10 December 2021

Video of the day -- making the pain stop


I used to suffer from fairly frequent, extremely painful flare-ups of inflammation in the joints, which were sometimes so bad that I had to miss work time (long-time readers may recall a few times I took a break from posting because it was too painful to type, or I had to type one-handed).  In some cases, doctors did use the word gout to describe it.  This continued even through the years when I had given up eating meat.  Early in 2020 I cut out all remaining animal products (such as cheese and eggs), and since then, these flare-ups have almost entirely stopped.  If you suffer from this, it may work for you as well.

12 Comments:

Blogger Lady M said...

I am currently using Dr. Gregers nutrition facts app to make sure I get my daily dozen. He is mentioned in this video at Nutrition Facts.org. You'd like him. I listened to his book "How Not to Diet" and have "How Not to Die" on hold. And you can't follow the money. Dr. Greger is not in it for the money. He donates the profits from these books. He truly wants people to eat better and he is extremely research/science based in his recommendations. But the bottom line is - a whole food plant based diet is the healthiest one can eat and the best for weight loss.

10 December, 2021 06:54  
Blogger NickM said...

My wife is a long time vegan, 42 and has recently been diagnosed with gout. I was about 15 years ago (I'm 48 for the record). I only had it in the big toe of my left foot and it went away of it's own volition after a week or so. I guess I went to the doctors more out of the weirdness (maybe it was something more sinister?) of the symptoms rather than actual serious discomfort. I was stunned at what she said. I mean, gout! It's not like I'm an C18th Aristo!

Anyway, the Dr told me that whilst frequently diet related it can strike anyone! Now I don't wanna get, like whatever, with you Infidel but I suspect that it may not be the vegan diet per-se but the necessity that imposes on one of actually thinking about what you eat.

10 December, 2021 09:53  
Blogger Sixpence Notthewiser said...

OMG who knew???
I've lived for years with a vegetarian, so I eat very little meat but I had no idea it could be this radical!

XOXO

10 December, 2021 10:08  
Blogger SickoRicko said...

I cannot even imagine pain like that. I'm glad the vegan diet helped you!

10 December, 2021 10:15  
Blogger Mike said...

There is 'piano music for one hand'. Maybe you could write a book, "Blogging with One Hand"?

10 December, 2021 11:10  
Blogger Mary Kirkland said...

That's good to know. I'm glad to hear your health is better.

10 December, 2021 11:42  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Lady M: I've seen quite a few of Dr Greger's videos, and may even have posted one or two. He definitely gives good advice, and is passionate about what he does.

NickM: The thing is, as the video shows, there's a clear cause-and-effect chain that links consumption of animal products with development of gout (the other common cause of it is alcohol, and I still drink more than is good for me, but apparently that's not enough to trigger the problem by itself, at least in my case). The thing is that even when a given behavior clearly causes a disease, that still doesn't mean 100% correlation -- as, for example, some people smoke and never get lung cancer, and a few people don't smoke and do get lung cancer (like being vegan and still getting gout), but that doesn't change the fact that smoking causes lung cancer.

Sixpence: Meat causes all kinds of problems, including a lot of things like back pain that we don't normally associate with diet. Mic has a great abundance of videos on all these things, always with rigorous scientific studies to back up what he says.

Ricko: It can be extremely painful in some cases, believe me.

Mike: Just so long as I didn't have to write the book with one hand.

10 December, 2021 11:44  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Mary K: It's been a great relief to leave that particular problem behind, that's for sure.

10 December, 2021 11:47  
Blogger NickM said...

I did say that it was related to diet. I'm certainly not dissing that but the big question is not about gout or even lung cancer but the weirdnesses that simply aren't understood. Flipping it around a bit it's like why do some cancer therapies work brilliantly for some people but not for others. That is probably one of the biggest questions in medicine.

10 December, 2021 15:33  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Yeah, but in the case of gout (and lung cancer) we pretty much do know the causes. Every person and every case is a little bit different, so there are always going to be occasional exceptions to the general pattern, but we know what the general pattern is.

11 December, 2021 00:45  
Blogger Daal said...

good to know & glad you're better -- I like to remember that things that are hard to do but that're helpful can help me in ways I don't even know.

11 December, 2021 17:30  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

I think anyone who completely stops eating meat and animal products will find that it brings a lot of benefits beyond what they expect.

12 December, 2021 02:09  

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