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Gout was traditionally viewed as a disease of the decadent and indolent, because the foods which contribute to its development were only available in quantity to the wealthy. The stereotypical victim was a lazy, obese middle-aged man who habitually overindulged in rich foods and alcohol, with port wine consumption often cited as a specific cause. This stereotype is especially evident when gout is referred to as "The Disease of Kings".
Perhaps due to the traditional relationship between wealth and literacy, gout is one of the most commonly-reported maladies in history.
Writing ca. 30 AD, Aulus Cornelius Celsus appeared to recognize many of the features of gout, including its link with a urinary solute, late onset in women, linkage with alcohol, and perhaps even prevention by dairy products. "Again thick urine, the sediment from which is white, indicates that pain and disease are to be apprehended in the region of joints or viscera." and "Joint troubles in the hands and feet are very frequent and persistent, such as occur in cases of podagra and cheiragra. These seldom attack eunuchs or boys before coition with a woman, or women except those in whom the menses have become suppressed. Upon the commencement of pain blood should be let; for when this is carried out at once in the first stages it ensures health, often for a year, sometimes for always. Some also, when they have washed themselves out by drinking glasses' milk, evade this disease in perpetuity; some have obtained lifelong security by refraining from wine, mead and venery for a whole year; indeed this course should be adopted especially after the primary attack, even although it has subsided."
The Roman gladiatorial surgeon Galen described gout as a discharge of the four humors of the body in unbalanced amounts into the joints. The Latin term for a drop, as a drop of discharge, is gutta -- the term gout descends from this word.
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