Effects of gout

[tlee59]

My friend has had gout for five or six years with only minor 'episodes'.  Recently he had a ruptured peroneal tendon and had surgery to repair that.  When the surgeon did the surgery he said that it looked like 'cottage cheese' and that the gout had most likely weakened the tendon and caused the rupture.
Has anyone had experience with this?  Any ideas on how to help control the gout?

[nixh]

Another thing. Tell your friend not to drink sparkling miniral water and to avoid similar drinks. My mother as gout and has found out that this causes her to get an attack. The medication she uses when she gets gout is colchicine. She says that it works wonders and clears up the gout in one day.

[txsilver]

What a great friend you are to investigate this!  Everyone needs a person they can lean on to help them trhough these diseases, but we are not all so fortunate as to have a friend like you.
While I do not have gout I have found some info to pass along.  Recommendations to reduce the uric acid (cause of gout) that are not pharmaceutical include losing weight, no alcohol, decrease/elimination of high purine foods.  You can google "high purine food" to get a list.
There are also drugs that can be used to get the gout under control and that will allow the lifestyle changes listed above to have a maximum impact.  
Best course of action would be for your friend to get to their rheumatologist and develop a plan to address the surgeons findings.
Good luck and let us know how it goes and maybe get your friend to come visit us here.  He might like to talk to those of us who suffer from gout or similar painful conditions.