Obese women have higher risk for rheumatoid arthritis

Obese women may have an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis — adding one more chronic illness to the list of ills brought on by extra pounds.

Women with rheumatoid arthritis are already more prone to heart attacks than the general population because of their autoimmune disease.

The Mayo Clinic study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, found the risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis was about 20 percent more for overweight women.

The researchers followed 813 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and the same number of controls. They also studied other patient data from 1980 to 2007 and found that from 1985 to 2007 the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis rose 9.2 percent per 100,000 women. Obesity accounted for 52.2 percent of the increase.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and surrounding tissues. About 1.3 million people in the U.S. have the disease, which occurs in two to three times as many women as men, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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