s nothing to be done besides taking strong drugs every day once you reach a certain age.
b) In order to guess what would or wouldn’t likely to be a solution in your case, blood test results would be very useful. The number relevant to gout is uric acid.
c) I don’t know how much you take but I doubt fish oil is a major contributor. Your body might react to fish oil in a way that makes it seem like it’s the cause (the triggers people report for gout flares are often separate from the underlying causes) but something else is probably be going on. The same goes for aspargus unless you eat ridiculous amounts. Some mushrooms can in theory be a real problem but you’d have to eat a lot of them. Some drugs or medicinal herbs might also be contributing to the problem. But the main problems with what people eat and drink are typically animal flesh (meat, fish and so forth), alcohol and sweeteners (sugar, corn syrup and so forth). There are some differences between the effects of different types of meat but the amount consumed is a big part of the problem, with people eating a lot of meat being more likely to develop gout over time.
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My son takes fish oil. He doesn’t take it every day but maybe once or twice a week. So far no problem. He does take salmon oil if that matters instead of the multi fish oil with sardine oil, etc. I have read that it is safe and good for the joints as it’s not the actual meat of the fish and is good for the joints but for men, there is the prostate issue they can’t seem to see eye to eye on. Have you tried taking it with cherry juice extract?
Good luck. Lisa
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