Category: Body cleansing
How to remove uric acid from the body? An increased volume of such a substance adversely affects the human condition and leads to the development of various diseases.
The accumulation of salts resulting from increased levels of uric acid provokes the development of joint diseases.
Uric acid is a compound resulting from the breakdown of proteins and purines. It is a toxic substance and is excreted by the kidneys. An increase in the volume of uric acid in the body occurs in the presence of provoking factors.
The normal value for adults is 150-350 µm/l, for children – 120-320 µm/l. An increase in uric acid volume is called hyperuricemia. There are two types of this phenomenon – primary and secondary.
Primary hyperuricemia results from the inheritance of mutated genes responsible for the breakdown of purines. It is rarely diagnosed in children in the first year of life.
The secondary form of the disease develops due to the presence of certain causes. Often diagnosed in older people.
Signs of excess uric acid
Uric acid forms salts (urates) in the body with average ability to dissolve in water. In the blood it is associated with alpha globulins.
The first signs of its accumulation in the body will be fatigue and deposits on the teeth. In children, excess acid immediately appears as red spots all over the body with characteristic itching.
In adults, arthritic inflammation with redness and severe cutting pain is observed, first at the joint of the big toe, then the pain spreads to other joints in which the blood supply is weakened.
If you do not go on a special diet that limits proteins in time, then gout develops over time - destruction of joints by tiny urate crystals. Foods that eliminate uric acid should become the basis of the diet even before joint pain appears if a person wants to remain active in later years. Such nutrition is the basis of active longevity.
Health Hazard
Excess uric acid increases the risks of many diseases, such as atherosclerosis and cardiovascular problems. And it may even be one of the factors contributing to the development of senile dementia.
Over the years, the uric acid accumulated in the body hardens and settles in the joints. In men after 35-40 years, and in women after 60 years, sharp pain in the joints begins with hyperemia and redness of the skin. Women are protected until a certain period by the hormone estradiol. But after menopause, hormones suddenly stop being produced. If during this period you do not start eating foods that remove uric acid from the body, salts in tissues and joints will begin to accumulate as quickly as in men.
Causes
Hyperurecemia is diagnosed when more than 7.0 mg/dL of uric acid is present in the blood test. However, not everyone is prone to excess acid, only 20% of the population. Drinking alcohol, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance increases the risk of hyperurecemia. In addition, the acid level is affected by the use of certain medications and the person's age.
Poor diet, weight-promoting medications, and alcohol consumption also affect purine levels in the body. Excessive production of uric acid is an inherited problem. If a person knows that his relatives had this disease, he needs to know the list of products that remove uric acid from the body. The sooner you take your nutrition seriously, the fewer problems you will have in your mature and old years. And men need to have their blood tested for uric acid every year. For diagnosis, a simple test where blood is taken from a finger is sufficient.
Medications for hyperuricemia
Indications for the use of drugs are two main reasons, namely:
- low level of urate excretion by the body;
- excess of normal levels of uric acids.
The treatment process begins with gout attacks or when urate stones are detected.
Medicines that quickly lower purine levels are divided into two groups:
- drugs that increase the excretion of uric acid;
- agents that reduce the production of purines.
Before prescribing the required group of medications, the specialist conducts a diagnostic study. In particular, 24-hour urine analysis. Diagnostics will help to identify how to overcome the problem by acting directly on the cause of its development.
Accurate diagnosis is the key to successful treatment
What are purines?
Purine bases are part of the DNA of living organisms. In particular, purines such as adenine and guanine are also present in the human genetic helix. Uric acid is one of those breakdown products that the human body is not able to completely break down into smaller components, since its body does not have a special enzyme - uricase. In most mammals on the planet, uric acid is broken down into less complex elements by the presence of this enzyme.
This means that it is important for almost every person to eat foods that remove uric acid from the body. According to statistics, a third of the world's population has a slightly elevated level of this substance in the blood.
Foods that contain purines
If a person has a predisposition to excessive production of this acid, in addition he consumes a lot of protein foods, then its level will be high. Foods that increase blood acid levels are:
- fatty meat dishes (jelly is especially popular);
- sausages;
- bird;
- sweet flour products;
- various hot dogs and other street food;
- smoked and pickled foods;
- bread made from premium flour;
- bean porridges or soups;
- eggs;
- mushrooms;
- ham;
- chocolate;
- from plants Brussels sprouts, spinach.
