Potential benefit of alcohol - lower risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis in women

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Is alcohol good or bad for you?

While most people agree that uncontrolled alcohol consumption is bad for you, researches suggest that moderate alcohol consumption may have some benefits. Of course, the important thing is to remember the keyword "moderate", and also to put in perspective the potential harms that may arise with the potential benefits, and whether the harms outweigh the benefits.

Di Giuseppe and coauthors have added yet another potential benefit of moderate alcohol consumption through their research published in BMJ

(BMJ 2012;345:e4230. 10 July 2012)

Brief summary of this study:

• Prospective cohort study, based in central Sweden
• 34141 women born between 1914-1948 (aged 54 - 89 years old)
• Followed up for 7 years (1st Jan 2003 to 31st Dec 2009)
• Information for alcohol consumption (1 glass = 15g of ethanol) were collected from questionnaire 1987 and 1997
• Incidence of new diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis were obtained from Swedish national register

RESULTS:

• "Women who reported drinking more than 3 glasses of alcohol per week in both 1987 and 1997 had a 52% decreased risk for RA compared with those who never drank (relative risk, 0.48)"
• Association was observed regardless of the type of alcohol
• The proposed theory for this observation is that the negative effect of alcohol - down regulating the immune system, reduce the incidence of the autoimmune disease -Rheumatoid Arthritis

What we can gather from this study is: if you are a female aged between 54-89 years old, then drinking 4 glasses of alcohol per day appears to lower the risk of developing Rheumatoid Arthritis by half. Drinking more than that, of course, then you are subjected to increased risk of the harms associated with increasing alcohol consumption. It is important to know where to draw the line.