Vitamin C in the diet may help prevent arthritis
Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption may play a part in helping to prevent arthritis, new research suggests.
A low intake of fruit and vegetables – particularly those containing vitamin C – appears to increase the risk of developing inflammatory arthritis, according to a study conducted jointly by researchers at the Arthritis Research Campaign's epidemiology unit at the University of Manchester and the Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge.
"We wanted to find out whether fruit and vegetable consumption – the main dietary source of vitamin C – could affect a person's risk of developing inflammatory polyarthritis," said research dietitian Dorothy Pattison.
"Some 25,000 people recruited to EPIC-Norfolk (an ongoing study of diet and chronic diseases) between 1993 and 1997 were given health and dietary assessments. They were then followed-up, over an eight-year period, to see which of them developed inflammatory polyarthritis."
Over the eight years, 73 cases were identified. It was clear from the research findings that lower intakes of fruit, vegetables, fructose and dietary vitamin C were associated with a greater risk of developing inflammatory polyarthritis.
Professor David Scott, President of the British Society for Rheumatology, said:
"It seems there is a particularly strong link between the risk of developing some forms of arthritis and a low intake of Vitamin C.
"We feel these findings may have important implications for the role of diet in reducing the risk of inflammatory arthritis. More research is clearly needed in this area," he added.
Dr Madeleine Devey, Arthritis Research Campaign scientific officer said: "The Norfolk Arthritis Register's research has already established that smoking and blood transfusions are two significant risk factors for developing rheumatoid arthritis. These latest findings suggesting that low doses of Vitamin C could also be a risk factor are clearly worthy of further study."
The study involving people on the Norfolk Arthritis Register was linked to a wider population based study of diet, cancer and chronic diseases in the Norfolk Area.
