ArticleRMD open2018
Moderate use of alcohol is associated with lower levels of C reactive protein but not with less severe joint inflammation: a cross-sectional study in early RA and healthy volunteers.
Article in RMD open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Exploring the effect of alcohol on disease activity and outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis through systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Long-term alcohol consumption and incident health risk conditions related to cardiometabolic risk markers: A 20-year prospective cohort study.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Metabolic diseases and lifestyle factors affect arthritis incidence in old Europeans - a cross analysis from the SHARE project.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Weekend catch-up sleep and frailty in US adults: a cross-sectional study from NHANES 2017-2020.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Alcohol Consumption and Autoimmune Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Immunomodulatory effects of new phytotherapy on human macrophages and TLR4- and TLR7/8-mediated viral-like inflammation in mice.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Increased Oxidative Stress in the Prefrontal Cortex as a Shared Feature of Depressive- and PTSD-Like Syndromes: Effects of a Standardized Herbal Antioxidant.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Article
- Unraveling the Antioxidant, Binding and Health-Protecting Properties of Phenolic Compounds of Beers with Main Human Serum Proteins: In Vitro and In Silico Approaches.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Reasons to stop drinking alcohol among patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Sweden: a mixed-methods study.BMJ open · 2018Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesModerate alcohol consumption is protective against rheumatoid arthritis (RA) development and associated with lower levels of systemic inflammation in RA and in the general population. We therefore hypothesised that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with less severe local inflammation in joints in RA, detected by MRI. Since asymptomatic persons can have low-grade MRI-detected inflammation, we also hypothesised that alcohol consumption is associated with the extent of MRI inflammation in asymptomatic volunteers.
methods188 newly presenting patients with RA and 192 asymptomatic volunteers underwent a unilateral contrast-enhanced 1.5T MRI of metacarpophalangeal, wrist and metatarsophalangeal joints. The MRIs were scored on synovitis, bone marrow oedema and tenosynovitis; the sum of these yielded the MRI inflammation score. MRI data were evaluated in relation to current alcohol consumption, categorised as non-drinkers, consuming 1-7 drinks/week, 8-14 drinks/week and >14 drinks/week. Association between C reactive protein (CRP) level and alcohol was studied in 1070 newly presenting patients with RA.
resultsAlcohol consumption was not associated with the severity of MRI-detected inflammation in hand and foot joints of patients with RA (P=0.55) and asymptomatic volunteers (P=0.33). A J-shaped curve was observed in the association between alcohol consumption and CRP level, with the lowest levels in patients consuming 1-7 drinks/week (P=0.037).
conclusionDespite the fact that moderate alcohol consumption has been shown protective against RA, and our data confirm a J-shaped association of alcohol consumption with CRP levels in RA, alcohol was not associated with the severity of joint inflammation. The present data suggest that the pathophysiological mechanism underlying the effect of alcohol consists of a systemic effect that might not involve the joints.
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