This Alcohol Causes Arthritis, While Another One Cures It

Like many people, you might be heeding the widely touted advice to consume moderate amounts of red wine for the sake of your heart.

But can alcohol affect arthritis?

As it turns out, the types of alcoholic beverages you choose to imbibe can, indeed, influence your joint health.

Moreover, scientists are finding these associations to be both beneficial and detrimental, based on the types of alcoholic beverages and the particular forms of arthritis.

The types are rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and osteoarthritis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Grapes are famous for their high levels of resveratrol, a potent antioxidant thought to help prevent heart disease and certain forms of cancer. As it turns out, resveratrol might also help improve joint health. In a preliminary study on mice, resveratrol inhibited two types of white blood cells associated with RA. The mice also showed lower levels of inflammation and less bone erosion.

A compound in grapes called gallic acid is a type of phenolic antioxidant that has the power to cut inflammation off at the knees, according to the results of one study. Researchers say it does this by inhibiting the expression of pro-inflammatory genes. They also note that gallic acid promotes the early death of certain joint cells when they begin to behave badly in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

When rheumatoid-affected cells were treated with gallic acid, these cells weakened and died. Levels of inflammatory markers and tissue-degrading enzymes also decreased following gallic acid treatment.

The Nurse’s Health Study, a decades-long study involving more than 200,000 U.S. nurses, has determined that moderate alcohol consumption could offer protection against RA. Participants who tested positive for RA blood markers showed even greater benefits. Beer drinkers also fared well: women from the study who recorded drinking beer 2-4 times per week showed a 31% decrease in the risk of developing the disease.

Gout

But if you have gout or are prone to developing gout, you might want to avoid beer, according to information published in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

This study, which questioned nearly 15,000 participants about their beer, liquor, and wine consumption and matched this data with their uric acid levels, found that beer and hard liquor were associated with increased uric acid levels, with beer showing a greater detrimental effect. In contrast, wine consumption did not seem to increase uric acid levels.

Another study sought to investigate the anecdotal evidence that wine may act as a trigger for gout flare-ups and found that wine, beer, and liquor were all associated with an increased risk of gout attacks. The risk was 1.36 times higher for moderate consumption (anything more than 1-2 drinks over a 24-hour period) and 1.51 times higher for more than 2-4 drinks over a 24-hour period.

So if you suffer gout, you should just stay away from any type of alcohol.

And fortunately, you can completely reverse your gout using the simple steps explained here…

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is not an autoimmune disease like RA or a metabolic problem like gout. Rather, osteoarthritis (OA) is your garden-variety worn-out joint disease.

However, your alcohol consumption habits may also play a role in whether you develop OA.

A study on the possible connection between alcohol consumption and OA of the knee and hip found that drinking wine actually provided protective effects, while beer drinkers showed an increased risk. This is another good reason to eschew the trendy local microbrewery fare and explore the offerings at your favorite neighborhood wine bar instead.

But no matter what type of arthritis you have, reversing it can be very easy. All it takes is a few simple lifestyle changes, as explained here…