Antioxidant Intake and Risks of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Women

Abstract

Antioxidants may protect against development of rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus by combating oxidative stress. The authors identified and confirmed incident cases of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus among 184,643 US women followed in the Nurses' Health Study and Nurses' Health Study II cohorts in 1980-2004. Semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires assessed intakes of vitamins A, C, and E and a-carotene, b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin from foods and supplements. The authors examined total antioxidant intake by calculating a ''ferric-reducing ability of plasma'' score, a new method for quantifying the total antioxidant effect of a food based on the reduction of ferric to ferrous iron by antioxidants. Cumulative updated total energy-adjusted dietary intakes were used. Associations between intake of each nutrient and incident rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus were examined in age-adjusted and Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for confounders. Results from the cohorts were pooled meta-analytically by using random-effects models. The authors identified 787 incident rheumatoid arthritis cases and 192 systemic lupus erythematosus cases for whom prospective dietary information was available. In these large, prospective cohorts of women, antioxidant intake was not associated with the risk of developing either rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus.

Diet and alcohol as risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis: a nested case–control study

“…In similar lines of thought, these results on dietary items as risk factors for developing RA may be explained by sodium intake and may partly explain why these associations have not been detected in all studies and that some studies report contradictory results [4,5,[7][8][9]27].…”

“…Historically, diet has received considerable attention as a potential risk factor. Although studies have suggested associations, mainly regarding fruit, vegetables, meat and disease development, the results have been inconclusive [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Regarding the consumption of alcohol, recently published meta-analyses concluded that moderate consumption of alcohol intake is inversely associated with the development of RA [11,12].…”

Environmental Influences on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Expression

“…Total antioxidant intake, including vitamins A, C, and E, α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, was not associated with the risk of developing SLE. 24 Inability to generalize results outside of Caucasian females is a limitation of the vitamin D and antioxidant intake studies due to the demographics of those enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study.…”

Nutrition and human health from a sex–gender perspective

“…Patients' characteristics, such as age and gender, can affect the individual capacity to prevent oxidative stress ; thus, the study should require not only an enrollment of both sexes but also a sex-gender analysis. Very recently, a meta-analysis that assessed the intake of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin in women from foods and supplements suggested that antioxidant intake is not associated with the risk of developing either rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus (Costenbader et al, 2010). The above results indicate that caution should be used in designing interventional trials and that the availability of baseline information on major potential confounding factors and extrapolating data obtained from men to women.…”