Posted on April 17, 2008 in Latest News
A preliminary study suggests that moderate consumption of alcohol may protect the joints against certain types of arthritis. Andrej Tarkowski of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, along with colleagues, injected male mice with a certain type of collagen in order to induce rheumatoid arthritis – a condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s joints. Some of the mice were then given water in the following weeks, while the others were given water with 10% ethanol in it.
In the Swedish study, mice whose water was mixed with 10% ethanol displayed a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis. RA was observed to develop more slowly in the mice given the ethanol, and had less acute symptoms once the disease did actually start to progress. The team said that it was not possible to say precisely how much alcohol would have the same effect for human beings.
Previous research in human beings has shown that alcohol consumption may depress the immune system. In fact, heavy drinkers are at a much higher risk of catching illnesses as pneumonia and bacterial infections.
Researchers assert that they are not,by any means encouraging excess alcohol consumption. These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) in Barcelona, Spain.
“Alcohol consumption can be beneficial in terms of rheumatoid arthritis, but speaking of the larger issue, there are several social consequences and related health problems, including liver damage,” researcher Henrik Kallberg, a PhD scholar at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, says. While the exact influence of alcohol is not known, it might act by reducing the inflammation, he says.
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