Alcohol and Arthritis- Cheers!

Okay, after a week of discouraging one habit, I thought I'd start of Thanksgiving week with an interesting study about alcohol. As opposed to nicotine, which we know is NEVER beneficial, there is absolutely medical evidence that small amounts of alcohol can be beneficial for different aspects of our health. Now, the key words here are SMALL AMOUNT and BENEFICIAL. When we pour our own glass of wine, for example, chances are that it may not be that small 4oz glass that doctors recommend...
The new study I'd like to mention today is from the journal Rheumatology, and is entitled "Alcohol consumption is inversely associated with risk and severity of rheumatoid arthritis."There were around 900 patients with rheumatic arthritis (RA) in the study, along with around 1000 people without RA. Basically, with trying to account for other variables such as gender and age, those patients with RA who consumed more alcohol reported less severe symptoms of their arthritis.
Why is this? We're not sure, but possibly because of the role that alcohol plays in suppressing the immune system (and RA is basically a result of the body's immune system over-reacting.) Evidence already supports that small amounts of alcohol decrease the risk of heart attacks and strokes via similar anti-inflammatory and anti-blood clotting effects.
Keep in mind that this study is not suggesting people with RA need to drink heavily, but simply that patients who report drinking alcohol fewer than 10 days per month reported more pain.
BOTTOM LINE We can now add reduction in the severity of rheumatic arthritis to the list of potential benefits of consuming SMALL amounts of alcohol.

Glucosamine and Chondroitin- the Latest Research!

Okay, on the list of drugs to keep in your medicine cabinet, there are two you might want to remove...unless YOU feel relief from them. For years, doctors have been recommending glucosamine and chondroitin for relief of the aches and pains associated with arthritis. A large meta-analysis was recently published in the British Medical Journal entitled Effects of glucosamine, chondroitin, or placebo in patients with osteoarthritis of hip or knee: network meta-analysis. The study evaluated nearly 4000 patients, across ten separate trials.The questions were whether or not these medications provided (A) pain relief and/or (B) any improvement in narrowing of joint space (that is part of the visible decline in arthritic joints, as seen on xray.)

Unfortunately, neither end point was observed. As such, the recommendations from this study are that doctors not encourage patients to try these medications, and that health insurers should not cover the cost of these drugs.
On the flip side, the study recognized that there were no dangerous side effects of glucosamine or chondroitin, so if patients subjectively feel they are getting relief, the use of these drugs need not be discouraged.

BOTTOM LINE: The latest evidence shows that glucosamine and chondroitin do NOT improve pain from hip and knee arthritis, nor do they delay progression of disease.