Getting Rid of Gout: A Guide to Management and Prevention [Paperback]

Bryan Emmerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1996

Gout is now the most treatable and preventable type of arthritis, yet one percent of the population still suffer from repeated attacks and the condition remains surrounded by myths and incomprehension. Bryan Emmerson, a leading world authority on nephrology specialising in gout, provides a complete background to an understanding of gout - an understanding that he argues is central to its prevention and treatment. Writing in lucid, accessible prose, he traces the condition from Hippocrates to the late twentieth century, covering every aspect of gout likely to concern its victims, from biology to management and prevention.

All the popular fallacies about the nature and causes of gout are discussed and subjected to scientific examination, yet in a way that is fully comprehensible to non-scientists. Is gout really a male-only problem? Does it only afflict the over-weight and middle-aged with extravagant tastes in food and drink? Should one never drink again once one has had gout? What effect does it have on life expectancy? How important is diet? The book ends with a chapter covering these issues and more, and offering practical, sympathetic advice.

For those with a disease that can cause life-long suffering, So You've Got Gout! presents a path to better health and to the complete prevention of gout and its complication. Bryan Emmerson, a world authority on nephrology specialising in gout, has written the first book on gout for a lay readership. Using non-specialist, accessible language, Emmerson covers every aspect of the condition from its biology and variations to ways of managing and preventing gout. Along the way, he explodes many fallacies surrounding the causes of gout.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bryan Emmerson is at University of Queensland. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1st edition (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195537483
• ISBN-13: 978-0195537482
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,210,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thinking of buying a copy for my doctor ! ! !, October 30, 2000

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Getting Rid of Gout: A Guide to Management and Prevention (Paperback)

This well written 148 pg. book has all the information that I wish my doctor had shared with me when he diagnosed me. There are a lot of books offering "homeopathic" based remedies. I got this because I wanted to get a clear medical perspective on the disease.

A few of the reviewers have complained that the book does not have enough dietary information, however, as the book points out, there really isn't a generic formula of what foods you can and can't eat. Matching notes with several other gout sufferers, I concur. As the book words it each individual will have his or her own "peculiarities" - - and there are factors besides diet as well. Of course, everyone I talk to has a different "time tested" answer, and they're willing to state it authoritively. All I can tell you is that I've suffered miserably enough from this disease not to want to play any more games. I got this book to hear about my medical options... how the disease is caused, treated, managed and cured - it does this in plain English then you can decide on your own about your course of treatment. I really wish I had this book several years ago. Initially my doctor told me, "Oh, just don't eat..." and gave me a list. I followed it and a few months later it came back with a vegence. I suffered miserably. The third time I saw an internist. He gave me an anti-inflammatory drug which within 20 minutes relieved the pain and enabled me not only to put on my socks and shoes, but walk. Was all the suffering from the time before necessary? Then came the issue of going onpermanant medication, its long term side effects (I'm barely 30 !) and adjusting it (I had another attack after I started on it.) The point is, I now have a better understanding of the disease and can make better informed decisions.

On a lighter note, the book also offers a fascinating history of the disease which actually goes back to the times of Hippocrates and while the book is light on "kiche" there are a few hillarious cartoons with the gout sufferer and the propt up foot that you will associate with if you are a sufferer or live with someone who is.

(P.S. Best of luck in your treatment, I hope this book will help you out ! ! ! )

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting Rid of Gout, February 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Getting Rid of Gout: A Guide to Management and Prevention (Paperback)

This was the first book about gout I read; my doctor found and ordered it for me from Amazon.com 2 years ago. It goes over many of the common gout medicines thoroughly, telling their usefull properties and detailing their potentially bad side-effects. This helped me with informed choices. The photographs of gouty joints were sobering. One little tip, mentioned only once in this book, has been the most useful for me, for jumping on an oncoming gout attack before it becomes acute, and that is to take bicarbonate of soda, either as the plain soda in water, or in Alka-aid, or Alka-seltzer tablet forms. It really works for me, in limiting the number of attacks and minimizing them if they do slip by. It took a number of readings of the book for me to find and focus on this idea. I have also made a list of my now-known personal gout-triggering foods, using the information from this book. Wish there were no such thing as gout, but I'm grateful to doctors and writers who work to help us through it.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fast,easy read with concise information on treatments., August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Getting Rid of Gout: A Guide to Management and Prevention (Paperback)

this book had the most complete information on gout causes and treatment that i have read to date. goes over all the do's and don'ts of diet and medication. gives you more knowledge that the family doctor. only thing keeping it from 5 stars is a lack of dietary information.