Today much of the media (newspapers, radio and TV) have reported on the painful condition gout, after the publication in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases of a population-based study reporting a significant increase in both prevalence and incidence of gout in the UK1 (for full paper click here). This study also highlighted the suboptimal management of this condition in primary care.
As part of my final year's study to become a medical herbalist I conducted a research project examining the role of Western herbal medicine in the treatment of gout: which was subsequently published2. I took three...