- pickled and too spicy dishes.
You should also limit your consumption of tomatoes and sorrel. You don't have to completely eliminate lentils. This is the most useful legume plant. But you shouldn’t overuse it either. Coffee should also be reduced if more than 2 cups are drunk per day.
These are the products that absolutely cannot be consumed by those people who already suffer from joint pain due to a hereditary predisposition to the deposition of salts in the body. Drinks containing alcohol, as well as sweet drinks, are contraindicated for a patient with hyperurecemia. You need to drink alkaline water.
They need to switch to a diet that removes uric acid. If you do not normalize your diet, the pain will become even stronger, the joints in both the arms and legs will begin to deform. Gout is a terrible disease that can lead to immobility.
What should you avoid?
The following foods have a very high purine content. If uric acid is high, you should avoid them first:
- Beef. Per 100 grams there are about 400 mg of purines and even more. For example, in the thymus gland (meat from the neck) the level reaches 600 mg per 100 grams of fresh meat. And purines, by the way, are not destroyed by heat treatment. Pork is only slightly inferior in “harmfulness” to beef.
- Beer. An extremely dangerous product. In addition to alcohol, it contains brewer's yeast. And their purines are almost 2 times higher than in beef. In addition to this, beer stimulates urination, during which potassium is actively washed out of the body, but the concentration of sodium, on the contrary, increases.
- Mushrooms. They are also rich in purines; in their biochemical composition they are something between vegetables and meat. Dried porcini mushrooms are especially “harmful” if there is an excess of uric acid in the blood.
- Fish in oil. Smoked fish should also be included here. After processing, the content of unsaturated fatty acids in them decreases, but purines do not disappear. Accordingly, it is still better to avoid sprat in tomato sauce or tuna in white marinade. Such products contain much less purines than beef or pork, but still quite a lot.
- Animal by-products. These include the lungs, kidneys, liver, and spleen. Contain a large amount of purines and sodium. And since these products are most often used as ingredients in the production of sausages, they should also be abandoned.
- Baker's yeast. Accordingly, baked goods that are also prepared with yeast should also be excluded from the diet. Instead of bread, it is better to use corn tortillas, and baked ones.
Table
Also check out the table for purine content in foods:
Uric acid is produced by the body itself, this happens in the liver. Therefore, it is not always the diet that influences its final level in the body. Some endocrine diseases can disrupt metabolic processes involving carbohydrates and fats. And it is then that the body actively transforms proteins into the same fatty acids and amino acids. This is also accompanied by an increase in urea levels.
Doctors' advice for gout
What do modern rheumatologists recommend when patients come to them with complaints of everting pain in the joints with hyperemia? They remind a person of the importance of regular vegetables and fruits in the daily diet.
After each meal it is useful to eat a whole apple. If you have gastritis, then choose sweet apples, not sour ones, and grate them with carrots. You will have to be careful with sour cream, since this product also cannot be consumed a lot. It is better to gradually switch to vegetable fats.
What foods remove uric acid from the body?
So, the only effective method of combating salt deposits is diet. What foods will help improve your gout condition at least a little? Foods that remove uric acid are fruits and vegetables. The patient should completely switch to a low-protein diet.
Protein is a building material; it is needed in large quantities during the period of child growth, and is needed by young men involved in sports. But for an adult, excess protein only harms.
The body can “obtain” the necessary supply of protein from milk, hard cheese and cottage cheese. Only occasionally can a patient afford to eat a piece of chicken (without skin) or a couple of boiled eggs.
The most suitable foods for gout are:
- celery comes first in health;
- carrot;
- pumpkin;
- White cabbage;
- various cereals;
- milk;
- nuts;
- watermelons.
Products that naturally remove uric acid are:
- plums;
- apples;
- apricots;
- pears;
- cherry;
- strawberries and more.
In addition to the diet, you also need a drinking regimen. Be sure to drink at least 1.5 liters of liquid per day. Gradually you need to increase the amount of water you drink.
But even sometimes the strictest diet will not help if the salts have been deposited for many years and have already affected several joints. In this case, medications are needed to help quickly break down and remove these salts.
Special diet and recipes
Many people know what foods remove uric acid. This is mainly plant food. The diet is selected based on the patient’s weight, age, gender and physical activity.
As for the menu for every day, this is a purely personal matter. If you go to a nutritionist, he will clearly outline your menu for the week, but this is not necessary. You can eat, without counting calories, every day, but at the same time, make sure that your diet does not contain foods that are “forbidden” for gout sufferers. And at the same time, whenever possible, engage in physical exercise.
