Too much tea raises the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: Study

Tea leaves have a high level of fluoride and it has been documented that too much fluoride can cause arthritis as well as many other ailments. Naturally, if you brew your tea with fluoridated water, there will be a higher level of fluoride in your tea. This can
only add to ones suffering.

Research is also showing that Rheumatoid Arthritis can cause heart attacks over long term. SO, cut down on your intake of tea, or better still, find a herbal tea that you like!

This study contradicts every other study ever done. Fluoride? it was my first thought that the water used could be a confounder. I think when a single study is so contrary to previous studies, that you have to look at the researchers, their methods, and their study population, rather than "what is it about tea?" What about the genetic risk in the study population? If you are at zero risk of RA, then what? More to check here, and I will look up the study and do so.

Interesting how statistics can be twisted. In the same way, one can also demonstrate that women who use birth control are more likely to have traffic accidents. Fact is the incidence of both have increased but there is no causal association. The EULAR President himself cautions that there is no causal relationship as this is an observational study. The coffee companies seem to think differently as their interestingly worded release makes it way around the newspapers.

Teaman and Barbara Holtzman:

The leaves of the Camellia Sinensis (Black Tea) plant abosorbs more industrial fluoride from pollution than any other plant.  Fluorosis is linked to excess fluoride exposure.  The symptoms we assocciate with "arthritis" are strikingly similar to fluoride overdose.  If anyone is being "creative with the facts" it is the American Dental Association, Phosphate Fertilizer Industry (who is doing the polluting) and Water treatment plants who take this industrial waste and dump it into our water supply and deny any association between Fluoride and Arthritis.  Coffee and Black Tea are BOTH toxic because they contain caffeine which stress out your adrenal gland system.  BLack Tea maybe worse because of it's unnatural fluoride content that is not indigenous to the plant.  

Joanne Z - You said you drink a lot of tea and you have been diagnosed with Arthritis.  Team says "not to worry"  I would reconsider.  Get off of tea for 2 weeks and watch the improvment!  I guarantee it.  I am a male and cured my arthritis by eliminating black tea

I've recently given up smoking and have been drinking more cups of tea a day (and stronger) than usual.  I have notice my joints, especially my knees & wrists/fingers being really sore.  I do have RA and take NSAID for that, but have really noticed significanlty more pain in the joints.  I've only just read these articles on "Black Tea" and RA and I will definitely be cutting down on my tea, and see if it makes a difference

I had niggling pains in my back along with ulcerative colitis.
Loved 4 or 5 cups of tea every day. Never made the connection between tea and being unwell.

Quit tea two weeks ago. Never felt better. Greatly reduced back pain. Even the colitis has gone into remission.

Wish I had know this 15 years ago. Much suffering might have been avoided.

I cannot drink tea either because it causes me crippling joint pain. It took me a long time to make the correlation, but I am glad I did. At 54, I am more active than ever since childhood.

About 7 Years I experienced severe joint pain with no explanation (in my late 30's, F)  I went on a 2 week vacation with tons of walking in which my routine changed a felt FANTASTIC.  When I came home I really questioned how could that be?  I realized during that 2 weeks my routine of drinking approx. 2 cups of tea(Bigelow) changed as I did not drink any.  I stopped drinking tea and never had the problem.  I started to drink Starbucks Chai Tea as a drink now and then and bought some to make at home.  I was achy all over and then my joints started to swell---and I was like WOW---here I am again same issue, I literally forgot how severe the pain was and a different tea type BOOM--very sick with pain ----will STOP again and NEVER drink tea again of any kind !  This is a REAL issue and needs to be communicated more to the public.

I've been drinking tea since I was 10 years old - yes you read that right, but only this year have I had debilitating joint pain in my knees. There must be other things in addition to tea that cause the joint pain. I don't know if I can give it up as I love it so much. I'd probably end up drinking sodapop if I had to give up tea and that's not good for a person to drink.

This study hasn't been confirmed in the intervening years.  More importantly, the Iowa Women's Health Study, a well-designed and carefully conducted prospective cohort study with a 31,336 study population, found no such thing.  (abstract here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11817612)

Their findings:  4 or more cups of decaf coffee had a risk of RA just over 2x that of the normal population.   Normal coffee and tea did not change the risk at all.

I am posting this here because some naturopath has published an article in our local newspaper declaring that tea consumption is associated with RA.  (She is also marketing her own brand of herbal tea).  Life is difficult enough for people with RA without being put off drinking tea or coffee in normal amounts.

TLDR:  This study's results appear to have been a one-off.  Since the study is not named and I can't find it, I can't comment on  its design, but I suspect the design contains weaknesses that have led to confounding of the result.

As someone who has had rheumatoid arthritis for just over 12 years (I was diagnosed three weeks after my 9th birthday), I couldn't disagree with this any more. I had never been a tea drinker in my life, no matter how much it was recommended to help relax me, I always refused. I never liked it so I wouldn't drink it.
However, after I turned 18, I started having severe flare-ups that made it nearly impossible to even hold a spoon. I decided to give tea a try due to being lactose intolerant so hot cocoa at the time was definitely not a good idea, and the tea actually relaxed me a little bit enough to help me feel a bit better.
It didn't entirely fix it, but it has never made it worse since I began drinking it when having severe flare-ups over the past three years.

I'd love to see how the data was even correlated for the study though. Because, as a current college student, the main thing drilled into my brain through my psychology courses is that correlation does not always equal to causation.

For years I suffered from serious knee pains, and I was drinking many cups of tea all day. In 2006 I was diagnosed with RA and I never knew the correlation between it and tea until two days ago. I stopped drinking tea and I have felt no pain and my knees are much lighter.
I guess the swelling is also gone.
The good thing is that all these years I refused pain medication and exercise through the pain.
Knowledge is Key!!!

In the past I noticed an irritable bladder when I drank black tea so I rarely drink it. Recently I picked up some white tea after sampling a refreshing mix with it at Starbucks. I woke up with pain in my right hip next day. I was able to ease the pain adding turmeric root to a smoothie. I've been scratching my head trying to think what may have triggered this weird pain. At least now I'm very suspicious of tea, not sure yet but it will be interesting to see if I forget about it in two years and have the same experience.  Incidentally, I drink coffee every day and have no issue with it.

I'm so glad I found this post. This makes so much sense. I'm a very active and fit person that takes pride in my health. I gave up my coffee habit less than 8 weeks ago and replaced it with many cups of fresh brewed green tea leaves from morning to evening. Roughly 6-8 12oz cups a day. My left knee feels as if its being stabbed with a hot coal poker. Also, all of my joints have been cracking and popping. Ankles, knees, hips, back, neck, shoulders, elbows and wrists. I'm immediately going to cut back to 1 cup for breakfast and see if there is improvement before I seek medical opinions. Thank you all for enlightening me with the previous threads!!!! Too much of a good thing can most likely be bad for you!

I found this out 20 years ago when I stayed with a friend who was not a tea drinker. Being from England. I was totally addicted to my cuppa, but after 2 weeks went home and soon found the first cup of tea made my joints ache  as before I stopped my tea habit. I thought I couldnt live without my many cups of tea but pain is a great teacher..one cup of tea 3 days pain..do I learned to live without .

I tend to want to believe there is some relationship to something we were consuming over a long period of time that causes the RA to develop in our system, like for example RICE, this is something that I for one was using everyday for the pass 48 years, Now tea yes for over 25 years everyday....Something to think about, And today August 19, 2022 i did not take tea, and i am not crashing and feeling tired and fatigue. I definitely will now be looking closely to see what I can do to better my over all feeling its now easy. I'm very tired and depressed.