I stumbled across this article the other day, and thought it was worth writing about, most notably because I have recently given up coffee (and caffeine, for the most part) and converted to tea in an attempt to improve my diet and my overall health.
I made this decision in June after I had a small flare that I feel may have been triggered by drinking coffee. (I have no idea if this is really true, I admit I mostly just wanted to blame the flare on something, and coffee was an easy culprit.) So I woefully gave up my morning routine of stopping at this cute little place on W. 17th st. for a cappuccino AND my afternoon hit-me-up here (I think it has the best coffee in the city-seriously) and began drinking tea instead. It is also, I should note, a much cheaper option, and I do feel better without all the caffeine coursing through my veins all the time. I think it helps even out my nervous system, which in turn, helps keep my RA in check.
Luckily, I do genuinely like tea. When I lived in London and Prague, I drank it all the time, so it has been nice to reconnect to that tradition. And, it makes the fact that I've ended up collecting quite a few tea sets during my travels the last few years make a lot more sense.
The article doesn't mention anything specific about tea having anti-inflammatory effects or RA, but it does seem like time and time again, studies similar to this one come out hailing the many wonderful, and often not entirely understood, benefits of drinking tea- green tea, black tea, herbal tea, any kind of tea. I figure, if any of this is true, then it is bound to be good for RA in some roundabout way, especially since some of the benefits cited in this article relate to heart disease and cancer, two diseases folks with RA have a higher risk of developing (groan).
Has anybody else out there found tea helpful for their RA? What about the coffee/caffeine factor? I'd be interested to hear what your experience has been.
Isn't chai a kind of tea? Does it have caffeine? I'm exploring my options.
Posted by: millicent | September 21, 2008 at 04:56 PM
I gave up drinking coffee for almost 8months after my naturopath put me on a hypoallergenic diet..not sure how much good it did my RA. Lately I've started drinking coffee again..just one cup a day though ..not the usual 4! :D
Posted by: Simone | September 22, 2008 at 04:21 PM
Interesting. Do you feel any different since you've started drinking coffee again? my neurologist said one cup a day was fine (though she was speaking more in terms of migraines, not RA.)
M-chai is a kind of tea. Black tea, i think, so yes, still has lots of caffeine, though i find that caffeine in tea affects me less that in coffee. weird.
Posted by: Sara | September 22, 2008 at 04:46 PM
Well because I'm still not drinking coffee too often (1 a day ..a few days a week) it hasn't been too bad though my stomach did take a while to adapt after an 8-month fast. I'm sure it would be better if I didn't drink it at all. While I love the taste and the quick pick-me up, I do tend to crash after a few hours and it probably is affecting my RA along with all the gluten I'm consuming...
Posted by: Simone | September 23, 2008 at 12:43 PM
ah, gluten. yeah, i'm not into giving that up yet. i haven't done all that much research on it, though I know that it is supposed to be a nasty thing for folks with RA.
Posted by: Sara | September 24, 2008 at 10:41 PM