History of Gout Series: Ancient History

Being the holder of a Bachelors of Arts in History, I dig learning the history of things around me, so I have decided to do a series on the history of gout in our world.  My intention is to give a better idea of where the human race has come from with gout and possibly reach into research and look to another series for the future.  I thought I'd begin with some very old accounts of gout.

One of the World's First Known Sufferers: Poor Sue!

As previously noted in my post on research, Sue is one of the earliest known sufferers of gout.   She also has the distinction of being the largest and best preserved T-Rex skeleton ever found.[Sue] Being such a large creature, I imagine her ordeal was prbably not very fun.

Gout's Earliest Acknowledgement: Egypt

Historians generally agree that ancient Egyptians were the first known culture to report the occurrence of gout, the earliest texts being from 2600 B.C..[1] Some sources look at evidence in mummies that point as evidence of gout.[2] While I did find one source that disputed this, the writer of this source has looked at scholarly reports from translated papyrus as evidence that ancient Egyptian doctors acknowledge a condition that caused swelling in the toe and prescribed a cure of applying nar-catfish from the Nile River and honey to the afflicted area.[3]

According to medscape, both the Edward Smith and Ebers papyri (other early Egyptian medical documents) acknowledge the existence of gout in Ancient Egypt.

Early Treatments

If applying Nile nar-catfish and honey doesn't suit your fancy, another treatment that was used starting around 1500 BC was the drug Colchicine.  

Dr. Hippocrates on the Case

The next major mention in scholarly work on gout comes from Ancient Greece and the most famous Greek physician, Hippocrates.  He called it the "unwalkable disease" also noting a demographic connection between occurrences of gout and the rich.[4]  (A personal aside: I wish I had the rich lifestyle to go with my gout!) A further demographic line was drawn in noticing that eunuchs did not suffer from the condition.[5]

In the next History of Gout Series post we'll cover gout in the AD world.

Have you heard any interesting stories of gout remedies from the past?  Leave me a comment!

**This website is for informative purposes and should not be substituted as advice of a medical professional.  If you believe you have gout, I STRONGLY recommend scheduling an appointment with a medical professional and getting the problem checked out.

Sources [- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout#History

http://www.hellolife.net/gout/b/what-is-gout/

http://www.academia.edu/3653849/Catfish_Remedy_for_Gout_in_Ancient_Egypt
http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/780895_2]