China’s rare earth cerium drug can kill gout pains once and for all: scientists

One of the world’s most abundant rare earth elements could offer a comprehensive, long-lasting treatment for gout, a Chinese team has found. The extremely painful form of inflammatory arthritis has plagued humanity for millennia. “No other pain is more severe than this, not iron screws, nor cords, nor the wound of a dagger, nor burning fire” – that is how the ancient Greek physician Aretaeus described the disease in the second century AD. More than 55 million people worldwide had gout in…