• SUGARY/FATTY foods like sugary pastries he ate every morning which were just making his blood more acidic and preventing those uric acid crystals from dissolving--also, hypercholesterol worsens gout
• YEASTY foods(breads, pastries) and MSG foods which both are high in purines
• SALTY foods like processed chips/snacks as well as acidic foods like VINEGAR--hypertension as well as acidic blood exacerbates gout
• ALCOHOL altogether--worsens gout
• CAFFEINE drinks like cola & coffee altogher which were giving his body nothing except useless caffeine and just making his blood acidic, again bad for gout
• PAIN MEDICATION since they will damage the kidneys--rely on lots of raw garlic in his foods to prevent or reduce the inflammation pain although in the first month sometimes he would have to take 2 pain tablets every day or so but in the 2nd month only had to take 1 capsule or no capsules every other day and now rarely ever needs Voltarren pain medicine--And have a gallon or so of SODA WATER OR WATER WITH BAKING SODA next to your bed when you sleep at night in case you get an acute attack--the sooner you turn your blood from acidic to alkali, the sooner the pain will go away---drink as much as needed to make the pain go away
• FRIED FOODS: Most foods are unhealthy because of how they're cooked, fried in heavy oils, so he steamed, boiled, or baked his foods.
• ANY OIL EXCEPT OMEGA-3 TYPE OILS LIKE OLIVE OIL ONLY: We get too much Omega-6 in our diets which are mainly in the form of vegetable oils. Olive oils are more healthy with high Omega-3. I told him everytime he fried food or had to use oil, use olive oil. Just as good would be flax oil(but only good cold) or Grape seed oil.
• HIGH PURINE FOODS--TURN INTO A VEGETARIAN OR FRUITITARIAN FOR A WHILE: Because his gout problems were so severe already, he couldn't eat organ meats, meat, chicken or fish for over 2 months. In the first month, he wasn't even able to eat some moderately high in purine vegetables like spinach and broccoli nor any oily foods. High purine/uric acid producing foods are one of the main triggers of gout, with the main cause being the genetic factor(s). Thankfully, now his gout isn't so severe (even though he still has large uric acid crystal deposits in his joints) and he's able to eat 1 or 2 pieces of chicken per day and even ice cream.

REGIMEN ALTERATIONS:

• VITAMIN B PANTOTHENIC ACID in synthetic form-decreases in times of stress, but your body needs vitamins like this so that cellular functions are maintained, esp. for the kidney-i had him take it any time he felt stress or anxiety
• half a pound of cherries or cherry juice (can substitute many other berries or strawberries if cherries are not available) to remove his uric acid crystals and stop the inflammatory pain
• LOTS OF SODA WATER(which has sodium citrate) OR water mixed with BAKING SODA to help keep his blood alkali, especially when he's suffering acute pain attacks, he has a gallon of water with tsp's of baking soda mixed in which is next to his bed each night
• CELERY SEED TEA--1 tsp celery seeds in 1 cup boiling water to help his diuresis in excreting the crystals
• Drinks like carrot juice, celery juice, cranberry juice WITHOUT THE SUGAR which would help with diuresis in excreting the crystals. If sugar was needed, bee honey was used since i believe you're getting back a lot more nutrients that stimulate your immune system than you do by just taking in plain sugar.
• CALCIUM--Since he wasn't taking any dairy products because it would worsen his gout, synthetic calcium tablets of 1 tablet of 1000 mg every 2 days
• HIGH ALKALI FOODS--like Watermelons, fruits, grapes, raisins
• FLAX SEEDS: its lignans and phytochemicals very helpful in kidney function, 3 to 4 tsp's ground up in a coffee grinder added to his salads each day
• OMEGA-3 pills-helpful in lowering blood pressure and lowering risk of heart problems and circulatory problems and needed for essential bodily functions

