Gout—the “at your finger tips” guide by R. Grahame, H.A. Simmonds, E. Carrey

Excerpt

Possibly sometime in the late Miocene epoch, (13 million to 5 million years ago), our humanoid ancestors, uniquely in the mammalian kingdom, lost the uricase gene that converts uric acid to soluble allantoin. Meat eating man fell prey to the scourge of hyperurcaemia and gout whilst the vegetarian ape remains immune. Gout, once considered to be an affliction of the corpulent, overindulgent, bibulous, rich upper class, has today, with the universal over consumption of purine-rich foods and alcohol, become a growing epidemic in the affluent world. Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in men, affecting at least 1% of men in western countries, with a male to female ratio ranging from 7:1 to 9:1. …