Alcohol 'wards off arthritis'
2008-06-09 08:46
Stockholm - Two Scandinavian studies indicate that moderate alcohol consumption may lower the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr Henrik Kallberg, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and his associates evaluated data from a study in Denmark comparing 444 people with rheumatoid arthritis to 523 similar people without arthritis (controls) and a study in Sweden involving 1 204 rheumatoid arthritis cases and 871 controls.
In both studies, the average number of alcoholic drinks consumed per week was lower among the people with arthritis than the comparison subjects - 2.9 vs 4.1 in the Swedish study and 6.6 vs 9.0 in the Danish study - the investigators report in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
The likelihood of having rheumatoid arthritis was reduced by between 40% and 50% among subjects with the highest consumption of alcohol compared to those with the lowest consumption.
Stop smoking but not drinking
In both studies, the risk reduction with alcohol consumption was more pronounced among people who had smoked than among those who had never smoked.
"The main message remains that cessation of smoking is the most effective way to diminish the risk of rheumatoid arthritis," Kallberg and his associates concluded, "but that this recommendation should not necessarily be combined with a recommendation to stop moderate alcohol consumption."