Is it true that Women's Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk could be cut by Beer?

Yes, a new study suggested that having a beer a few times a week might help women to avoid rheumatoid arthritis pain.  Why and how just read it out to know!!!

According to the Arthritis Foundation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistic that about 1.5 million Americans have rheumatoid arthritis. To this ratio women get RA 2.5 times more often than men do. The onset of RA in women is between the ages of 30 to 60 year.

Dr. Bing Lu, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston concluded that-" long-term, moderate alcohol drinking may reduce future rheumatoid arthritis development in women" in his research.

In this study, the risk of RA is reduced by 21 percent if you have few alcoholic drinks during the week, and this ratio goes to 31% if women drink moderately for example two to four beers per week.

This research is published in Arthritis & Rheumatology issue.

What they did to conclude this??

Dr. Bing Lu and his researchers tracked the drinking habits of women in two large studies-

1. The Nurses' Health Study.
2. The Nurses' Health Study II.

In The Nurses' Health Study which began in 1976 included 121,000 registered nurses and in the Nurses' Health Study II included 121,000 registered nurses and which began in 1989.  These two group data were analyzed in two factors. First after every two years that data about their health and lifestyle is collected and the second one every four years data about diet, including alcohol consumption was analyzed.

After this analysis they concluded that beer really help women to ease their RA pain! But concentrated on "Long-term moderate alcohol drinking"

Along with this studies output, Lu also said that he and his group can't explain why beer helps, but it is true. He also said that this study is only done on women not on men, thus he has no idea about the effect of beer on men.

For this his statement was-""We don't know for men, but rheumatoid arthritis is primarily a woman's disease."

This new study reminded the other researcher's studies done on this subject.

Dr. Len Horovitz, an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City has also said that "There is a correlation between alcohol and a reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis over time" in his study.

Another one Dr. Daniel Arkfeld, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles said that-"Prior studies have linked moderate alcohol intake with lower rheumatoid arthritis risk, but added that none had focused on beer specifically"

Dr. Daniel Arkfeld said one reason to verify this study that-"It's possible that alcohol may work to boost levels of estrogen, which is protective against rheumatoid arthritis"

Thus winding up occasional moderate beer drinking is good for you Women's!! But be in touch with your doctor.