goes a long way providing you all the juicy details about eating right and living
healthier, happier and much smarter.
WWhhaatt iiss GGoouutt?? (^)
Historically, gout was referred as “the king of diseases and the disease of kings” or “rich
man’s disease” and its’ first documentation goes back all the way to 2600 BC Egypt.
Why? It’s obvious that royalty and the rich could afford meats, alcohol and liked to
fatten themselves up with other rich foods, as for the lower class they were stuck with a
carbohydrate diet, whatever fruits and vegetables they raised on their land, rarely eating
any meat but living a healthier life! Several hundred years ago, gout was also thought to
be caused by drops of viscous humors that seeped from blood into the joints. The word
Gout is derived from Latin word gutta meaning “a drop of liquid” and has the unique
distinction of being one of the most frequently recorded medical illnesses throughout
history. A good article I read recently in HistoryToday.com provides a great summary:
Gout, the 18th century’s signature condition, is on the rise in contemporary Britain, with a
60 per cent increase in the last 15 years. In the Georgian era gout’s association with
luxurious living led to its status as a badge of honour or a signal the sufferer had reached
a certain level in society. As the physician William Heberden commented: ‘This seems to
be the favourite disease of the present age in England, wished for by those who have it
not, and boasted of by those who fancy they have it.’ In contrast, today’s manifestation of
the disease is associated with the nutritional effects of poverty rather than affluence.
Undoubtedly a painful condition, gout usually begins with acute pain and swelling in the
big toe and then extends to other joints such as fingers, often accompanied by feverish
sweating. Eighteenth-century cartoons of corpulent gentlemen with their feet in buckets or
up on footstools may look comical, but the truth is that the ailment is excruciating and
disabling. Richard Grenville wrote in a letter to his sister Hester Pitt (whose husband also
suffered the complaint): ‘Gout is gone but has left me such a swelling quite up to the top of
my Thigh, as does not seem even disposed to abate.’ Three weeks later: ‘I can walk almost
without a stick, but have still a swell’d Leg, the remains of gout; a swelld hand and lame
arm which keep me confined.’ Sufferers were predominantly male, although older women
were also susceptible, so we find Sarah Churchill writing towards the end of her life: ‘I