Cigarette smoking is responsible for over a third of the most severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to an online study of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Moreover, it may contribute to more than half of the cases of RA in people genetically predisposed to it.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm came to these conclusions after examining 1,205 RA patients and 872 healthy people matched for age and gender. Patients were treated in 19 Swedish clinics. However, their healthy peers were randomly selected from the census. They were all between the ages of 18 and 70.
They were asked to complete a smoking questionnaire and blood samples were taken for tests to determine the genetic predisposition to RA. In the case of patients, they were also used to assess the severity of the disease. RA is an autoimmune disease – it develops as a result of the aggression of the immune system on the cartilage of the joints. One of the indicators of the disease is the presence of the so-called anti-citrullin antibodies.
It found that heavy smokers – that is, 20 cigarettes a day for at least 20 years – were more than 2,5 times more likely to develop the most severe course of RA. Quitting smoking was able to lower this risk – the longer a person did not smoke, the more the risk of RA decreased. However, those who smoked heavily had higher smoking rates even 20 years after quitting.
On the basis of the collected data, scientists calculated that smoking is responsible for 35% of smoking. serious and about 20 percent. all cases of the disease.
The risk is not as high as in lung cancer, where smoking is responsible for 90% of the risk. but similar to the risk of coronary heart disease, emphasize. Among patients with a genetic predisposition to RA, smoking may be responsible for up to half of the cases of the disease.
The authors of the study remind that the risk of RA is also influenced by a number of other environmental factors, such as air pollution, drinking alcohol, and hormones. Therefore, the impact of smoking on the development of RA may differ between groups.
Nevertheless, recent as well as older studies clearly show that smoking is a significant risk factor for this disease, and it is imperative for those at family risk to quit smoking.
RA is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50. In Poland, about 380 thousand people suffer from them. people. The disease is accompanied by inflammation of the joints, which causes painful swelling – first the joints of the hands and feet are affected, and then also the larger ones, i.e. the knee, elbow, hip and shoulder joints. The disease gradually leads to joint destruction and disability. (PAP)