Later after 1 month of my treatment, when he was actually able to get an HONEST doctor(and the threat of malpractice against his previous doctor and his health insurance company with probable forwarding towards the state's Insurance Commisioner helped alot after he wrote about his complaints to the insurance company), he was finally able to get Probenecid which helped a lot. Because of his knowledge/control of his diet, he doesn't need to take allopurinol anymore. But he still had the problem with his kidney, so my list for his kidney problems:

• TURMERIC tea-Steep a few tsp's in 1 cup boiling water for 10 minutes, with a tsp of honey added. It's very important component Circumin is heavy with anti-oxidants, anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, and anti-microbial effects. The problem is long term it will make you crash. I told him to only take it once a week after the first week of taking it every day.
• DANDELION tea-Steep 1 tsp of the herb dandelion dried root in 1 cup boiling water for 20 minutes, with a tsp of honey & cinnamon added to be taken each night. It will help remove uric acid crystals and "purify" his blood. Honey is for taste and cinnamon is helpful for the kidneys/digestion. Like many herbs, it has anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant effects and also has a laxative effect to take away a lot of anxiety & stress. Actually, infusions are even better than regular tea. Infusions mean you get a higher amount of herbs and let them steep in boiling water for hours like overnite so that you can get ahold of more of the nutrients as well as the specific active properties.
• MILK THISTLE-Since it's hard to extract the milk thistle active components silymarin, etc. from the seeds since they're not extractable by water and alcohol is bad for his gout, I got capsules at the health store and told him to take 1 to 2 capsules each night. Milk Thistle, as well as excrrting out uric acid crystals like Dandelion, helps protect and regenerate some cells in both the liver and kidneys.
• Sometimes, GINGKO BILOBA added to the Dandelion tea. Gingko biloba in addition to making the person's mind alert will make the other herbs more bioavailable for him, but there can be side effects like bleeding, so it shouldn't be used often.
• NUTRIENTS for normal cell functions(like repairing cells) to be carried out in the body--since he's staying away from high uric acid foods like meat and fatty foods like dairy foods, he was basically anemic, so i had him sprinkle KELP on his food (1 tsp every day) and BEE POLLEN(1 tsp every other day)--both have high vitamin, mineral, enzyme content and SUNFLOWER SEEDS, UNSALTED, UNROASTED(2 tsp/day ground up high in Vitamin E and other minerals) and PUMPKIN SEEDS, UNSALTED, UNROASTED(1 tsp/day high in Zinc) and BRAZIL NUTS(high in Selenium with just one nut each day). Vitamin E is very important for the kidney which reduces oxidative stress or damage to the kidneys as well as lowers blood pressure which is also a factor in kidney damage but it also needs its co-performers Selenium and Zinc and I also had him take pills COENZYME Q10 as helpers. Grind up all the nuts, seeds, and bee pollen and you can 'bind' them together with a small amount of peanut butter on toasted bread or you can add them to the salad like i had my uncle do.
• SPECIAL VEGETABLES AS A REGULAR PART OF HIS DIET: PARSLEY & ARTICHOKE & CELERY & CARROTS IN HIS SALADS. Parsley is a diuretic and lowers blood pressure and has high chlorophyll which helps excrete toxins but it does not depete potassium so potassium rich foods like bananas should be avoided most of the time. Parsley also improves kidney activity and has a few anti-cancer properties. That yucky green vegetable you pass by each day at the grocer's --the Artichoke-- is in the same family as Milk Thistle and so has liver/kidney protecting properties. Celery has almost the same effect as cherries. Carrots have a diuretic effect as well as lower blood pressure.
• BIOPERINE-basically it's found in black pepper and is made synthetically--I had him take it both naturally in black pepper in his food AND synthetically since a higher dosage would help a lot here--it increases the bioavailability of minerals and vitamins because as we age, we cannot absorb as much as when we were young
• It wasn't until after 2 months when he was ok that i told him about rootbeer. Some soda drinks are actually good for him like Diet Rootbeer. Rootbeers like most sodas started as health tonics adding useful herbs, but many sodas like Coke are really just sugar and water and a lot of rootbeers are like that too. But rootbeer, if you check the ingredients, is good for digestion/kidneys/gout since a few rootbeers have Sarsaparilla which aid the kidney and digestion in removing uric acid crystals but i told him not to take too much each day since it will cause his blood to turn acidic. Some rootbeers i've heard still add Sassafras which also aid the kidneys/digestion. Sassafras was branded by the FDA as illegal as a food additive because it caused cancer in mice, but i disagree with this notion. Analysis was done later on to check up on all the people who used Sassafras in that time period and they DID NOT HAVE CANCER and since we now know that most foods will give us a small amount of cancer, then that leads to discrediting the mice experiment since the mice were given HUMAN DOSAGES---basically the mice were given many times the dosage of the sassafras than would be given to a species of their very small weight/size. Many of the large name root beers don't have the Sassafras and Sarsaparilla or any of the other great digestive herbs, so you may have to check the small rootbeer company brews online and ask them what they add. I know that A&W still adds Sarsaparilla and Birch but not Sassafras. Some homebrew rootbeers still add useful herbs like Burdock, Yellow Dock, Slippery Elm, etc. DRINK UP THAT ROOTBEER!!

