Modern drugs to treat gout include the anti-inflammatory Colchicine, which has as its
active ingredient the poisonous extract of autumn crocus, from the same genus as the
hermodactyl that was used for this purpose by the ancient Greeks. Some 17th-century
recipes for curing gout do include hermodactyl, but by the 1700s it was discarded as
potentially dangerous until Nicolas Husson, an officer in the French army, concocted a
quack remedy called Eau Medicinale, which had colchicum as one of its secret ingredients
and was adopted enthusiastically by the medical establishment around 1820. Instead, the
18th-century remedies mainly focus on soothing the inflammation through poultices and
purges. A Dr Cook’s ‘recipe for the gout’ dating from 1769 was simply a blend of onion
juice and vinegar, heated and applied to the area of pain. Dr Clark of Edinburgh’s remedy
of eating two or three red herrings before going to bed and his instruction to chew straw
for the accompanying violent thirst would have been likely to make the problem worse.
More palatable might be Margaretta Bampfylde’s suggestion of tea made from speedwell
buds, which ‘if you make it too strong it will have the same effect as an opiate’.
There was also a stress on the right diet, something that sufferers are advised to consider
today. A Dutch physician, Herman Boerhaave, prescribed milk and bread or porridge for
breakfast and supper, with only barley, oats, rice or millet and vegetables for dinner, not
too dissimilar to the current NHS recommendations. It would certainly have been more
successful than the ‘regimen to prevent the gout’ followed by Sir Edward Filmer, who
restricted himself to eating ‘what ever was most agreeable to his appetite’ capped by ‘4 or
5 glasses of good strong red port wine’.
WWhhaatt ccaauusseess ggoouutt eexxaaccttllyy??
What causes gout is excess uric acid in the body and is one of the most painful form of
arthritis. It’s a complex disorder that is more prevalent among men, and afflicts women
more commonly after menopause. Besides men have higher uric acid levels in their
blood than women, that’s why nearly 6% of men have it and 2% of women in the US.
That’s about 8 million Americans that have gout! Gout is a kind of arthritis caused by a
buildup of uric acid crystals in the joints. Uric acid has no useful function in the human
body; it is simply a breakdown product of purines, a group of chemicals present in all
body tissues and many foods. Uric acid is a breakdown product of purines that are part