Various tribal remedies were offered even from the very early days to relieve the extremely painful symptoms of gout. Cartoons of the nineteenth century depicted the dramatic features of the disease. Most of the drawings show a fat male sitting at a table laden with food and a prominently displayed wine bottle or punchbowl. His foot was usually well wrapped and supported on a gout stool. The symptoms are typically redness and swelling with heat and pain.
All arthritic conditions are painful but gout can be agony.
On a happy note though, it soon comes under control when adequately treated. Later the blood levels of uric acid are controlled by a medicine called allopurinol which should be taken regularly and perhaps for a lifetime even with the absence of symptoms. Gout these days is virtually a preventable disease. The major problem is not the treatment of gout, but the fact that people are not very good at taking their medication continually, even if there are no symptoms present. After the symptoms disappear, some people still have to take medicines like allopurinol to prevent gout coming back.