Drinking alcohol can not only ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, it appears to reduce disease severity too, research suggests.
Scientists at the University of Sheffield asked two groups of patients with and without the disease to provide details of their drinking habits. They found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently experienced less joint pain and swelling.
In the study, 873 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were compared to 1,004 people who did not have it. Both groups were asked how often they drank alcohol in the month running up to the start of the study. Patients completed a detailed questionnaire, had X-rays and blood tests, and a nurse examined their joints. The patients in the study did not drink more than the recommended limit of 10 units of alcohol a week.
It's possible that the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of alcohol may play a role in reducing the severity of symptoms, according to Dr James Maxwell consultant rheumatologist.
Patients who drank alcohol most frequently had less severe symptoms than those who had never or infrequently drunk alcohol. X-rays showed there was less damage to their joints, blood tests showed lower levels of inflammation, and there was less joint pain, swelling, and disability in those patients, the researchers found.
The study showed non-drinkers were four times more likely to develop RA than people who drank alcohol on more than 10 days a month. Previous studies have shown that alcohol may reduce the risk of developing the disease initially.
However, they do not yet understand why drinking alcohol should reduce the severity of RA, and people's susceptibility to developing it, but 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.