Smart Summary: Alkaline Water for Gout
Studies suggest alkaline water’s anti-inflammatory properties may reduce uric acid levels. These are responsible for the buildup of painful crystals in joints which cause gout. Combining alkaline water consumption with best health practices could help in reducing ongoing swelling and pain.
If you’re familiar with gout, then you know high levels of uric acid in the body cause this type of inflammatory of arthritis. Specifically, gout forms after acid creates sharp crystals in your joints. This causes swelling, pain, and tenderness.
For those with gout, alkaline water has proven to provide relief and healing properties. It’s a natural, healing treatment that can ease the symptoms of gout over time.
Alkaline Water Benefits for Gout
Alkaline water offers more benefits than regular drinking water due to its neutralizing effects on acid in the body.
Multiple studies on various diseases including gout have shown the anti-inflammatory properties in alkaline water make it helpful for maintaining a higher urine pH balance. It can also flush out harmful uric acid, which is a known cause of gout.
What is Gout
Gout is a health condition caused by inflammatory arthritis, which develops in people who have higher levels of uric acid. When uric acid starts to gather, it forms needle-like, sharp, painful crystals in your joints.
If you notice redness, swelling, and tenderness in your feet and joint, you may have gout. It’s important to drink filtered water and even alkaline water to neutralize uric acid and help your body heal.
What is Alkaline Water
Alkaline water is water with a higher pH level. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14, which ranges from very acidic to highly alkaline. Drinking alkaline water with a pH over 8.0 has been shown to neutralize acid in the body.
For those suffering from gout, drinking alkaline water can help reduce swelling and pain from gout, but it’s also beneficial for preventing gout if you’re at risk.
Benefits of Alkaline Water for Gout
Gout sufferers have problems filtering out uric acid in their bloodstream. Once gout sets in, it can be a long and strenuous healing process to reduce swelling and pain in your joints, especially if you experience gout in your feet.
Some of the health benefits of drinking alkaline water for gout include:
- Deliver antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties directly to your bloodstream
- Reduce and neutralize acid in your bloodstream
- Pass uric acid easily and prevent crystals from forming
- Prevent kidney stones from forming
How Alkaline Water Prevents Gout
Highly alkaline water can reduce uric acid and prevent it from building up in your bloodstream. This prevents dehydration and swelling from gout. Studies on drinking alkaline water have shown that it can reduce and neutralize acid in the body.
Water that is either naturally alkaline or created through ionization has a higher pH. Studies on alkaline water with a pH over 8.0 can prevent gout by allowing uric acid to pass through easily, instead of collecting in your blood and joints.
The alkaline diet is also preferred for those suffering gout because it reduces the number of toxins in your body and makes it easier to prevent gout flare-ups.
Recommended Intake of Alkaline Water for Gout
Before starting any new diet or drinking alkaline water regularly, you should talk to your doctor about your treatment for gout. Additionally, those with gout also have issues with kidney stones. You may want to talk about the benefits of alkaline water for kidney stones as well.
When using alkaline water for gout, you’ll want to drink alkaline water with a pH over 8.0 regularly for a period of two weeks. You should see a noticeable difference in your swelling and pain if you’re currently experiencing a gout flare-up.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can’t drink alkaline water with every meal. It’s best to drink regular water with your meals and drink alkaline water before or after you eat. You can start off your day by drinking a full glass of alkaline water to help your body break down and neutralize uric acid better.
The best way to have fresh alkaline water is to use a water ionizer. These machines produce clean, filtered, alkaline water with a customizable pH. For example, Tyent filters allow you to set the exact pH level, which means you can create slightly more alkaline water or even higher alkaline levels to ensure you experience its anti-inflammatory properties.
Should You Drink Alkaline Water with Gout
In order to benefit from drinking alkaline water, you should monitor your urine’s pH levels. This shows the exact difference between periods when you drank regular water and when you started drinking alkaline water. In studies, most patients saw lower urine pH levels and experienced less gout after drinking alkaline water.
If you have been drinking highly alkaline water every day, you also want to understand some of the risks. Alkaline water with pH levels over 8.0 shouldn’t be consumed for long periods of time. There are some risks associated with changing the alkalinity of your water for too long, including the risk of contracting metabolic alkalosis.
While rare, metabolic alkalosis occurs when your body’s normal pH changes. This isn’t typically due to drinking highly alkaline water every day, but rare cases lead to nausea, hand tremors, and muscle twitching. Again, it’s best to talk to your doctor before starting any new health routine to treat gout.
Conclusion
Alkaline water is a safe and natural way to prevent gout by neutralizing uric acid in the body. Many health professionals and scientists have studied alkaline water’s effects on gout and found that it helps in healing, causing pain and swelling from gout to drastically decrease. You can read water ionizer reviews to see how to generate alkaline water at home with the best water filtration systems.
