Does Alcohol Help or Harm Arthritis
Many arthritis sufferers want to know whether they should refrain from consuming alcoholic drinks. If it worsens their arthritis, they obviously want to abandon it, but if it makes no difference, they don’t want to give up those social drinks for nothing.
To answer this question, we’ll look at several studies on this matter and the answer will surprise you. But not in the way you expect.
But first you must categorize yourself in either the osteoarthritis or the rheumatoid arthritis group.
Osteoarthritis is the normal age-related degeneration of joint cartilage and the bones that surround and support it.It usually progresses relatively slowly and tends to cause pain and stiffness, rather than near complete immobility.Most elderly people have a bit of this.
Rheumatoid arthritis, on the other hand, is a progressive disease that causes inflammation in the joints. they become deformed and it is possible that the sufferer becomes severely disabled and unable to move.
Interestingly enough, there is quite a lot of research that indicates that moderate alcohol consumption protects against rheumatoid arthritis. Yes, that is right, people who have around 10 drinks per month are less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than people who drink no alcohol at all.
If you already have rheumatoid arthritis, the news is also good if you like your social drinks. Those who drink around 10 glasses of alcoholic drinks per month suffer less severe pain and stiffness than those who drink no alcohol, and their conditions do not worsen as fast.
The relationship between osteoarthritis and alcohol intake has not been investigated as frequently, but some scientists have established that women who drink moderately lose less bone density during middle age than women who drink no alcohol.
A loss in bone density is a major risk factor for the development and progression of osteoarthritis. It, thus, seems as if moderate alcohol consumption can prevent your condition from worsening too fast if you have osteoarthritis too.
This is far from the whole story, however, and there are some major caveats.
First
The most common medications that doctors prescribe for rheumatoid arthritis put a heavy load on the liver. Doctors even call it toxic. Alcohol is also toxic to the liver and can also overload it. This means that those 10 glasses a month can damage your liver – which will can be lethal. Arthritis may be painful, but at least you’ll stay alive.
Just in case osteoarthritis sufferers are starting to feel victorious, if you take pain medication, you are in a similar position. Painkillers should never be taken with alcohol precisely because they can damage the liver. If you are receiving periodic cortisone injections for the pain, you are especially at risk of liver overload.
Moreover, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, normally taken by osteoarthritis sufferers for pain, increase the chance of bleeding in the stomach. This condition is aggravated by alcohol.
Second
Alcohol is a diuretic. It makes you urinate more. Your joints are flexible bits of spongy tissue between bones that connect those bones to each other. They need water to remain lubricated, otherwise they cannot bend properly. When the joints are short of water because alcohol has drained it from your body, the spongy tissue dries out and allows the bones to grind against each other. Ouch!
Unless you drink plenty of water before, during, and in the hours after your alcoholic drink, it may worsen your symptoms.
Third
Because of all the sugar it contains, alcohol will make you put on weight. One drink can constitute between 10 and 15 percent of your daily calories. If you have any form of arthritis, it is vitally important to keep your weight down to the minimum to prevent unnecessary strain on your joints. Sugar also causes inflammation that can make arthritis worse.
The bottom line is that no study has shown that drinking more than 10 drinks per month has any kind of beneficial effects. And binging is definitely bad for all disease.
So it’s safe to say that having one drink, two or three times per week is harmless as long as it doesn’t interfere with your medications. But anything more can cause great harm to your body, making arthritis worse.