Gout – once known as 'the disease of kings' – is on the increase because of the rise in unhealthy lifestyles. Henry VIII, who famously loved to feast, was a sufferer, while cartoonists used the condition to lampoon the extravagant lifestyles of the idle rich between the 17th and 19th centuries. More and more people are now developing the painful condition at a younger age because of overindulgence, say experts.
There was a 17 per cent rise in prescriptions to treat severe attacks of gout between 2007 and 2008, while GPs handed out seven per cent more drugs to make gout sufferers less susceptible to the disease.
Gout is a metabolic disorder that results in acute attacks of arthritis in the joints. It is caused by a build-up of excess uric acid in the blood. Crystals of this uric acid can then form in the joints and kidneys, triggering pain and inflammation.
It has long been known that a diet rich in meat and alcohol increases the chance of developing gout, because these foods contain higher quantities of organic substances called purines, which break down into uric acid.
While it typically affects men over 40, Dr Kelsey Jordan of the UK Gout Society said more younger people were developing the disease.
"The age of gout sufferers is coming down. Typically it could have been people in their 50s but now I am seeing people in their 30s who we just would not have seen 10 or 20 years ago."
Dr Jordan went on: "It has long been an illness associated with men but women are catching up. This is down to a change in lifestyle and diet."
The UK Gout Society estimates that drugs to treat gout cost the NHS more than £6 million a year, with about 1.5 per cent of the population affected by the disease.
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