Question: Hello i recently had gout and its gone but tonight i awoke with a sharp shooting pain under my left big toe, (the same toe where i had the gout) for 2-3 seconds - its now gone. Is this from crystals dissolving or new crystals forming? I have been on a low purine diet since i had the gout and have had plenty of water. Is there anything i can do to help the situation now to prevent a further attack? Please advise also if there is a natural way to dissolve the crystals that may be there from my first attack

Hi Dr. Naval

thanks for your response, kindly see below my clarification:

Last night's shooting sharp pain for 2-3 seconds was at the tip of the base of my left toe, not at the joint, where the gout attack occurred some 15 days ago. I woke up and walked around and then had some water and 2 capsules of Cherry and Celery Seed in case of an attack...I don't have any swelling in my toe today nor any discomfort - I had slight discomfort at the ball of my foot when I woke up in the morning but none since and no real pain. Essentially other than that 2-3 seconds of shooting pain at the tip of my toe, I have no other symptom today. I have been monitoring my pH and it has been 6.5-7.25 consistently over the past 2-3 days so I was a bit surprised.

See below, responses to your questions:

1. how many attacks you get in a month and has it worsened since last year or so
- only 1 major gout attack (28th of Oct lasted 15 days)
- 2 minor toe inflammation events about a month before that and 6 months or so before that lasted 1 day only

2. what was your last uric acid
- I'm not sure this was ever measured perviously but I did have a blood test for UA and should have results this week

3. any medications you have been taking for It? - none for the gout except for NSAID (Advil, Aleve and then Indomethancin for 5 days, 1-2 times a day)

4. any other joints affected apart from great for
- No other joints affected with gout - my right pointer finger right side joint sometimes gets inflamed slightly after hot yoga

Please let me know if you think whether the shooting pain was from uric acid crystals dissolving and flowing to the tip of the toe (it did not hurt in any joint) or if you think this was formation of new crystals - I did not think crystals formed in an alkaline environment (7.25 and up) or slightly acidic (6.5-6.75). Please let me know what I can do to naturally contain this - I have switched by diet from below:

Heavy red meat, sugar and alcohol (last 10 years) plus extensive hot yoga (2 years, where my urine was dark yellow after exercise) to now:

Vegetarian diet, no sugar, no alcohol, 12-14 glasses of water + omega 3, tart cherry, celery seed, and probiotic supplement; no carbs or minimal only.

I would appreciate your experience and any collective expertise you may have to help me solve this without medication - I will know my UA results only in a few days by which time this question will time out - is there a way to interact longer due to the seriousness of this issue?

thank you kindly XXXXXXX