People living with arthritis are at greater risk of a deadly lung disease, it has been warned.
The 400,000 people with rheumatoid arthritis in Britain, and 50 million in the US, are almost 50 per cent more likely to end up with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to the results of a new study.
It has been added by experts to the list of complications, along with heart disease and diabetes, now linked to the painful condition.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term illness in which the immune system causes the body to attack itself, causing painful, swollen and stiff joints.
But the extra problems come from the inflammation it causes in those joints.
Arthritis increases the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 47 per cent, a new study suggests
It is this inflammation which is thought to lead to COPD – the umbrella term for diseases from emphysema to acute bronchitis which can cause wheezing and breathlessness so bad that daily activities can become impossible.
What did they find?
While rheumatoid arthritis sufferers have a 47 per cent greater risk of the lung condition, women with the condition see their danger rise by 61 per cent.
These are the findings of a study of almost 25,000 people with arthritis, monitored over a decade by Canadian researchers.
Lead author Dr Diane Lacaille, from the University of British Columbia, said: ‘These findings are novel because it has only recently been recognised that inflammation plays a role in the development of COPD, and clinicians treating people with rheumatoid arthritis are not aware that their patients are at increased risk of developing COPD.’
Olivia Belle, director of external affairs at charity Arthritis Research UK, said: ‘As this research shows, rheumatoid arthritis doesn’t just affect joints, but can cause lung disease too.
‘This research emphasises the importance of getting the inflammation under control as soon as possible.’
Sufferers should be ‘vigilant’
The authors of the study, published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research, say people with arthritis should be vigilant in looking for the first signs of COPD, which is the second most common lung disease after asthma in Britain.
Early symptoms, suffered by around 1.2 million people in the UK, include frequent chest infections and chesty coughs, as well as waking up in the night feeling breathless.
The researchers followed 24,625 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 25,396 people who were free of the condition to record how many were hospitalised with COPD.
Smoking increases the risk of both arthritis and the lung disease, which meant it could distort the findings.
Symptoms of COPD include breathing difficulty, cough, mucus production and wheezing
However when the results were adjusted, by modelling the additional risk from smoking in both groups, arthritis sufferers were still 47 per cent more likely than the general population to be admitted to hospital with COPD.
Why does arthritis cause COPD?
While it was once thought COPD was caused by inflammation in the lungs specifically, experts now think inflammation elsewhere in the body could also be a trigger.
To prevent that, they say anti-inflammatory drugs should be given to people in arthritis as quickly as possible.
Dr Lacaille added: ‘Our results emphasize the need to control inflammation, and in fact to aim for complete eradication of inflammation through effective treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.’