Onset of rheumatoid arthritis after COVID-19

Onset of rheumatoid arthritis after COVID-19: Is it coincidence or connected?

Since the global pandemic in 2020 a hundreds of millions of people around the world had Covid, people with strong and weak immunity.

The consequences of the disease will be studied for a long time, but one thing is for sure, most of those who have been ill need a long time for complete recovering.

Coronavirus can cause severe consequences for the heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, blood vessels and other vital human systems and organs. As a rule, complications develop after a severe form of the disease, but may also appear after a mild one. So, according to WHO World Health Organization, every tenth recovered person reports remaining symptoms of coronavirus. More than 50 different types of complications after COVID-19 are being considered.

There are more than 100 types of arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that involves inflammation in the joints and other parts of the body. It involves changes in your immune system. 

COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been suggested to induce autoimmune phenomena. Multiple studies have reported the presence of autoantibodies in patients with COVID-19. Also the presence of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and flaring of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) after COVID-19 has been described.

Rheumatoid arthritis and common treatments for it can impact your immune system function.  A logically conclusion is that People with rheumatoid arthritis are at higher risk of some complications with COVID-19.

This fact has already been established by various studies, some of which you can find at this link https://ard.bmj.com/content/80/8/1096

To study the impact of COVID-19 have conducted serology studies on 61 patients, 5 weeks after COVID-19 infection. The scientists found no increase in the incidence of anti-citrullinated cyclic peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies. Also, they found that the clinical and autoantibody characteristics of three patients from another cohort with seroconversion were similar to the regular patients with RA. Based on this, they have proposed that RA after COVID-19 may be a coincidence rather than connected.

https://ard.bmj.com/content/80/8/1096

However, the studies were conducted on a small group of people, so at the moment they cannot be absolutely correct.

The consequences of the disease are still poorly understood, but every tenth patient suffers from remaining symptoms of coronavirus.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that some people with arthritis who use CBD report noticeable pain relief, improved sleep, or reduced anxiety.

That said, they also state that there have been “no rigorous clinical studies” in humans with arthritis to confirm this. The organization have urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to study and regulate CBD products.

Some studies in animals suggest that CBD could help treat arthritis and relieve the associated inflammatory pain. For example:

A 2017 studyTrusted Source found that CBD might be a safe and useful treatment option for joint pain associated with osteoarthritis.

A 2016 studyTrusted Source found that the topical application of CBD had the potential to relieve pain and inflammation associated with arthritis.

A 2014 reviewTrusted Source of the existing body of research on animals concluded that CBD may be an effective treatment for osteoarthritis.

A 2011 studyTrusted Source found that CBD helped reduce inflammatory pain in rats by affecting the way that pain receptors respond to stimuli.