I may have gone overboard with all the prescriptions and who knows, maybe it was just the Probenecid he needed, but overall, his health & quality of life is MUCH better than before. His energy is 3x better than it was when i talked to his anemic, tired, sluggish, in heavy pain self 2 months ago. I have to say, though, that even before he was able to get Probenecid, during the first month of my treatment, he was MUCH better than when I first talked to him at the 1st day of treatment. You could see him gradually getting better and better, especially with the knowledge that he needed regarding his diet---->>those cherries didn't hurt!!

My mom is complaining LOUD about her arthritis, so i may put her on a daily YUCCA tea regimen since yucca relieves arthritis pains and actually regenerates joint cells.

Ever since i've been taking kelp which is taken by dieters because it has nutrients they may be missing, i haven't had the need to stuff myself with food like before---This is a great way to lose weight!! hehehehe

THE POINT OF MY STORY AS A TAKEHOME LESSON:

My uncle even had this one previous doctor who told him to NOT take his Voltarren medication when he was in pain. Why? So that my uncle would run to the emergency room where again, the doctor would do nothing for him, giving him no medication, just so that the doctor could again earn $$$ for doing nothing!!

Out of all his half dozen doctors in those 5 or so years, only one doctor did his duty and prescribed him Allopurinol, Colchecine for his pain(but was not really effective for him like Voltarren), and even gave him pages of which foods to avoid because of high purine content. NONE of the other doctors prescribed him medicine nor told him how to control his diet. Unfortunately, my uncle had to switch health plans and so had to go to a new doctor who basically told him a bunch of lies like the other previous bad doctors.

This goes to show---don't ever rely on your doctor. Get more than one doctor's opinion and do research yourself on your own health and your disorder. There are so many resources online, so go ahead and make use of them. Get help from friends or family who have scientific knowledge, mainly biological and/or chemical and/or medical. There's the Hippocratic oath but many doctors practice the HIPPOCRITICAL $$$$$$ OATH!!

Long term later on, i intend to use other herbs specific for his kidney as well as his overall health, but i have still not done detailed research into the side effects.

Basically, i try to stay away from herbs that have dangerous side effects not unless the benefit is better than the dangerous side effect and if that's so, then i won't use it often.

Also, i try to stick to the herbs themselves, their roots, leaves, or roots or leaves in powdered form. i try not to go for the capsules/tablets that are synthetically made because the herbs were used for thousands of years in ORIGINAL HERB FORM, not in a synthetic capsule with 30x the dosage. You don't know if there's heavy metal contamination or even if it's effective because the company may have taken away necessary components. And single or even multiple synthitic herbal supplements may be more dangerous or ineffective because herbs go into your body in a SPECIFIC WAY(e.g. tomatoes are cooked for lycopene) and come into your body WITH OTHER COMPONENTS OF THEIR FAMILY(e.g. Milk Thistle doesn't just come into your body with Silymarin but with others in its family which may help mitigate the toxic effects of any other component.) i won't even mention there's no govt regulation to check effectiveness.

