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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

Articles tagged with "Obesity"

Larger Weight Loss Tied to Greater Improvements in Arthritic Knees

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Obese people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) may find greater symptom relief when they lose larger amounts of weight, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 240 obese adults with pain from knee OA who were participating in an 18-month experiment to see how diet alone or diet plus exercise affected their health. Participants…

Obesity Linked with Disability in RA

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be more likely to become disabled if they’re obese, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on more than 25,000 patients with RA. Most were overweight or obese when they joined the study. Those who were severely obese were more likely to report some disability at baseline. Over…

Obesity Linked with Disability After Joint Surgery

Shereen Lehman  |  

(Reuters Health)—People who undergo joint surgery, such as joint replacements for arthritis, are more likely to become dependent in the years following surgery if they are obese, researchers say. Further research is needed to know why this happens and how to prevent it, the study team writes in British Journal of Anaesthesia.1 “I think there’s…

Obesity’s Effects on Inflammatory Markers in Patients with RA

Arthritis Care & Research  |  

New research has examined the effect of obesity on inflammatory markers, specifically C-reactive protein (CRP) level and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers found higher BMIs were associated with higher CRP levels in women both with and without RA, suggesting the phenomenon is related to adiposity and not an indication of disease activity. For men with RA, low BMI was associated with higher CRP levels, which proved to be RA-specific but not a direct causal effect of adiposity…

Obesity Associated with Increased Inflammatory Markers in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Will Boggs MD  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Obesity and higher fat mass are associated with increased levels of inflammatory markers in women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), researchers report. “Physicians should recognize that C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) are affected by obesity in patients with and without rheumatoid arthritis, especially in women,” Dr. Michael D. George from the University of…

Obesity & Rheumatic Disease

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“Obesity is an inflammatory state, so it is in the landscape of the rheumatologist,” says Christopher Ritchlin, MD, MPH. And the more attention rheumatologists pay to obesity, the better…

Mechanistic, Epidemiologic Clues Suggest Possible Link Between Obesity, Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Obesity has an established systemic inflammatory component. Could that be a trigger for the inflammation seen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatic diseases? Although there is no direct scientific evidence, both mechanistic and epidemiologic clues do give some intriguing suggestions of a possible link. “At first, we thought that fat was involved only in…

Why Rheumatologists Should Focus on Patients’ Cardiovascular Health

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Baseball is a great sport. It’s fascinating to watch the evolving duel between pitcher and batter. As the former employs their remarkably powerful and versatile rotator cuff and forearm flexor muscles to hurl blazing pitches, the latter engages their exceptionally honed hand–eye neural link to make contact with the ball. Baseball is the ultimate summertime…