NEWS -Hormonal factors play role in rheumatoid arthritis

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Hormonal factors play role in rheumatoid arthritis

Reported by Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study sheds light on why women are more likely than men to develop

rheumatoid arthritis.

Women are two to four times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

than men are. This has been linked to hormonal factors - especially as RA

tends to strike when hormone levels are changing, such as around menopause

or during pregnancy.

A team at Brigham and Women's Hospital now sheds new light on the hormonal

factor in RA. Using data from the long-running Nurses Health Study, they

discovered two things - breast-feeding is protective against RA and

irregular periods are a risk factor.

Women who had breast fed for around two years of their entire reproductive

life had a 50 per cent reduced risk of RA. And the effect was long-lasting,

because the disease was not striking the women till an average of 25 years

after the last pregnancy. And women who had irregular menstruation between

the ages of 20 and 35 were more likely to develop RA in later life.

Given that RA often starts around menopause, you might think that estrogen

replacement therapy would help reduce the risk. But this was not found to be

the case. There was also no link between taking oral contraceptives and

developing RA. Clearly the link between hormones and RA is complex and

deserving of further research.

Source

Arthritis & Rheumatism November

2004http://www.healthandage.com/Home/gm=1!gid1=6517