At the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Francisco, experts revealed their findings about the effect your food choices have on the risk of developing this often debilitating autoimmune condition.
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Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have, in general, higher inflammation levels, as joints, and even organs and tissues, are at risk. But, recent studies have shown that an improvement in medical facilities as well as improved care has helped lower this risk of heart disease in RA patients.
They observed a much lower death rate from heart disease in the newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis patients when compared to patients diagnosed earlier: 2.8 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively.
Two new studies led by the same research team found that diet can contribute to people’s risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, which is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the joints. And, doctors long knew that inflammation triggered by RA was to blame. Plaque is dense clump of cholesterol, calcium and other organic compounds which can block arteries and severely interfere with blood flow.
Further, the walls of the hearts of RA sufferers may also get inflamed, which also increases the risk of heart failure. Failing hearts are usually symptomized with swelling of the legs, fatigue, breathlessness and tiredness.
Inflammation resulting from RA is believed to be the primary reason behind greater chances of cardiovascular disorders in patients with RA. Analysis of data collected from these women showed that those who followed a “Prudent” diet had less risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than those who followed a Western diet, although having a higher body mass index was a factor in having the disease as well. There were three groups: one of the groups consisted in RA patients diagnosed in the 1980s and 1990s, other group consisted in RA patients diagnosed between 200 and 2007, and a third group was the control group of people without RA, but who died from heart disease. This decline is found when compared to people diagnosed with RA in previous decades as well as when compared to people without the disease – signifying an encouraging milestone.
Fortunately, efforts to curb heart disease incidence among RA patients seem to pay off, the recent study suggests.
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This study involved considering information from 93,859 women without rheumatoid arthritis who completed dietary questionnaires every four years between 1991 and 2011. Cardiologists and Rheumatologists set up Mayo’s Cardio-Rheumatology Clinic nearly two years back with an aim to set up latest cardiovascular disease diagnostic along with preventing and treating rheumatoid arthritis patients. Those diagnosed in the 2000’s group has 1.2 percent rate of coronary artery disease deaths while those from the ’90s group registered a higher rate of 4.7 percent.
