General Health
Eating fruit and vegetables lowers arthritis risk
By Ben Wasserman
Aug 17, 2005 - 2:03:00 PM

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Eating carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of arthritis, according to a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The new study suggested that dietary carotenoids, the orange and yellow pigments responsible for the color of some fruits and vegetables, can reduce inflammation around joints, due to their antioxidative properties.

The study, led by Dr. Alan J. Silman at The University of Manchester, analyzed data from a study involving more than twenty-five thousand participants from 1993 to 2001 to determine if there is an association between dietary carotenoids and arthritis risk.

The participants were followed to assess the occurrence of arthritis affecting multiple joints. During the eight-year follow-up, eighty-eight participants developed arthritis.

On average, the arthritic patients had a forty percent lower daily intake of beta-cryptoxanthin and a twenty percent lower intake of zeaxanthin compared to the participants without arthritis.

In addition, participants who had the highest intake of beta-crytoxanthin and zeaxanthin were fifty percent less likely to develop inflammatory polyarthritis than those who had the lowest intake.

The study further found that consumption of two other carotenoids, lutein and lycopene, did not seem to have a protective effect against arthritis.