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Coffee
Does Not Raise Arthritis Risk
Drinking multiple cups of coffee every
day does not appear to increase your risk of developing rheumatoid
arthritis (RA), new research suggests.
These findings appear on the heels
of numerous other reports suggesting that the opposite was, in
fact, the case.
After reviewing information collected
from more than 80,000 women over an almost 20 year period, U.S.
researchers found that the risk of RA appeared unrelated to the
amount of decaffeinated coffee, coffee, tea and total caffeine
women consumed.
However, a previous Finnish study
found that people who drank at least 4 daily cups of coffee were
more than twice as likely to develop RA, while another report
showed that drinking multiple cups of tea each day could reduce
that risk.
The author of the current report,
Dr. Elizabeth W. Karlson, said that her study followed more people
for more time than previous reports, and there is "very little
biologic reason" why coffee or tea might influence the risk of
RA.
"These findings should help settle
the debate," she told Reuters Health.
RA is a chronic inflammatory condition
in which the body's own immune system attacks the tissue lining
the joints. The cause of RA is not well understood, but research
suggests that age, smoking, obesity and genetic factors may play
a role in the development of the disease.
During the current study, reported
in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, Karlson and her team reviewed
dietary information collected every 4 years between 1980 and 1998
from 83,124 women. Over the course of the study, 480 women developed
RA.
Although women's choice of beverage
appeared to have no influence on their risk of RA, their smoking
habits did. Specifically, the researchers found that heavy smokers
were more likely to develop RA than non-smokers, a finding that
other researchers have discovered, as well.
Karlson, who is based at Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston, said that coffee drinkers may
be more likely to be long-term smokers than non-coffee drinkers,
and this tendency may help explain why previous reports linked
drinking coffee with RA.
SOURCE: Arthritis & Rheumatism,
November 2003.
Reference
Source 101
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