Gout and/or high cortisol level

Hello to all,

I always had the cortisol level extremely high and after making any kind of exams the only response was that I was under too much stress!! Well this is the response till I was 12! Then, two years ago my new endocrinologist say that my thyroid was under an infiammation and thought I had the Hashimoto but wasn't able to confirm it by the exams and said that probably it is there to explode. Well, for now my TSH is normal but what worries me is another thing.

I had a very tough month: gout pain almost all the time; my dad had a stroke; my husband ended urgently in hospital for strange stomach pain and finally my doctor wanted me to control my blood exams twice and I thought to get a heart attack of how worried I was. Well, my blood sugar was all the time normal but that day was a little over normal and I was shocked. I know that I was still a bit under a flu but still. I know that those things was all cause by the stress. The next day after I finally took a rest and I slept, everything was normal. The fact that stress and my high cortisol have such a heavy impact on my blood sugar makes me feel somehow impotent. What should I do? I am already trying to keep calm and to relax. Seems this is not enough

One of the big problems I now know I had was that cortisol is part of the response to low BG - and low BG is often a rebound from postprandial high BG, so you might want to check your peaks around 1 hour after eating, and then again at 3 - 4 hours to see if you are going high and rebounding low which will release not only glucagon but cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine.

The big problem with the endocrine system is that it is all interractive. Thyroid is a big factor in a lot of things and may not show on TSH, but while you might get T4 you may not get T3 and are very unlikely to get rT3. You could try iodised salt, or sea vegetables, and a brazil nut or two for selenium, both of which may help with thyroid. No-one has bothered to find out why my thyroid went hypER, except that it "probably" isn't cancer. An endocrinologist may have some ideas for further tests for other factors.

Gout is a problem with purine metabolism, but fructose can be a major factor. My mother's worst attacks came after eating rhubarb, with sugar, despite avoiding all the deprecated high purine foods.

Chris, they made to me all the possible exams and nothing went out. What you said put an alarm in my head right now. I used to have fasting BS completely normal but I haven't measured it after meal many times. Anyway those time was normal. The higher was only in those days when I had a flu ( a very bad one actually) and was extremely nervous. I was told once that I should be measuring my BG one hour and half after eating cause this would be the highest level since metformin reaches it's full working about three hours after taking it. Usually, specially in the start of the LCHF I had difficulties to low the fasting BG and once this was very low I was totally calm about it. Since I eat quite often during the day when should I be measuring? One hour and a half after eating and then another time 3 hours after it?

Usually my cortisol level raises during the night - this was the main cause of high BG usually. This is the reason why when I found my fasting BG very low I was completely serene. I will try measuring like this but it is extremely incredible how nervousness make it higher even in few minutes. I have experimented that! I need to measure my fasting BG immediately after waking up in the morning otherwise I realize too much what I am doing and I get nervous straight away. What do you think?

I must say that gout was back when I changed few things in my diet. Wasn't eating much vegetables anymore nor taking any supplements so I think I went out of balance totally. Besides, I read that when the body is producing too many ketones, kidneys have too much to do since they need to flush the body of uric acid too and since I always had it high, ketones are adding too much work for kidneys. Plus I am not drinking as much I should be but it was really hard for me to drink so much the day before I repeated my blood exams (guess I drank more than 3 litres of water) and the urine exam showed no ketones but there were +5 in the previous exam. Besides, I already noticed that the last time that something like that happened to me, it was because of a period very high in stress so there are many elements that maybe have influence. Anyway, I am having soon the next check up so if there is anything wrong they will see but I really hope there is not. Anyway, if this is the case do your think that it would be all cortisol's fault or what?

Will measure it the way you said and see. Thanks!

Hey Chris! My fasting blood sugar was 5.6 and one hour and half after breakfast it was 5.0 and three hours after breakfast it was 5.4. Guess everything is normal. What do you think?

That sounds pretty good! 

There can be some very bizarre and rare problems, for example I knew someone who had only occasional symptoms, which turned out to be caused by a tumour on her pituitary which would only fire up occasionally, so she tried several times to get blood tests during an "episode". Unfortunately the bloods were sent to the lab unrefrigerated, in Texas, in summer, so by the time they arrived they were useless. Can't remember exactly what the diagnosis or treatment was, sorry, but you may have something similar but different going on which would only show up if tested at the right time.

Hope you eventually get to the bottom of it.

Well, for now the only thing I am sure of is that this pain doesn't go away and that my acid uric is extremely high. I know that a gout attack can be started by specific diets and fast loosing weight which is my case. I have done many of the things that can be the cause but having high uric acid I think it make those fewer.
My fasting BG used to be 4.5 -4.8 but since I have this pain I do none exercise but I will need to do it somehow.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. The point I was trying to make is that there can be simple and easily controlled conditions which doctors seldom think of, and rare and hard to diagnose conditions they also seldom think of. Your best bet is probably to read up on the subjects which may suggest something you can get tested, and in the meantime do the best you can! Keep notes on what you change and whether this makes things better or worse.

