Dr. Ruderman shares the causes of rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Ruderman:
We do not know the cause of rheumatoid arthritis. We certainly know there is a genetic piece to it. There are certain genetic predispositions that have been identified but they do not necessarily cause rheumatoid arthritis.
We know that smoking actually, though not specifically the cause of rheumatoid arthritis and everybody, is associated with rheumatoid arthritis. So, people with rheumatoid arthritis are far more likely to be smokers than someone else without rheumatoid arthritis. Other things have been proposed but frankly, at this point, we do not really know the underlying root cause.
About Dr. Ruderman, M.D.:
Dr. Eric M. Ruderman, M.D., is associate professor in the division of rheumatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a board member of the Arthritis Foundation of Greater Chicago.
Dr. Ruderman graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, New York. He completed his residence at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship training in rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
Visit Dr. Ruderman at the Feinberg School of Medicine