"Do you have some information about uric acid?"

"Do you have some information about uric acid?"

That was the entire e-mail message I recently received from a member named Armando. And those eight simple words made me wince.

Almost certainly, Armando is suffering gout pain.

Imagine a dozen very tiny tacks plunged into the soft tissue of the joint of your big toe (one of the typical spots where gout flares up). That's what gout feels like. In fact, that's exactly what gout is: sharp crystals that cause inflammation and swelling in tissue around joints.

Those crystals form when high levels of uric acid build up.

For most of us, uric acid normally dissolves in the blood and is passed out of the body in the urine. But for some, the body produces too much uric acid. In other patients, the body does a poor job of eliminating uric acid. In both cases the end result is the same: crystals form and pain develops.

And as Armando apparently knows, the pain can be quite intense. And it's not a wave that subsides in a few hours. It's a flood tide that can last for days.

This is when many gout patients bring on the cherries.

Unconventional approach

Eating cherries and drinking cherry juice helps relieve gout pains. The secret: Cherries help prompt uric acid excretion. Unfortunately, you might have to eat quite a few cherries before you start to feel relief. And cherries happen to be a natural laxative, so brace yourself for the repercussions.

Meanwhile, there are other things you can do to help manage the excess uric acid:
Drink lots of water to help with elimination
Two herbal therapies: Celery seed extract and extract of juniper
Chiropractic treatments
Yoga
You can also avoid some of these factors that may add to uric acid overproduction or retention:
High fructose corn syrup
Heavy alcohol consumption
Red meat, liver, kidneys
Shellfish
Excess weight
As I've mentioned before, Dr. Jonathan V. Wright has developed a unique treatment to manage uric acid and control gout: Low-dose lithium combined with high-dose vitamin C

For well over a century, doctors have known that lithium makes uric acid more soluble and less likely to crystallize. And research has shown that vitamin C promotes uric acid to be excreted into the urine.

Dr. Wright recommends 5-10 mg of lithium orotate, three times daily, and 1-2 grams of vitamin C, three times daily.

This dosage of lithium is unlikely to cause any toxic effects. But to be on the safe side, Dr. Wright also recommends 1-2 teaspoonfuls of flaxseed oil (or another fatty acid) daily, along with 400 IU of vitamin E daily to offset any negative responses to the lithium.

He also recommends that this regimen should be monitored by a doctor who's familiar with complementary and alternative medicine.