Smoking and alcohol

Having a pint down the pub with your mates isn’t all bad news, but you should think about how much you are drinking as you could end up making your arthritis worse.

You might not be worried about ageing right now, but do you really want to end up looking like a prune? That is what might happen if you continue to puff away.

Think of the money you’ll save if you give up smoking.

A drink or three

Don’t feel pressured to drink just because everyone else is drinking themselves stupid – remember that passing out from too much booze is never cool. You can slow down by alternating alcoholic and soft drinks, and making sure you don’t drink on an empty stomach. Make sure you drink lots of water on a night out and when you get home.

Alcohol may dull pain, but it’s only a short-term thing. Dancing all night may not be painful if you’ve had a drink, but will be murder the next day. Drinking also affects coordination, meaning you are more likely to stumble and fall and cause injuries.

Alcohol also interferes with medications and can make any side effects worse.

Drinking too much alcohol can lead to indigestion-type symptoms. Steroids, Cox-2 inhibitors and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) have the same effect so, if you put them together, you get a double whammy. Drinking alcohol if you take certain medications, like methotrexate, can damage your liver.

You should ask your GP if you are unsure about the effect of alcohol on the medications you are taking.

And don’t forget that if you get too tiddly and fall over, you could do your joints some serious damage. Not to mention your street cred.

Stubbing out

Smoking might appear cool, but ask any smoker over 25 and they’ll say they wish they hadn’t started. It’s expensive, smells gross, and can be fatal – we all know that.

According to a study by Arthritis Research UK, smokers have twice the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Some say smoking is a distraction from arthritis, but it can actually make your condition worse. Smoking can even increase the amount of pain you feel. It also alters your immune system, which affects the body’s ability to repair itself.

There are loads of ways to give up and help is at hand. Giving up smoking is the NHS website to help people stop smoking, or check out the advice on the student health website.