Just musing and FWIW...
1. The majority of gout sufferers are male.
2. Only ~ 2% of the population suffers gout.
3. I'm the only one in my family with it (lucky me

)
4. The only other mammal besides people to suffer gout is the guinea pig. (So if you see one limping around, you know why.)

5. Christopher Columbus suffered gout.. and there was no medical treatment in his day. A staple of diet in those times was game meats... which are a no-no for gout sufferers.... higher in purines than today's domestic meats. Columbus must have been one miserable dude! Gout attacks take about 6-weeks to subside if there is no medical intervention. How much pain is involved? Well, you don't want a sheet draped over an affected joint... not even a fan blowing across it.... it hurts that much. (I've had it in various joints... usually affects only one joint on an attack. However, my barber was once hospitalized from his gout attacks... had it in 6 joints at once... serious business.) All because your serum uric acid levels are too high. We all have uric acid circulating in our blood... for 98% of us, "no problem". But if the level gets too high, great pain follows.