Arthritis News
5. Alcohol May Slow Rheumatoid Arthritis
(Source: HealthCentral.com)
MONDAY, Dec. 18 (HealthDay News) -- A copious dose of alcohol reduced the risk that mice would develop rheumatoid arthritis, Swedish researchers report.
That doesn't mean humans should turn to the bottle to stave off the painful joint disease, however.
Asked if he would attempt a similar experiment in humans, lead researcher Dr. Andrzej Tarkowski, professor of rheumatology at Goteborg University said, "I wouldn't dare to do it."
The mice were given a daily regimen of tap water supplemented with 10 percent alcohol. "That would do liver damage in humans," Tarkowski noted.
"There may be some kind of human correlate, but that's not what I'm studying," added Tarkowski, who published the findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Instead, Tarkowski is interested in the mechanism by which alcohol might help prevent rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks its own joint tissue.
"We have shown that it goes through the up-regulation [increase] of testosterone," he said. "That down-regulates inflammation, which is part of the arthritic process."
