Decaffeinated coffee can cause rheumatoid arthritis.
It may seem healthier to forgo the caffeine, but a recent study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham involving more than 31,000 women found that older women who drank 4 or more cups of decaffeinated coffee a day were more than twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, a condition in which the body's joints become painful, stiff and swollen. Those who drank regular (caffeinated) coffee didn't have a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, nor did tea drinkers. In fact, those who drank more than 3 cups of tea daily had a 60-percent-lower chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis.
We don't know what's driving the [decaf-arthritis] association. One hypothesis is that when these women were drinking coffee when they were younger, the decaffeination process involved chemical solvents that have been implicated in connective-tissue diseases [like rheumatoid arthritis].
Until more is known, check the label of your decaf coffee to make sure a water-based process was used to extract the caffeine. (Look for the phrases "Swiss water process," "sparkling water process" or "chemical free.") Or you may want to consider switching your brew at least once a day and substituting tea, which has been found to have all sorts of health-protective effects from improving cholesterol levels to protecting against various forms of cancer. (Decaf tea is processed without similar solvents, so it's considered safe too.)
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