The historical treatment of gout usually focused on the Falstaffian consumer of food and drink, paying for the sins of overconsumption with painful attacks involving tender swollen legs and feet.
Today, medical science knows that gout results in a concentration of uric acid crystals in the body tissues, usually those with the worst circulation, like the feet and toes. In people without the metabolic defect that causes gout, uric acid is excreted in the urine.
It is known that heavy drinkers sometimes who elevated uric acid levels in their blood, but this causes no harm unless the drinker's metabolism is predisposed to gout. This may be the reason that heavy drinkers have a higher prevalence of gout than non-drinkers and moderate drinkers.
The heavy drinker has a lot to worry about; gout may be one painful worry, but it's not the one that kills.