As an example that you can rely on when drawing up your personal menu, here is a 1-day diet for an average-weight adult who does not engage in daily sports.
- Oatmeal. Apple or apple juice.
- Buckwheat pancakes. Instead of tea - a medicinal herbal decoction.
- Dried fruits or vegetable smoothies.
- Mashed potatoes. And a vegetable salad. Just remember that tomatoes, sorrel, and spinach should be limited.
- A glass of milk with turmeric or other spices to taste.
This list of products is approximate. There are many healthy food recipes. If you wish, you can find a lot of interesting recipes from those vegetables and cereals that are more to your taste. But be sure to include in your diet foods that remove uric acid from the body.
Herbal infusions are also selected individually. Infusions from the following plants often help:
- blueberries;
- strawberry leaves;
- calendula infusion;
- birch buds and leaves.
You can also take foot baths with calendula infusion. Baths and decoctions, as well as various traditional medicine recipes, are not an effective treatment for gout.
Traditional medicine
It is possible to remove uric acid from the blood at home using traditional medicine. There are many recipes, the use of which allows you to quickly reduce the level of the substance and carry out cleaning.
Recipes:
- Lingonberry tincture. Twenty grams of leaves are poured into a glass of boiling water and left for half an hour. Take one large spoon three times a day.
- An infusion of nettle herb is prepared in a similar way. You need to drink a small spoon three times a day.
- A decoction of burdock roots helps remove toxic substances well. Fifty grams of the substance is brewed with boiling water, take a tablespoon up to two times a day.
- Grind the green bean husks. A tablespoon of powder is poured with boiling water in the amount of one liter. Boil in a water bath for two hours. Filter and drink a large spoon three times every twenty-four hours.
- Half a kilogram of garlic is crushed and poured with a liter of pure alcohol. The bottle is left in a sunny place for ten days. The finished product is taken on an empty stomach, adding to milk or juice.
- The combination of honey and raisins will bring tangible benefits to a person. They take a kilogram of food. On the first day, eat a handful of raisins on an empty stomach, after which they do not eat for a couple of hours. The next day repeat, but add honey. Continue treatment until the products run out.
Before removing uric acid using folk remedies, it is recommended to consult a specialist. Such treatment does not always cure the disease. In this case, it is recommended to carry out therapy with medications.
Any medications must be prescribed by a doctor. Self-use can lead to unpleasant consequences and aggravate the situation. What medications will help cope with high uric acid levels? There are two groups of medications aimed at reducing uric acid levels.
Groups:
- Probenecid and analogs. Stimulates the removal of uric acid from tissues.
- Allopurinol and similar agents. Aimed at reducing the synthesis of toxic substances in the body.
Before prescribing a medicine, the doctor conducts a thorough examination to select the most suitable treatment.
In addition to products that can be found in every home, there are effective recipes based on plant flowers or tree leaves. The following recipes will help answer the question of how to reduce the level of uric acid in the blood using folk remedies:
- A teaspoon of nettle juice 3 times a day. This plant increases the excretion of acid by the kidneys.
- Decoction of lingonberry leaves: 20 g of lingonberries are brewed in 200 ml of boiling water. After the decoction has steeped and cooled, drink 1 spoon 3 or 4 times a day.
- A decoction of birch leaves: two tablespoons of birch leaves should be brewed in 400 ml of boiling water. Boil the solution for 10 minutes, then leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Drink 50 ml of decoction during meals.
For gout, when the joints of the legs are affected, it is effective to make a foot bath of calendula, chamomile and sage. To do this, 200 g of plant flowers are boiled in 1.5 liters of water. Afterwards the broth is infused for 2 hours. The solution is filtered and added to the foot bath. The bath temperature should be a couple of degrees lower than body temperature (35-37°C). This method effectively relieves pain and redness of the joints.
The most common medicine that reduces the level of uric acid in the blood is Allopurinol. Its mechanism of action is to reduce the production of urate by the liver.
This drug is prescribed by a doctor after the third attack of arthritis and an increase in the level of acid in the blood to more than 420 µmol/l. If the presence of kidney stones or an increased concentration of creatinine is established, Allopurinol is prescribed immediately.
