Attention female coffee lovers: Before you take another swig of what you think is guilt-free decaf, there's something you should know: New research shows this otherwise mild-mannered beverage may increase a woman's chance of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a painful auto-immune disorder that attacks the joints.
According to studies recently presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, doctors from the University of Alabama at Birmingham revealed that women who drink four or more cups of decaffeinated coffee a day are nearly three times more likely to develop RA. Drinking high octane coffee had no relationship to the disease. "Right now there appears to be only an association between RA and decaffeinated coffee -- but the evidence is pretty convincing thus far that there could be a real link between the two," says lead author Dr. Ted Mikuls assistant professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although past studies linked coffee in general and RA, this is the first study to separate the effects of caffeinated coffee from decaffeinated. "Women who drank REGULAR COFFEE did not have the increased risk of RA -- so it seems as if there is something about the decaffeinated coffee that is increasing the risks," says Mikuls. According to integrated physician and RA Dr.. Eric Braverman, that "something" is likely the chemicals used in the decaffeinating process.
"For many years making decaffeinated coffee involved the use of some potent chemical solvents, some which may still be in use today," says Braverman. Over time, he says, these chemical residues build in the body, taxing the immune system. Eventually, says Braverman, that continual assault may be what leads to a variety of autoimmune diseases, including RA. Because the study began in the 1980s -- and doctors don't know how long before this the women were drinking decaffeinated coffee -- Mikuls concedes it is entirely possible that chemical residues from the decaffeinated process could indeed have played a role. "We just don't know what was behind the finding; all we can say right now is there appears to be an association between the amount of decaffeinated coffee the women in this study drank, and an increase in RA," says Mikuls. In addition to this finding, Mikuls' group also looked at tea consumption and the risk of RA, and herein lies perhaps an even more intriguing finding.
While Mikuls' study determined that drinking tea reduced the risk of RA in women, another study, also presented at the same conference, found the opposite was true, at least in black women. In the other study, a group of Boston researchers analyzed data on some 64,000 black women and found that tea, as well as decaffeinated coffee shared an equal link to RA. Mikuls says he doesn't understand the reason for the conflicting finding about tea.
"We discussed this at the conference, and we really can't find a reason except to say that neither study broke down the tea by type, herbal, regular or decaffeinated, which could have accounted for the difference, and second, that there may be some individual lifestyle or health factors that may have played a role in the finding, but right now we just don't know," says Mikuls. In the University of Alabama at Birmingham study, Mikuls pulled data on some 32,000 women, aged 55 to 69, from the Iowa Women's Health Study. A major research project started in 1986, women enrolled in the study we asked to report a variety of health and lifestyle factors, including their tea, coffee -- both regular and decaf -- consumption. Through 1997, they pinpointed how many women in the study were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
After analyzing the data Mikuls and his group reported that, when compared to those who did not use decaffeinated coffee, women who drank four or more cups a day were more than twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis. In sharp contrast, the study also found that regular coffee had no impact on incidence of rheumatoid arthritis, and, that tea actually had a protect effect. Indeed, Mikuls reports that women who drank more than three cups of tea a day saw a 60 percent reduction in their risk of rheumatoid arthrititis.
Based on the data presented so far, Mikuls believes there is no cause for alarm and no need to limit the use of decaffeinated coffee. "Right now there is only an association between RA and decaffeinated coffee, and there is a long way to go before it becomes a positive. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your condition.
© 1998-2001