Obesity: Friend or Foe in Rheumatoid Arthritis?

September 7, 2018

Does the obesity paradox suggest a protective effect?

References1. Versini M, Jeandel PY, Rosenthal E, Shoenfeld Y. Obesity in autoimmune diseases: not a passive bystander. Autoimmun Rev. 2014;13:981-1000.2. Escalante A, Haas RW del RincÃ³n I. Paradoxical effect of body mass index on survival in rheumatoid arthritis: role of comorbidity and systemic inflammation. Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:1624-1629.3. Baker JF, Billig E, Michaud K, et al. Weight loss, the obesity paradox, and the risk of death in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015;67:1711-1717.

Obesity and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a complicated relationship. Although obesity raises the risk of RA and worsens its clinical course, higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with lower mortality. This is known as the “obesity paradox” in RA.

Scroll through the slides for an overview of the link between body weight and RA-and the clinical implications of the obesity paradox.

(Image credit: ©kurhan/Shutterstock.com)

RA, rheumatoid arthritis.

BMI, body mass index; RA, rheumatoid arthritis.

RA, rheumatoid arthritis.