First, the drug is offered at a dose of 100-150 mg/day. Over two weeks it is gradually increased to 300 mg/day. If the drug has been taken at the indicated dose for two weeks, but the effect is not achieved, the amount is increased to 600 mg/day. And if the effect is maintained, the dose, on the contrary, is reduced by half.
In case of severe renal impairment, the recommended dose of Allopurinol is 50-100 mg/day.
The effect should appear within one to two weeks from the start of taking the medicine. In parallel with it, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are usually prescribed.
Undesirable side effects may be observed during therapy with Allopurinol:
- allergic reactions;
- liver dysfunction;
- decreased bone marrow function, which leads to decreased blood cell synthesis.
Allopurinol therapy is effective only if there are clear symptoms of high uric acid levels. For asymptomatic increases in urate, diet therapy is sufficient.
When answering the question of how to reduce the level of uric acid in the blood, it is worth remembering another group of medications – uricosurics. They increase the excretion of acid in the urine, which leads to a decrease in its concentration in the body. These are medications such as Probenecid, Benzbromarone, Benziodarone.
They are prescribed when uric acid excretion decreases ≤ 700-800 mg/day. Patients must be less than 60 years old.
The use of medications is contraindicated in cases of impaired renal function and urolithiasis.
Treatment with uricosuric drugs has its side effects:
- headache;
- skin rashes;
- anemia;
- nausea;
- increase in body temperature.
Probenecid should be taken with caution along with drugs that increase blood viscosity. Since this can lead to the formation of blood clots in the vessels.
We hope that in this article everyone found the answer to the question of how to reduce the level of uric acid in the blood. The main thing to remember is that the earlier a problem is identified, the easier it is to fix it. And this applies not only to uric acid levels. Therefore, a preventive examination and blood test once a year should become a habit.
Recipes for decoctions to dissolve kidney stones
To safely remove urate stones from the kidneys, it is advisable to drink herbal teas rather than fermented black ones. Birch decoction is considered one of the best and most useful infusions for cleansing the body. It simply infuses, after 40 minutes it is ready for oral use. Just 2 tablespoons of birch leaves are poured with boiling water (400 grams of water). Boil for about 5 minutes, then infuse a little, strain through gauze, and infuse for another 20-30 minutes and cool.
Lingonberry infusion will also help. Dry lingonberry leaves (20 g) per 200 ml. boiling water Just like the birch infusion, the infusion is first boiled, then decanted and infused for at least 30 minutes under the lid.
Herbal recipes
Herbal remedies are best taken orally. This allows you to achieve maximum healing effect.
Herbal decoction
For cooking, take the following:
- 5 g each - buckthorn, blue cornflower, peony, juniper fruits and calendula flowers;
- 10 g each - nettle leaves and black elderberry flowers;
- 20 g each - horsetail, birch leaves and willow bark.
The resulting mixture is poured with 1 liter of water, brought to a boil and simmered over low heat for 10 minutes.
The healing agent is taken 150-200 ml every 2 hours until it runs out.
Lilac infusion
The product is prepared from 50 g of lilac leaves. They are filled with 0.5 liters of water and left for 15 days. Take 1 teaspoon for 3 days during gout exacerbation.
Infusion of chamomile, sage and calendula
To prepare the infusion, plant flowers are taken in equal proportions. For 200 grams of herbal collection, take 1.5 liters of boiled water at 35°C. An infusion prepared from the flowers of the plant is used for baths.
Medicines
Each patient needs to select the drug individually. The level of acid already accumulated and the patient’s kidney health are taken into account. It often happens that uric acid accumulates not only in the joints, but also in the kidneys, and right under the skin in patients. Then the doctor prescribes stronger drugs.
In parallel with treatment, it is important to strictly follow the diet. Products that remove uric acid from joints are already known. With a disease such as gout, it is necessary to treat it with the help of diet, and at the same time following the advice of classical medicine.
Methods for removing acid
Both medicine with professional medications and other methods can help in the fight against uric acid.
More budget options on how to get rid of acid:
- preventative diet;
- increased physical activity;
- transforming lifestyle for the better;
- use of folk recipes.
The best way to get rid of acidic compounds is to follow your doctor's instructions. They often include requirements for physical activity, daily routine and nutrition.
The issue of traditional medicine remains controversial. It needs to be resolved with a therapist. If he considers the selected prescription acceptable for the patient, you can start taking it after a course of official therapy or simultaneously with it.
The main thing is to coordinate professional and non-professional drugs so that there are no negative side effects.