Description: Green tea, already touted for its cardiovascular and anticancer benefits, may also help ease the inflammation and pain of rheumatoid arthritis, a new study suggests.

The study was conducted in the laboratory, and its findings are preliminary, stressed lead researcher Salah-uddin Ahmed, an investigator at the University of Michigan Health System, in Ann Arbor.

"It's too early" to fully recommend green tea to ease rheumatoid arthritis, he said, but the study "is a starting point."

Ahmed was scheduled to present the research Sunday at the Experimental Biology meeting, in Washington, D.C.

For the study, Ahmed isolated cells called synovial fibroblasts from the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. These cells form a lining of tissue surrounding the capsule of the joints.

In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, this lining is inflamed, leading to long-term joint damage and chronic pain. About 2.1 million Americans have rheumatoid ar