Over 40,000 people in Ireland have rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a painful condition which causes the joints to become inflamed. Now, researchers have found that this inflammation is one of the reasons why people with RA are more likely to die from heart disease.

Swedish researchers monitored the progress of over 400 people with RA for five years from the time they were diagnosed. They assessed how the disease was progressing by taking into account the participants' physical appearance and measuring the chemical markers of inflammation in their bodies.

General health was also assessed, including the risk of developing heart disease.

The study found that overall, people with RA are more likely to die as a result of heart disease than their peers without RA. The researchers said that this is partly due to the inflammation associated with RA.

However, the study also found that treatment with special arthritis drugs, known as DMARDs (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs) reduced this risk of heart disease.

The researchers from University Hospital, Umeå, noted that after five years, almost all of the participants were being treated with DMARDs. The drugs both improved the participants' appearance and reduced levels of inflammation.

"Inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis increases patients' risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular events. However it is possible to reduce this risk in a two-pronged attack by treating both the inflammation and traditional risk factors for heart disease," the team explained.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Arthritis Research & Therapy.

For more information on RA, see our Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinic here

For more information on heart disease, click here