Re: RE: Smoking/RA

[Guest guest]

This month made 7 years I quit. I smoked 2 to 2 1/2 packs a day, I quit cold

turkey. Do I think smoking caused my RA, NOT!

I am not one of those people who needs to know why I have this disease, I just

wish it would go the hell away. I personally don't care why I have it, just

find something to get it under control. I've accepted the fact that I'm going

to pretty much live with pain the rest of my life. I don't think my RA will

ever go into remission. Sorry to be so negative, guess I'm having on of " those "

days. Oh well, at least it's Friday and I have a three day weekend....Yeah~~~~

Tery - FL

> To anyone who might feel sad they once smoked and now have RA, you can't be

> sure smoking had anything to do with it.  Sometimes the most irritating

> thing to me is that I would wind up with RA and have never smoked a

> cigarette in my life.  I was so proud of myself that peer pressure to smoke

> never made me even consider taking up the habit.  I doubt I would have fared

> worse if I had!

>

> Patsy

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Matsumura [mailto:Matsumura_Clan@...]

> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 1:08 PM

> RA-Support

> Subject: [ ] Heavy smoking linked to rheumatoid arthritis

>

>

> Heavy smoking linked to rheumatoid arthritis

>

> NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters Health) - People with a long history of heavy

> smoking are more likely than nonsmokers to develop rheumatoid arthritis,

> according to a new report. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease in

> which progressive damage to the joints leads to increasing disability.

>

> In a study, people who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 40

> years were 13 times more likely than nonsmokers to develop rheumatoid

> arthritis. However, the researchers, led by Dr. Hutchinson of

> University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool, UK, found only a weak link between

> rheumatoid arthritis and those who had smoked at any time in the past.

>

> Hutchinson and colleagues compared 239 patients being treated for rheumatoid

> arthritis with the same number of patients from a dermatology clinic. Their

> findings are published in the ls of the Rheumatic Diseases.

>

> Although the two groups included about the same number of ex-smokers, the

> rheumatoid arthritis group included almost twice as many current smokers

> with an average smoking history of 18 years of pack-a-day smoking compared

> with just one year of pack-a-day smoking among the other patients.

>

> Of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 60% reported no close relatives

> with the disease. When compared with patients who did have a family history

> of rheumatoid arthritis, this group had a significantly different smoking

> history. For example, patients with no family history of the disease had

> about a 25-year history of pack-a-day smoking compared with just 4 years in

> rheumatoid arthritis patients with a family history of the disease.

>

> The researchers conclude that although smoking itself is not associated with

> rheumatoid arthritis, prolonged heavy smoking is a risk factor. When such a

> relationship is found, it is often difficult to say which came first: do

> people with rheumatoid arthritis smoke more because they have the disease,

> or do people who smoke heavily tend to get the disease because they smoke?

>

> Although this study does not answer the question, it does suggest that

> having rheumatoid arthritis does not lead to heavy smoking, the researchers

> note. The authors point out that patients with a family history of the

> disease tended to have had the condition longer but were less likely to

> smoke.

>

> Hutchinson and colleagues also note that although the reasons for the strong

> link between heavy smoking and rheumatoid arthritis are not yet known, one

> plausible connection is the effect of smoking on the body's production of

> rheumatoid factor--antibodies often found in the blood of rheumatoid

> arthritis patients.

>

> Previously, investigators have found that heavy exposure to smoke over time

> increases the production of rheumatoid factor among both healthy people and

> those with rheumatoid arthritis.

>

> The smoking link may also help explain why people with rheumatoid arthritis

> have a higher mortality rate, according to Hutchinson and colleagues,

> because continued smoking during the adult years sharply increases the death

> rate at all ages.

>

> SOURCE: ls of the Rheumatic Diseases 2001;60:223-227.

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