Tea (may) Cause RA?

My Google alert continues to bring me odd information about my disease.

Yesterday, I came across this article over at DrCutler.com discussing the results of a study at the Georgetown University Medical Center.  According the article, “Researchers studied 76,643 women between the ages of 50 and 79 for their results. They found that consuming any amount of tea carried a significant risk of developing RA and women who drank four or more cups of tea per day had an increased risk of developing RA compared to those who drank none.”

At first glance, in plain Englsih, that seems to say that tea causes RA.  After reading the article, I had to remind myself of something my high school science teacher liked to tell us at any opportunity:

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It would definitely appear that this study found a correlation between tea and RA.  However, there are so many other variables unaccounted for here.  For example, are tea drinkers generally more stressed than non tea drinkers?  Stress has been linked to RA time and time again.  We know RA is first and foremost a genetic condition.  Perhaps these tea drinkers used tea to destress, but have already reached their anxiety peak point to trigger RA. 

Regardless, these types of studies don’t do too much for those of us who already have the disease.  Will tea drinking aggrevate our condition?  Who knows.  But I’m going to keep drinking it because it’s soothing.