© 2024 Hawaiʻi Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Advocate shares tips and resources for living with gout

Courtesy Alliance for Gout Awareness

If you live in Hawaiʻi and suffer from gout, you’re not alone. Over 20% of Hawaiʻi adults have been told they have some form of rheumatic disease, according to the Arthritis Foundation of Hawaiʻi.

Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis. It's painful and sometimes unpredictable.

"Imagine you get stabbed by like 6,000 needles in one area. And then once they go through the skin, they just go into different directions," said Rock Bounos, a Kāneʻohe resident of Hawaiian descent who suffers from gout. "It's super sensitive. But it's more of the psychological thing, right? Because if you're sitting still, not doing anything, you don't feel any pain. It's only when you're moving."

Gout, along with inflammation and pain, occurs when too much uric acid crystallizes and becomes lodged in your joints.

For Bounos, the attacks happen in his heels. His doctor told him being overweight and drinking alcohol was further affecting his uric acid levels — and seafood probably didn't help either.

People of Pacific Islander or Asian descent are at an increased risk due to several factors, including genetic disposition and diet. But even with the high rate of diagnoses in Hawaiʻi, the Arthritis Foundation of Hawaiʻi says there is still an urgent need to provide these patients with better care.

"One in five people living in Hawaiʻi suffer with some form of arthritis, and gout being one of those," said foundation Executive Director Marshawn Martin. "I had a patient advocate for one of the pharmaceutical companies recently tell me that Hawaiʻi has the highest rate of gout than any state in the nation, simply because of the genetics here."

Martin said, for some reason, men over 40 and post-menopausal women have a higher tendency to have gout.

"The good news is there's things you can do at home, of course — watch your diet, but water really helps. A high consumption of fluids that's not alcohol or beer, and not sugary sodas, help. It flushes out that uric acid from your system and helps with the flare-ups," Martin told Hawaiʻi Public Radio.

The foundation will be hosting an in-person forum on gout on Maui on Feb. 19. This interview aired on The Conversation on Feb. 16, 2022. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.

Russell Subiono is the executive producer of The Conversation and host of HPR's This Is Our Hawaiʻi podcast. Born in Honolulu and raised on Hawaiʻi Island, he’s spent the last decade working in local film, television and radio. Contact him at talkback@hawaiipublicradio.org.
Related Stories