Category: Dogma or Snake Oil

You did know that doctors generally have almost no nutrition training in medical school right? And that the USDA vision begins with economic opportunity through innovation (e.g. more processed foods from agricultural inputs). This economic focused department published the Food Guide Pyramid and MyPlate as if they have the focus of Health and Human Services (questionable alignment on health too). There is big money is in highly processed food or pharmaceuticals. This is why there are mainly only studies focused on drugs and processed foods.

You should also know that most guidance on what is or is not a healthy food comes from food frequency questionnaires. Garbage in, garbage out. Participants report a couple times a year (at best) how often they ate a wide variety of foods or took part in a given activity over an entire year or longer. Can you recall what you ate last week? Nutritional Epidemiological studies belong in the trash.

So with all that, here are my top 5 ways to spot regurgitated dogma developed decades ago based on the belief that gout can’t be cured.

1. Gout is progressive and can only be managed (not cured or put into remission) and you better get used to lifelong medication.
2. Rest, Ice, Elevation
3. Just lose weight**
4. Low Purine Diet
5. Aim For 6 (Serum Uric Acid)

If you see any of these on a website or hear your doctor say them I’d suggest you move on. You own your health. The medical system generally doesn’t have the time or training, most research is focused on the big money (drugs/new food like products), and our government policy is riddled with so many competing interests it really may never be able to find actual solutions to chronic disease.

** Just lose weight, as a statement, is totally useless. Like, no kidding, but how? If everyone knew how to lose weight and keep it off the population as whole would not be growing more overweight by the year. See my approach to curing gout.

In my opinion there are a huge number of snake oil salesmen out there. People who stand up an e-commerce business looking to sell a miracle cure to people desperate enough to try anything (and yes I’ve resembled that remark on occasion). So here is my top 10 list to help you spot dubious or fraudulent cures for gout. Did I miss anything you might look out for?

Spot a Snake Oil Salesman

1. Over the top claims their supplement (pill, elixir, whatever…) will immediately cure or relieve the pain of gout.
2. Lengthy posts outlining an individual back story, how this one simple change solved their problem forever, and finally after you have read seemingly forever, waaaayyyy at the bottom, you find a call to action to fill out a form for a free e-book.
3. Same as #2 but instead a call to action to buy their miracle cure right now for a low low price.
4. No actual evidence to support claims their product or solution works.
5. Purported evidence cited can’t be found if you Google it.
6. Supposed evidence cited is another website which itself provides no evidence.
7. Evidence is for a study where the compound studied was at doses no human would/should ever consume.
8. The lack of any credible researcher supporting the claim (note I said credible, not necessarily mainstream).
9. Product links directly to an e-commerce store (in addition to wild claims with no supporting evidence). Most of the time this means the author makes money by influencing you, the reader to buy said product.
10. The web page is peppered with ads and links to other articles with sensational headlines (hint, you have become the product being sold at this point).

Anything you would add to this list? Let me know!

For what it’s worth I do believe you can cure gout if you (really) want to. However, curing gout takes a willingness to change your diet and lifestyle. Nothing for sale here, just an approach that I feel is worthy to try unless you enjoy using medication to control flares for the rest of your life.