Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with obesity

Is the typical modern diet a factor in the development of rheumatoid arthritis? Image: iStockphotoHealth, Medical, and Science Updates reports on a Mayo Clinic research study that revealed over half of the increase in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cases seen in women from 1985–2007 is related to the increase in obesity during that time. While “the exact nature of the link between obesity and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis is not clear,” the relationship to obesity suggests RA may be - at least in part – due to the typical modern diet. 

Not only is RA more common in persons with a high body mass index (BMI), according to a study by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, it is also more severe in when obesity is present. Furthermore, persons RA and obesity are more likely to have associated diseases (co-morbidities) such as "hypertension, diabetes mellitus and chronic pulmonary disease."

In a review article New York Medical College, the authors note that although RA is viewed primarily as "chronic progressive inflammatory joint disorder," the disease also affects other organ systesms: 

Cardiovascular manifestations of RA include predilection for accelerated atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction resulting in coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, congestive heart failure, and peripheral arterial disease. ... Other manifestations include pericarditis, myocarditis, and vasculitis.

Although the cause of RA is unknown, dietary grains may be a factor. In medicalese, from a study by Dr. Loren Cordain and associates:

By eliminating dietary elements, particularly lectins, which adversely influence both enterocyte and lymphocyte structure and function, it is proposed that the peripheral antigenic stimulus (both pathogenic and dietary) will be reduced and thereby result in a diminution of disease symptoms in certain patients with RA.