A reveiw of the results of two Scandinavian case-control studies Study finds that Alcohol consumption is associated with decreased risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

The study is published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Authors set out to determine the association between risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and alcohol consumption in combination with smoking.

Researchers reviewed the data from two independent case-control studies of, one from Swedish and one Danish,  The two studies involved over 3,000 participants.

Researches found an “inverse association between alcohol intake and risk of RA”, concluding “that alcohol may protect against RA. This highlights the potential role of life-style in determining the risk to develop RA, and emphasises the advice to stop smoking, but not necessarily to abstain from alcohol in order to diminish risk of RA. More generally, the evidence of potential RA prevention, urges for additional studies on how this can be achieved.”

Source
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases