News - Being Thin Has Downside for People with Arthritis

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Being Thin Has Downside for People with Arthritis

Wed Dec 8, 3:38 PM ET

By Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Yes, you can be too thin -- if you have

rheumatoid arthritis. Weighing less than normal appears to increase the risk

of dying from heart disease for people with arthritis, results of a

population-based study indicate.

" This may appear to be counter-intuitive at first glance, " Dr. Sherine E.

told Reuters Health, noting that " in most people, a high BMI (a

measure of weight in relation to height) is a risk factor for heart

disease. "

and a team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, compared BMI

patterns and cardiovascular deaths in 603 patients with rheumatoid arthritis

and a like number of matched but arthritis-free " controls " who were followed

for an average of 27 years prior to and 15 years after a diagnosis of

rheumatoid arthritis.

By the end of that period, 356 participants with arthritis (59 percent) and

306 without (51 percent) had died. The underlying or contributing cause of

death was cardiovascular disease in 214 arthritis patients and 167

non-arthritis subjects, according to a report in the medical journal

Arthritis and Rheumatism.

The investigators found that arthritis patients with a low BMI at the time

of diagnosis were more than three times more likely to die of heart disease

compared with non-arthritis, normal-weight individuals.

Arthritis patients with a normal BMI at diagnosis who lost weight during

follow-up were twice as likely to die of cardiovascular causes as control

subjects who maintained a normal BMI over the years.

" This is important for doctors caring for people with rheumatoid arthritis

because it means that they need to pay close attention to cardiovascular

disease prevention and care among their rheumatoid arthritis patients,

especially their thin rheumatoid arthritis patients, " said.

" It is likely that patients with the most severe forms of rheumatoid

arthritis typically have very active systemic inflammation, which can be

associated with weight loss, " told Reuters Health.

If a low body weight in people with rheumatoid arthritis is a consequence of

inflammation, then the current findings support the idea that inflammation

may play a role in cardiovascular disease, she and her colleagues point out.

SOURCE: Arthritis and Rheumatism, November 2004.