Gout used to be an affliction of royalty but is now a disease of the masses

Toe with gout inflammation PJjaruwan/Shutterstock

“The Queen’s had an attack of gout! Hurry!”

So exclaimed the crotchety Mrs Meg in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, in which Olivia Colman plays a moribund and overweight Queen Anne. The queen was afflicted with, among many other conditions, gout – a disorder which causes joint inflammation and severe pain.