Diabetics are more than twice as likely to suffer from sever arthritis requiring arthroplasty (surgical replacement of an arthritic joint), than non-diabetics according to the results of a recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care.

The research, led by Dr. Georg Schett of the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, involved 927 adults aged 40 to 80 who were followed over a 20 year period.

With no cure and a limited number of treatment options, many people living with arthritis turn to natural treatments to help ease their symptoms. One vitamin that has shown some promise as a potential arthritis treatment is vitamin B6 as some studies have linked deficient vitamin B6 levels with a higher degree of joint inflammation and pain in arthritis sufferers.

Heavy babies could be more than twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than babies of a normal weight according to an American study published this month in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

The study focused on 13,639 women from the Nurses Health Study who were followed between 1976 and 2002. During that time 683 (5.0%) of the women developed rheumatoid arthritis.

Studies have found that smoking, as well as being a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other respiratory problems, can also increase an individuals risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

One of the largest studies on the impact of smoking on rheumatoid arthritis was a British case-control study published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in 2001. In that study, 239 people who had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis were compared to 239 healthy control subjects who were matched by age, sex, and job status.

Several studies have linked rheumatoid arthritis with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as strokes and myocardial infarctions (heart attacks).

One study, published in the journal Circulation in 2003, involved 114,342 women from the Nurses Health Study who were followed for 18 years. At the end of the study, 7,786 women (7%) reported to have developed symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers found that both heart attacks and strokes were more common in women with rheumatoid arthritis compared to those without the disease.

Swiss researchers have found that ankle sprains or ankle stability can lead to arthritis in the ankle joint later in life.

The majority of arthritis cases occur through wear and tear of joints, particularly the hip and knee. It is well known however that a small number of arthritis cases are the result of joint fractures. It had also been suspected that sprains or strains of certain joints such as the ankle could lead to arthritis.

Weight is an important risk factor for osteoarthritis. Being overweight increases the probability of developing osteoarthritis in weight bearing joints such as the knees and hips. This is because heavier individuals put much more load on these areas leading to greater wearing of these joints.

A recent study in the United Kingdom has isolated a gene combination that causes people with rheumatoid arthritis to be as much as three times more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular disease.

The study which was funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign and led by Dr. Tracey M. Farragher at the University of Manchester involved over 1,000 individuals with arthritis.