Josie Gibson revealed that she was diagnosed with gout following her recent experience filming a new travel show.
The 40-year-old TV presenter was taking part in Channel 5’s Around The World In First Class, a travelogue where she sampled first-class cabins, when she began to experience pain in her toes.
After filming, she went for a health MOT ahead of her next TV project, The 1970s Diet, and the tests revealed she had gout, a condition once considered rare and typically associated with older men.
Gout, known as the ‘disease of the Kings’ in medieval times, is a form of arthritis caused by the buildup of uric acid in the blood, which leads to painful joint inflammation.
The This Morning star admitted she was surprised by the diagnosis.
“I thought gout was only for old men, but I’ve been living quite a lavish life,” she told the Mirror. “Before filming the show, I was catching a lot of flights, drinking champagne, eating rich food, and getting little sleep. That’s how I ended up with gout.”
After blood tests confirmed her condition, she took steps to adjust her lifestyle.
“As soon as I stopped flying so much, started drinking more water, and less champagne, it leveled itself out,” she shared, adding that she is now gout-free.
Her health took another turn when she participated in The 1970s Diet, where she ate foods like boiled potatoes, liver, and spam.
“I went from living my finest life ever to being brought down to earth with a bang,” Josie said. The experience was eye-opening, especially when she learned that only 10% of people in the 1970s were obese, compared to triple that number today.
Gibson isn’t the only celebrity who was recently diagnosed with an ailment from yesteryear.
In fact, Robbie Williams revealed earlier this month that he was diagnosed with scurvy after rapid weight loss caused by taking an appetite suppressant — describing the condition as a “17th-century pirate disease.”
The 51-year-old singer explained he shed two stone while on the medication, which he compared to Ozempic, a drug originally used to treat type 2 diabetes but increasingly linked to celebrity weight loss.
However, his dramatic transformation came at a cost.
“I’d stopped eating and I wasn’t getting nutrients,” he told The Mirror, explaining that a lack of vitamin C left him malnourished and led to the rare diagnosis of scurvy.
