Arthritis Accompanies Other Inflammatory Conditions

Arthritis is an inflammatory disorder, yes. But it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Research indicates that arthritis typically occurs in people who also have other inflammatory disorders.

Arthritis and inflammation research

In 2013, researchers from the Netherlands confirmed that the inflammatory condition of arthritis is related to other chronic diseases typically involving inflammation.

The researchers, from the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, studied 3,354 patients who were newly diagnosed with arthritis, and compared each of them with two matched controls – meaning another 7,000 people were compared to these arthritis patients.

The researchers then catalogued how many patients of each group had one of 121 different chronic diseases.

The researchers found that about 70% of the arthritis patients had at least one other chronic disease at the time they were first diagnosed with arthritis. This is compared with 59% of the control cases.

The most prevalent diseases among arthritis cases were cardiovascular diseases, at 35%. Neurological diseases and musculoskeletal diseases followed in ranking.

This of course indicates that arthritis is related to other inflammatory conditions in the body. Note that only 121 different diseases were compared to. There are thousands of other inflammatory diseases that were not included. If they were, it would be likely the percentage would be upwards of 90% if not 100%.

In a 2018 study from Australia’s University of New South Wales, researchers tested 490 people with arthritis. They found that arthritis patients had around double the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease.

Arthritis and heart disease

In another study, this from Spain’s University Hospital of Marqués de Valdecilla, 104 rheumatoid arthritis patients were evaluated for their risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers used the standard index, Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) to determine risk after reviewing each patient, and followed with carotid ultrasonography. While the SCORE testing found that 74 of the patients had moderate or high cardiovascular disease risk, the sonography testing revealed that 70 out of the 72 tested had carotid artery plaques.

Another study from Spain also found that arthritis was linked to heart disease when they investigated cases and studies that looked at both conditions.

The fact that arthritis is a condition that is accompanied by other inflammatory-related conditions – especially cardiovascular disease – says something clear about arthritis – it is not so related to wear and tear as we’ve been led to believe.

Our gut probiotics are also linked to rheumatoid arthritis according to other research. And still other research finds that ginger is also helpful for arthritis.

REFERENCES:

Castaneda S, Gonzalez-Juanatey C, Gonzalez-Gay MA. Inflammatory Arthritis and Heart Disease. Curr Pharm Des. 2018;24(3):262-280. doi:10.2174/1381612824666180123102632.

Ursum J, Korevaar JC, Twisk JW, Peters MJ, Schellevis FG, Nurmohamed MT, Nielen MM. Prevalence of chronic diseases at the onset of inflammatory arthritis: a population-based study. Fam Pract. 2013 Jul 20.

Sinnathurai P, Buchbinder R, Hill C, Lassere M, March L. Comorbidity in psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Intern Med J. 2018 Jul 26. doi:10.1111/imj.14046.