They all look alike to me, tart cherry juice and colchicine must work just the same! This struck a chord with me, it is like saying MySQL and Ruby are both used to make websites, why not replace one with the other?

The few times I have had to take colchicine, I had to titrate my dose up, taking two 0.6mg pills to start and then 1 every hour, at least until the diarrhea and abdominal pain sets in. My gut has continued to hurt for months after the fact. The risk of organ damage, especially the kidneys, is serious. So it is important to watch exactly how much your taking so that you take the absolute minimum needed, usually around 3mg total for me. I don't think controlled upping of dosages is even possible with the herbal supplement version.

The relief it brings within 24 hours, after being 2 weeks into a devastating gout attack, is unbelievable. It is the difference between laying frozen in severe pain, unable to so much as twitch for fear of pain that is not unlike being stabbed. Try not moving the "stabbed" appendage under penalty of being stabbed harder additional times the moment you do. Severe, quivering pain is the result of this feedback loop, as you struggle to stay calm and limit movement. It is torture and rates very high on the official pain scale.

I have also drank lots of tart cherry juice, which may work as prophylactic but doesn't seem to bring attacks under control. It has anti-inflammatory properties similar ibuprofen (it is a COX inhibitor), and may help alkalize the body a bit, but this is not the mechanism colchicine works by, and the effect is not the same. This is common knowledge for anyone having to deal with gout. I don't drink cherry juice anymore, but I do make fresh lemonade to help alkalize my blood and take regular inexpensive COX inhibitors to control inflammation when needed.

I'm not saying cherry juice is bad, just expensive and not comparable to colchicine. I would not buy from cheribundi and just get 100% tart cherry concentrate in syrup form. The concentrate does not have added sugar, which has a significant acid forming effect that can scuttle the benefit.

The bottom line is Colchicine, which is now sold exclusively under the name Colcrys, has been written about since 1500BC. Ben Franklin brought it over here from France to deal with his own ailments. There is a long history behind the stuff and the studies required to monopolize the drug haven't changed the way it is used or made it any safer. Suggesting alternative treatments is a red herring, nothing else works quite like it.

This reminds me of Wikipedia of all things. I recently read somewhere about how Wikipedia had put all the door to door encyclopedia salesmen out of business. Families would often buy just a couple volumes because they were hard to afford, but now we have Wikipedia which is more expansive and comprehensive than what was offered then. Sure fewer $ are being made and that is a hit to the economy, but this shows that using $ earned as the the only measure of value is sketchy, particularly when competition is diminished through regulatory or other means.

The inverse has happened here with colchicine, introducing scarcity so $ can be generated. All the while providing diminished value due to the drug being financially out of reach for many, without any additional benefit to those able to afford it.