Pharmacist Garvin Shackleton and dispensary technician Aroha Farrington - gout sufferers can stop beating themselves up. Picture / Peter Jackson
He can't wave a wand and make it go away, but Kaitaia pharmacist Garvin Shackleton has good news for gout sufferers — it's not all their fault.
"For years people have been told that they've got gout because they're eating the wrong things, be it tomatoes, red meat, seafood or
drinking too much beer, but that doesn't seem to be entirely true," Mr Shackleton said.
"Diet can certainly have an effect, but as a trigger rather than a cause. We now know that diet is about 20 per cent of the problem. The other 80 per cent is genetic."
The level of uric acid in the blood, which at high levels could lead to the formation of crystals, causing often debilitating pain in the joints (especially the toes, knees, elbows, wrists and fingers), could be reduced with medication, but gout, he said, was a long-term condition, and freedom from pain did not mean it had gone away.
And, long-term, it could be a precursor for seriously life-shortening conditions including kidney disease, heart disease and diabetes.
