Where there’s smoke, there’s an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
Reference1. Seror R, Henry J, Gusto G, et al. Passive smoking in childhood increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology. 2018 Aug 14. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/key219. [Epub ahead of print]
Seror and fellow researchers in France have discovered that in addition to active smoking, passive exposure to tobacco during childhood may increase the risk of future rheumatoid arthritis (RA).1 Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home points for physicians.
Environmental agents have long been thought to interact with genetic factors, leading to the development of autoimmune conditions. Because gene-environment interaction might occur decades before the emergence of a clinical disease, exposure during childhood may predict RA in the future.
