Women who consume alcohol in controlled and moderate quantities stand a great chance of reducing their risk of suffering from the debilitating condition of rheumatoid arthritis. These are the findings of a new study by Swedish researchers, results of which have been published in the online journal BMJ.com.



Alcohol has long been connected with heart disease, stroke and other health conditions, with various studies finding conflicting results. However, there is a general consensus that moderate drinking, particularly of red wine, is good for the heart. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic and debilitating condition in which joints become inflamed. It usually hits patients between the ages of 40 and 50 years, with women thrice as likely to fall prey. In some studies, alcohol consumption has been found to reduce the risk of contracting this condition; however, other studies have denied this link.



The research team from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute took up the study to check the effects of alcohol consumption on women. Using a population of 34,141 Swedish women born between 1914 and 1948, they followed the subjects for a period of seven years from January 2003 to December 2009. Prior to the follow up, the researchers worked with the women to get detailed information about their alcohol consumption, diet, smoking history, physical activity, and education level in 1987 and then again in 1997.



During the actual study period, when these women were between 54 and 89 years of age, the researchers tracked the reported cases of rheumatoid arthritis among these women. A total of 197 new cases of the disease were registered. The researchers then adjusted for factors such as age, smoking, and dietary habits. This gave them the result that women who reported drinking three glasses or more of alcohol every week in both 1987 and 1997 carried 52 percent lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis in comparison to women who never drank.



When worked out, the researchers found that women who drank more than four glasses of alcohol every week had a lower age-standardised rate of rheumatoid arthritis (at 7 per 10,000 person years) in comparison to women who consumed less than a single glass each week (at 9.1 per 10,000 person years). This rate was for consumption reported in 1997. For standardisation purposes again, the researchers took one glass of alcohol as about 500 ml of beer, 150 ml of wine or 50 ml of liquor. The reduction in risk stayed the same across all types.



It is clear from the results that women who regularly had more than three alcoholic drinks every week for a decade halved their risk of falling prey to rheumatoid arthritis compared to women who did not drink. The results just add to already heavy evidence in favour of long term moderate alcohol consumption and its positive effects on health.



The authors of the study opine that the positive effects of alcohol are most likely on account of its ability to lower the immune response of the body. Rheumatoid arthritis is usually caused when the immune system starts attacking the cells that line the joints instead of fighting infection; in other words it is an autoimmune disease. So these findings are particularly relevant.