Having seen my mother with gout, which mainly affected her ankles and toes, I realised I'd actually had a couple of attacks in the past, both only in one joint of my thumb but quite unmistakeable when the crystals burst through the skin. Doctors wrote this off as a "trivial skin infection". In one case I was eating an Ornish-style high carb low fat grain-based vegan diet, which I now also realise was also the first time I passed a gallstone. Gallstones are always blamed on "eating too much fat" but are actually the result of eating too LITTLE fat, so the demand for bile is reduced and it crystallises. Fat is only a problem AFTER you develop stones when it causes them to be passed. 

Likewise eating purines may only be a problem AFTER something else has damaged your purine metabolism.

A guest post from our friend Geoff on our blog some time ago.

How I accidentally cured my painful Acute Gout with baking soda in water.

Later this morning, following Eddie's post yesterday featuring an NHS Support Federation story about private contracts, I revisited their website for more useful information about health-related matters. One story took me to a Guardian article. Beside that article was a list of other recent stories, the first of which was this

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2014/jan/15/more-of-us-getting-gout-beer-wine

The question of gout is of interest to me because I USED TO BE a sufferer. And I remember the articles I found at the time warning me off red meat and beer. What else was there to live for ?

I had learned that anyone can find a tremendous amount of useful information on the internet, following my desire to understand all I could about having low thyroid symptoms, whilst having normal thyroid blood results. I could apply this research to my latest condition.

It didn't take too long to find out that all sorts of people have all sorts of remedies for this condition, but one website stuck out for me in my search for relief :

http://www.icuredmygout.org/

where the author states "The purpose of this webpage is to share with fellow sufferers my experiences in how I accidentally cured my painful Acute Gout with baking soda in water. It sounds impossible, but it is true. If this information is useful, please pass it on."

Baking soda in water was the route I followed, and the route which WORKED for me. This condition came on before my diabetes diagnosis, and at the time I had been drinking a lot of (no, not beer) fruit juice, under the impression it might help with the increasing tiredness I felt. Initially I didn't connect the fruit juice with increased acidity in my joints, so I sometimes used the baking soda to deal with an attack I was still fuelling. When i connected the dots, I dropped the fruit juice, and now rarely take any baking soda.

Gout is typically, but not exclusively, suffered in the big toe. This is where mine was. But I also experienced an onset, from time to time, in my elbows and wrists. All of these symptoms have now gone.

Others swear by apple cider vinegar. For some reason I can't stand the smell of vinegar so I wasn't attracted to this method. I would say that at the first sign of symptoms of arthritis, I will start a regime of baking soda in water. This is what works for me.

If you or a friend is affected by gout, then point yourself/them in the direction of the link above. A great deal of suffering (believe me !) may be avoided.

Good health to all

Geoff J - still enjoying his red meat and occasional beer : )

Interesting!

Yes I suspect the fructose from all that "healthy" fruit juice may have been my problem too.

The classic "treatment" is a low purine diet and allopurinol, with heavy duty painkillers for an attack. Baking soda is much cheaper and worth a try first.

Thank you so much! I am trying it right now! I am taking only one painkiller per day and the pain is manageable so it's not the one that is incredible and makes you cry. Just feeling something in my ankle that doesn't let me to move it normally without a little pain.

Hello to all!

Here I am to let you know how things proceed. Well, the baking soda actually helps although as soon as I arrive to eat any kind of meat, the pain is back. I am eating too much cream cheese and such and I feel I gained weight and I don't want that. I also drink a highly alkalized water and drink an awful vegetable juice made of: carrot,lemon,parsley, celery,garlic. It helps. Really! But it's disgusting! Besides, one thing I discovered is that I probably had a bad circulation and blood too dense caused of lack vitamin c since I am not eating any fruit. Well, now I am adding a lot of vitamin c and also lemon juice etc. and the difference is quite clear also in my sight as was quite foggy often before that. Well, hope to manage it like that even after this period.

Glad things seem to be improving for you.

thinestever82 wrote:Hello to all!

Here I am to let you know how things proceed. Well, the baking soda actually helps although as soon as I arrive to eat any kind of meat, the pain is back. I am eating too much cream cheese and such and I feel I gained weight and I don't want that. I also drink a highly alkalized water and drink an awful vegetable juice made of: carrot,lemon,parsley, celery,garlic. It helps. Really! But it's disgusting! Besides, one thing I discovered is that I probably had a bad circulation and blood too dense caused of lack vitamin c since I am not eating any fruit. Well, now I am adding a lot of vitamin c and also lemon juice etc. and the difference is quite clear also in my sight as was quite foggy often before that. Well, hope to manage it like that even after this period.

Many thanks for the update ...

"carrot,lemon,parsley, celery,garlic. It helps. Really! But it's disgusting!"
An interesting mix but if it helps ... do keep us posted, and take care

All the best Jan