It's curious to look back in time and see how attitudes have changed. As the Boomers enter their golden years, they can look back on a revolutionary period. When they were young, everything was big and clunky. Now with electronic gizmos so small, most have trouble seeing how work them without their eyeglasses, and those touch screens and big fingers. Well, there's a whole new way of torturing people for growing old. Sadly, old age also brings health problems, one of the more common being arthritis as the cartilage inside joints slowly breaks down. During the latter years of the nineteenth century, there were interesting drinks around like coca wine. Yes, people really did drink wine topped up with a little opium extract for medicinal purposes. Hence, the modern coca cola which keeps the name but is no longer "medicinal". We all used to know aging aunts who took the occasional shot of Thunderbird or Wild Irish Rose as a tonic to keep them going. Today, even though we have put the spirit of Prohibition behind us, the market for tonic wines in the US has died away. It's still going strong in Britain and the Commonwealth countries. But alcohol has lost its reputation as a healer. Except for the Mediterranean countries, of course, where they still promote red wine as good for the heart.

Well, that's why we all love science. As if we needed an excuse to drink alcohol anyway. But having science on our side makes the excuse more respectable. In 2008, those Scandinavian folk who are all known and loved as sober people, published a major study with almost 3,000 participants. They discovered that people having up to four drinks a week reduced the risk of rheumatism by 20%. This year sees a new study published in Rheumatology. This had almost 2,000 participants. Roughly half were already diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. The study showed those who drank alcohol had less inflammation and swelling around the joints. Those who did not drink were more likely to have pain and lose mobility. The research produces the slightly surprising result that those who abstain are four times more likely to develop arthritis than those who drink.

So that's the good news. The bad news is that the drinkers were more likely to have stomach and liver problems. That's understandable. The other issue is that those who drink cannot use the more powerful painkillers or the anti-inflammatory drugs like Prednisone. Indeed, this combination is more likely to make the damage to the stomach and liver more severe. This creates a major problem. If you are already using one of the NSAIDs, a stronger painkiller or Prednisone, you should not start to drink alcohol. But, if there's a medical history of rheumatism in your family, you should consider following your long-lost aunt's approach. A glass of wine every other day will help prevent rheumatism or slow down its approach. If the pain appears and Prednisone is indicated to relieve the inflammation, you will have to stop drinking. This may speed up the rheumatism but, once you start on medication, alcohol is out.