I don’t like the cold weather. It prevents me from doing a lot of the things I normally enjoy doing outside, and when I have to be outside, it’s downright painful—it literally hurts. Arthritis sufferers know this pain all too well, as the cold weather can make arthritic hands and knees cry out in agony due to the increased stiffness that cold weather exacerbates.

This is why a nice hot cup of tea is such a treasured treat for the tea enthusiasts among us. Its delectable aroma and mild taste not only warms our heart and soul, but it soothes our aches and pains—or at least it seems that way.

Well, according to a new study, perception is indeed reality.

In the spring of 2007, researchers from the University of Michigan presented their exciting findings at a medical conference in Washington D.C. called Experimental Biology 2007, confirming what’s becoming a well-established finding in the health world: Green tea has healing powers.

You’ve no doubt heard lots about the benefits of green tea. Notions that it’s loaded with antioxidants, which help ward off disease and fight signs of aging, are undisputed. What has been disputed, at least by the doubting Thomases—including the FDA, which can’t be taken seriously based on their history—is its effectiveness in preventing cardiovascular disease, promoting memory enhancement, increasing fertility rates in women, and maintaining weight loss. While more research is needed in each of these findings to establish conclusiveness, studies have shown that green tea does, indeed, serve as an elixir in treating these and other health-related issues.

One of those health-related issues is green tea’s effectiveness regarding rheumatoid arthritis, and the University of Michigan researchers’ findings corroborate green tea’s healing powers.

They came to this conclusion after harvesting what are called synovial fibroblasts from patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Synovial fibroblasts are bundles of tissue cells that surround joints. When these cells are chronically inflamed, that’s an indication of rheumatoid arthritis (constant pain in the joint areas is another good sign). The researchers then exposed these synovial fibroblasts to a chemical in green tea that’s believed to be the source of green tea’s healing powers called EGCG (or epigallocatechin-3-gallate, if you’re feeling ambitious). According to the researchers, when EGCG was exposed to the inflamed fibroblasts, EGCG “significantly” blocked the molecules that cause the fibroblasts to inflame, as well as those that cause the bones to weaken around arthritic joints.

Now, green tea’s effectiveness was tested on the synovial fibroblasts of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers only. Seeing as how there are more than 100 different kinds of arthritis affecting some 46 million Americans at any given time, these findings might not seem like a breakthrough in the world of medical research. It is, however, a significant breakthrough for sufferers of the fourth most common form of arthritis in America and ought to be an eye-opener for those who remain unconvinced of green tea’s healing powers.

One can only hope that this latest finding will convince them.