The disease of kings
Why Do I Have Gout?
By ERIC NAGOURNEY, NYT
If one night you wake with the feeling that a big toe has suddenly become a battlefield, and a peek under the covers reveals not This Little Piggy but an angry red monstrosity from some old horror movie, your first thought may be to seek help. You need an M.D., you’ll think. Maybe a CT scan or even an M.R.I.
But here’s what you may also need: some good P.R. Because if it turns out that your throbbing toe is caused by gout, you are going to have a lot of explaining to do as you limp through the day. What you have, any number of people will tell you knowingly, is the “disease of kings” — meaning, of course, gluttons.
While Henry VIII, said to be a gout sufferer, could do his explaining with a headsman for anyone bold enough to ask him about his diet, simpler folks may need to settle for a flack. And with more and more baby boomers likely to develop the disease as they get older, that publicist could become very busy indeed.
Let’s start with the basics: gout is a form of arthritis that occurs when uric acid, a waste product in the blood, forms crystals in the joints. The big toe is most famously affected. “A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox!” Falstaff says in “Henry IV.” “For the one or the other plays the rogue with my great toe.” (Note to ad agency: can we get a spokesman for the disease who is bit less cowardly, and perhaps not quite so rotund?) But gout can affect many other joints, including knees and elbows, causing pain, swelling and stiffness. Left untreated, it can cause permanent damage to the joints. Incidence of the disease is on the rise, and more than six million Americans have had gout attacks.
(More here.)
If one night you wake with the feeling that a big toe has suddenly become a battlefield, and a peek under the covers reveals not This Little Piggy but an angry red monstrosity from some old horror movie, your first thought may be to seek help. You need an M.D., you’ll think. Maybe a CT scan or even an M.R.I.
But here’s what you may also need: some good P.R. Because if it turns out that your throbbing toe is caused by gout, you are going to have a lot of explaining to do as you limp through the day. What you have, any number of people will tell you knowingly, is the “disease of kings” — meaning, of course, gluttons.
While Henry VIII, said to be a gout sufferer, could do his explaining with a headsman for anyone bold enough to ask him about his diet, simpler folks may need to settle for a flack. And with more and more baby boomers likely to develop the disease as they get older, that publicist could become very busy indeed.
Let’s start with the basics: gout is a form of arthritis that occurs when uric acid, a waste product in the blood, forms crystals in the joints. The big toe is most famously affected. “A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox!” Falstaff says in “Henry IV.” “For the one or the other plays the rogue with my great toe.” (Note to ad agency: can we get a spokesman for the disease who is bit less cowardly, and perhaps not quite so rotund?) But gout can affect many other joints, including knees and elbows, causing pain, swelling and stiffness. Left untreated, it can cause permanent damage to the joints. Incidence of the disease is on the rise, and more than six million Americans have had gout attacks.
(More here.)
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