A group of scientists at the University of Sheffield have concluded a groundbreaking new study that claims "frequently" drinking alcohol eases pain from rheumatoid arthritis and can even make the disease less severe. Imagine that... booze dulls pain!

The study surveyed 873 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and 1,004 people without, by using a questionnaire, joint examinations, blood tests and X-rays. The lead author of the study, Dr. James Maxwell spoke about the findings to the BBC:

We found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently had symptoms that were less severe than those who had never drunk alcohol or only drunk it infrequently."

No shit? Drinking booze makes pain go away? Damn. But the scientists warned that the study should not be used as an excuse to drink heavily. A spokeswoman from the group that co-sponsired the study, Arthritis Research UK, told the BBC:

We would not want people with RA to take this research to mean that they should go out and start drinking alcohol frequently and in large amounts as this could be detrimental to their health."

That makes sense, sure, but scientists are getting closer to being able to regrow livers so that won't even matter soon. Bottoms up!

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