COFFEE LINKED TO CRIPPLING DISEASE

Drink Tied to Rheumatoid Arthritis in Study of 19,000 Finns

London (AP) -- A new study raises the possibility that people who drink
a lot of coffee may be more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis.

The Finnish study, published this week in the British Medical
Association journal Annals Of The Rheumatic Diseases, found that people
who drank more than three cups of coffee a day had twice the chance of
getting the debilitating immune-system disease as those who drank less.

Some experts suggest the link is worth investigating further; others
questioned the findings.

Scientists do not know what causes rheumatoid arthritis, an incurable
illness that afflicts about 1 per cent of the population and differs
from the type common among seniors caused by the wear-and-tear of
aging.

Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the immune system attacks the joints,
causing severe inflammation, pain and stiffness.

The study followed the coffee drinking habits of 19,000 Finns over 15
years. None had rheumatoid arthritis when it began in the 1970s.

By 1989, 0.5 per cent of those who drank more than three cups of
coffee developed rheumatoid arthritis. In those who drank three cups a
day or less, 0.2 per cent developed the disease.

The study hypothesized that some unidentified ingredient in coffee may
trigger production of rheumatoid factor, an antibody detectable in the
blood years before the onset of arthritis.

Not enough non-coffee-drinking Finns were available to make a control
group comparison that might show how important a role coffee might
play, said one of the study authors, Dr. Kimmo Aho of the National
Public Health Institute in Helsinki.

But Dr. David Isenberg, director of the Centre for Rheumatology in
London, was skeptical, asking: "If Finland has a high rate of coffee
drinking, why doesn't it have a higher prevalence of rheumatoid
arthritis than other countries?" He noted about 1 per cent of Finns
get the disease - as do other nationalities.

Rheumatologist Paul Bacon of the University of Birmingham in England
believes more study is important, especially "if it has something to do
with the way they drink coffee in Finland" or prepare it.

Aho noted at the time of the study boiled coffee was popular in
Scandinavia - until filtered coffee became dominant in the 1980s.
Boiled coffee, left on low heat, gets more concentrated.