Moderate Drinking Halves Arthritis Risk?

Moderate consumption of alcohol may reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, according to a new study.

Women who regularly consume more than three alcoholic drinks a week for at least 10 years have about half the risk of developing arthritis compared with non-drinkers, according to a study of 34,141 Swedish women by the Stockholm-based Karolinska Institute. The reduced risk was consistent whether the participants drank beer, wine, or liquor.

The results, published Monday in the British Medical Journal, add to other studies that have observed positive effects of moderate drinking. Men who have two drinks a day after surviving a first heart attack have a lower risk of death from heart disease than non-drinkers, Harvard researchers said this year.