Alcohol may lower risk and severity of rheumatoid arthritis

[kkmalaysia]

Drinking alcohol could reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the severity of its symptoms, UK researchers have found.

They compared 873 patients with RA to 1,004 patients without the condition. Subjects reported how often they drank alcohol by filling in a questionnaire.

Researchers then determined the odds ratios (ORs) for RA in relation to frequency of alcohol consumption. ORs were adjusted for potential confounding by age, gender and smoking status.

They found that non-drinkers had a four times higher chance of developing RA than those who imbibed alcohol on more than 10 days a month. They also found an inverse association between measures of RA severity – including C-reactive protein (CRP), 28-joint Disease Activity Scale (DAS) and the pain visual analogue scale – and the increasing frequency of alcohol intake. [Rheumatology (Oxford) 2010 Jul 28. Epub ahead of print]

“We found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently had symptoms that were less severe than those who had never drunk alcohol or only drunk it infrequently,” said first author of the study, Dr. James Maxwell, a consultant rheumatologist at the Rotherham Foundation National Health Service Trust and an honorary senior clinical lecturer in the Academic Rheumatology Group at the University of Sheffield in the UK.

“X-rays showed there was less damage to joints, blood tests showed lower levels of inflammation, and there was less joint pain, swelling and disability. This is the first time that a dose-dependent inverse association between frequency of alcohol consumption and severity of RA has been shown in humans,” he added.

Researchers also noted that the protective effect of alcohol was observed in both anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide and rheumatoid factor-positive and negative disease.

“There is some evidence to show that alcohol suppresses the activity of the immune system, and that this may influence the pathways by which RA develops. We do know that the changes in the immune system that lead to RA happen months and maybe even years before the arthritis actually develops,” said Maxwell.

He added that once someone develops RA the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of alcohol may play a role in limiting the severity of symptoms.

“Further research is needed to confirm the results of our study and to investigate the mechanisms by which alcohol influences people’s susceptibility to RA and the severity of symptoms. It is also possible that different types of alcoholic drinks may have different effects on RA,” Maxwell concluded.
 

Source: Medical Tribune