October 21, 2013
Papers reveal pre-European pain
An Otago University researcher has used the writings of Captain James Cook and his crew, early missionaries and old newspapers to confirm that gout was present among maori before European settlement.
Maori skeletal remains dug up at the Wairau Bar, one of the country's earliest known settlements, and in Mangere showed signs of the painful condition which is caused by a build up of uric acid in bone joints.
PhD student Anna Gosling says gout in Maori has been seen as a disease related to the transition to modern lifestyles and the adoption of a westernised diet.
She says that's because early observers believed the disease was largely an upper class European affliction that did not affect any indigenous populations, so the disease in Maori was referred to as rheumatism.
Ms Gosling says while lifestyle and diet can contribute to the likelihood of developing gout, there is also a genetic component which seems particularly strong among Maori and Pacific Islanders.
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