To start off, Gout is an arthritic condition caused by swelling of the joints. The swelling of these joints occur because of a build-up of uric acid.
It came to my attention recently that people with Gout tend to avoid exercise because of the pain felt in their joints, particularly the joint near the big toe, when in fact exercise can become one of the factors in helping fix the problem! Especially since being overweight increases your risk of gout and losing weight lowers it.
But how can exercise help your gout???
Well its simple! Stronger bones and stronger muscles are going to help your joints by taking off the physical load.
But exactly what exercises should I be doing you ask?
And the answer is low impact!! Like any joint injury we must not put too much pressure on the joints so keeping cardio and weights to low impact is what's needed here. Some examples of high impact weights exercises to avoid are: Squat Jumps, Burpees, Running, Leaping Exercises such as Forward Bounds and Frog Leaps, Box Jumps, Jump Rope and Jumping Jacks. A couple of great low impact exercises examples would be: Eliptical Machine (otherwise known as Cross-Trainer), Ergonomic Rower, Cycling and my personal favourite, Swimming!
What else do I need to keep an eye on?
YOUR DIET!!
Because the uric acid is a human waste product, diet effects people with gout largely.
So what food should you avoid?
Cut back on your saturated fats found in red meats (especialy Kidney and Liver), fatty poultry and high fat dairy products. Also avoid seafood such as anchovies, herrings, tune, mackeral and muscles. If you drink alcohol you really want to avoid beer but if you truly want to manage your gout I suggest avoiding alcohol.
What foods can you go for?
Eating more fruits and vegetable along with whole grains will help you a lot! You want to go for high fibre products. WATER!! Make sure you drink plenty of water you should be aiming to drink twice as much water as the average person its recommended to drink 1L/25kgs of bodyweight so aim for 2L/25kgs of bodyweight.
Gout holds back up to 2% of Australians (thats 480,000 Aussies/year!) but by upholding the simple tips in this article it can easily be avoided or managed so that you can get back on track to achieving your health and fitness goals!
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
