New research finds that all types of alcohol, even previously exempt wine, can bring on attacks of the painful condition.

Gout is a potentially debilitating form of arthritis that afflicts more than 8 million American adults, and the number is rising, Newsmax Health reports.

The so-called disease of kings causes joints to swell and redden. It most often strikes overweight men's big toes but also claims feet, ankles, knees, hands and wrists. A link between intoxicating beverages and gout has been suspected since ancient times.

A 2004 landmark study of more than 47,000 men found that drinking beer and hard liquor - but not wine - increased the risk of developing gout.

Nonetheless, the study lead author Dr. Tuhina Neogi, the Boston University rheumatologist said, some of her patients report "they can't even sniff wine without having a gout attack."

To investigate the effects of all types of alcohol on the short-term risk of a gout flare-up, Neogi and her team examined survey responses from 724 adults with gout, 78 percent of them men, from across the United States between 2003 and 2012.

Study participants completed questionnaires every few months about their gout attacks, medications, exercise, alcohol use and diet.

 The more alcohol they drank, Neogi's team found, the greater their risk of having a gout attack within 24 hours.

"Our study results indicate that alcohol intake, regardless of type, can increase the risk of gout attacks," Neogi said. "Additionally, increasing amounts of alcohol intake of any type, even at moderate levels, can increase risk of gout attacks."

Dr. Gary Curhan of Harvard Medical School, senior author of that study, told Reuters Health in an email, "I do think that doctors should advise their patients with gout to minimize their alcohol intake."