June 17, 2003 Volume 39 Issue 24

Low vitamin C linked to greater arthritis risk

By Karen Birchard

LONDON – British researchers are suggesting a link between arthritis and vitamin C, with people whose diets are low in the vitamin appearing to be more at risk of developing the condition.

Researchers from the Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC), the University of Manchester and the Institute of Public Health at Cambridge University studied about 25,000 people over eight years to see the effect of diet on their arthritis risk.

"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 dietitian Dorothy Pattison.

Those taking part were among recruits in the EPIC-Norfolk study set up in 1993 to provide an ongoing database on the link between chronic diseases and diet.

Over an eight-year period, 73 people developed inflammatory polyarthritis. Their diets were low in fruits and vegetables, fructose and vitamin C.

Dr. 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."