True, because using herb form will mean it will take longer to notice even the slightest effects, i have no problem with that. if i can get 5% help rather than 80% help, i'll take it as long as no one dies or suffers seriously. Side effects like nausea and vomiting and upset stomachs to me are not serious but hepatitis, kidney inflammations, brain damage are serious dangerous side effects.

As i said, i still haven't thoroughly researched the herbs below, so do your own research first.:

• Slow down kidney destruction-Chinese Rhubarb(Rheum palmatum) also known as Da Huang--but must not be taken regularly since it can cause kidney damage.
• Remove uremic toxins-(Chinese Red Sage)Salvia miltiorrhiza also known as dan shen--but must not be taken regularly since it can cause kidney damage
• Anti-aging/more endurance against stress--Jiaogulan, kava kava, Ashwagandha, Kudzu, noni or morinda extract(bioavailability may not be high since most of the effects are seen with the fruit itself), Fo-ti also known as Ho She Wu or Polygonum multiflorum, and Yerba Mate. i'd use Panax Ginseng but the price is ridiculous--$17 per half a pound especially when there are so many other alternatives!! I could buy it as an easy extract at the health store, but i fear adulteration with "fillers" by companies since the herb is so in demand & expensive now, herbal companies will cheat on the amount of actual ginseng is in that capsule or pill.
• Kidney Strengtheners--Pyrethrum flowers(Anacyclus pyrethrum), Figwort herb(S. nodosa), Astragalus(Astragalus membranaceus)
• Kidney/Gout stabilizers-Cleaver, Sassafras, hydrangea, Sarsaparilla, Roselle, Watercress, Shepherd's purse
• Nutrient stabilizers-Barley Grass, marshmallow(Althaea officinalis), Wheat grass

• www1.va.gov
  ---lists unsafe herbs
• www.kidney.org/atoz/atozItem.cfm?id=123
  ---lists unsafe herbs
• drugdigest.org
  ---good descriptions with good preparation details & good W's
• http://www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/Hol_Herb_Directory_Index.htm
• http://www.herbal-supplements-guide.com/medicinal-herbs.html
• http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/HERBS.html
• http://eatmoreherbs.com/
• http://www.herbs2000.com/h_menu/1_actions.htm
  ---have to wait a while so you can scroll down down down for the info.
• http://www.herbalindex.com/herbalindex-B.html
  ---click on the small letters on top & when the page shows up, scroll down
• http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_AB.htm
  ---excellent detail with LOTS of important herbs but no prep details
• http://oneearthherbs.squarespace.com/important-herbs-world/
  ---scroll down to herb list--A+ clinical site w/ herbs like rhubarb and salvia
• http://www.himalayahealthcare.com/herbfinder/english.htm
  ---even has common herbs we use
• http://www.christopherhobbs.com/website/herbal/database/herbs_index.html
  ---too brief and has no W's of how NOT to use
• http://www.christopherhobbs.com/website/library/articles/articles_index.html
  ---good articles on herbs
• http://www.rain-tree.com/plist.htm
  ---even has common herbs we use
• http://www.seniormag.com/caregiverresources/glossary/glossary.htm
• botanical.com
  ---good details/preps, sometimes W's but the details are not up-to-date
• ibiblio.org
• http://www.indianspringherbs.com/common_names.htm
  ---good detail + some W + detailed prep
• swedish.org
  ---ok but too brief in detail, good objective research details, good W's, good prep.
• http://www.crystalgardenherbs.com/HerbRef?.htm
  ---Substitute a letter for ? Good details, prep, W's

Some places for your dried herbs by bulk cost per pound:

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