DOMINO DISEASES

HEALTH conditions that are linked to other diseases. this week: respiratory disease and rheumatoid arthritis. ASTHMA sufferers may have a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), reports the journal Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. found that people who’d previously had acute sinusitis had a 91 per cent higher risk of RA; the risk was 74 per cent greater if they’d had acute pharyngitis (throat inflammation), 56 per cent greater with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (a range of respiratory conditions including emphysema), and 29 per cent with asthma.

One suggestion is that antibodies that attack healthy tissue in arthritis may first develop in the mucus that lines the respiratory tract.