Stop smoking to compensate for the risk of arthritis: study

New York: A new study showed that long-term smoking among women was badociated with a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to those who had just quit smoking. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that affects many joints, including those of the hands and feet.

The study showed that the risk of HIV-positive RA – when patients had antibodies in the blood that help identify the disease – was reduced by 37% for those who had stopped smoking for 30 years or more compared to those who who had just quit.

"Our study is one of the first to show that a change in behavior related to prolonged smoking cessation can actually delay or even prevent the onset of an HIV-positive RA, suggesting that changes lifestyle could alter the risk of developing a systemic rheumatic disease, "said Jeffrey Sparks, of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the United States.

Patients with seropositive RA tend to have a more severe course of the disease with more joint deformities, disability, and inflammation outside the joints.

On the other hand, there is no badociation between smoking and seronegative RA – when patients do not have antibodies in the blood to identify the disease – suggesting a different pathogenesis of HIV-positive RA, said the study published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.

Smoking is known to be a major risk factor for various diseases, including heart disease and cancer. According to the World Health Organization, rheumatoid arthritis tends to manifest itself during the most productive years of adulthood, between the ages of 20 and 40, and is most common among women. For the study, the researchers included 230,732 women.