TEMPO.CO, Massachusetts - A research in Boston University has revealed that consuming wine and alcohol may cause pain in certain body parts.

"I don't want to sound too dogmatic and say 'You must stop drinking'," lead author Dr. Tuhina Neogi told Reuters. But, the Boston University rheumatologist said: "Based on this study, I would counsel patients that any type of alcohol may trigger an attack."

"It's not just beer or hard liquor that can trigger attacks, but also wine," she added.

Gout is a potentially debilitating form of arthritis that attacks and weakens the joints, causing it to swell and redden. The disease mostly attacks adults with obesity.

To investigate the effects of all types of alcohol on the short-term risk of a gout flare-up, Neogi and her team examined survey responses from 724 adults with gout, 78 percent of them men, from across the United States between 2003 and 2012.

The more alcohol they drank, Neogi's team found, the greater their risk of having a gout attack within 24 hours.

Wine was one of the worst triggers, at least for men. Regularly drinking a glass or two of wine hiked the odds of recurrent attacks by 138 percent, and drinking two to four servings of beer raised the risk by 75 percent.

REUTERS | CHETA NILAWATY