Orange juice could protect you against arthritis

Dr. Alan J. Silman, from The University of Manchester in the UK, has led a study of 25,000 subjects, and the findings suggest that arthritis may be defended against considerably by daily consumption of orange juice, which contains carotenoids that Silman and colleagues have found helpful in preventing arthritis.

• The researchers' findings appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
• Eighty-eight subjects developed arthritis during follow-up and they were matched to 176 healthy comparison subjects.
• Average daily intakes of the carotenoids beta-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin were 40 and 20 percent lower, respectively, for arthritis patients compared with healthy subjects.
• By contrast, consumption of two other well-known carotenoids, lutein and lycopene, did not seem to protect against arthritis.
• Further analysis showed that subjects with the highest beta-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin intake were about half as likely to develop inflammatory polyarthritis than those with the lowest intake.
• "These data add to a growing body of evidence that some dietary antioxidants, such as the carotenoids beta-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin as well as vitamin C, may be protective against the development of" arthritis, the authors conclude.