OK, it’s an “observational study,” the kind that doesn’t establish a true cause and effect, but research conducted at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s hospital definitely suggests that eating fish reduces the joint pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis. The New York Times reports on the study, which tracked the fish consumption and reported pain of 176 people, and found that pain declines as fish consumption increases. The researchers found that the difference in pain suffered by those who ate the least fish and those who ate the most was powerful–about one third  of the expected magnitude of the standard drug treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with methotrexate.