According to reports from a study by Israeli researchers, rheumatoid arthritis patients may have double chances than healthy people of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is said to be an autoimmune disease, different from osteoarthritis, a common form of arthritis that is known to develop as one gets older.

RA causes pain, swelling and stiffness in joints, and can also affect other body parts, such as the mouth and lungs. A critical type may last a lifetime.

The researchers revealed that despite the management of factors like age, smoking, obesity and gender, the connection of the rheumatoid arthritis and COPD, a breathing disorder, was very present.

Dr. Howard, the Amital of the Sheba Medical Centre, Israel, stated, "We know that similar changes in core physiological processes cause symptoms in RA and COPD, and we hope that the results of our study prompts new research into potential links between altered genetic and autoimmune processes in the two conditions".

In the research, they used data from Clait Health Services, which is the largest healthcare provider in Israel. They compared the information on nearly 16,000 RA patients above 20- years old along with over 15,000 healthy controls matched for age and gender.

They discovered that the presence of CODP was 8.9%, compared to 4.4% for the controls, as lifestyle habits, disease risks and income levels were considered in the research.