What are the causes of rheumatoid arthritis?
When talking about the causes of rheumatoid arthritis, it is usually called idiopathic, which means we do not know the cause of the disease. This disease is widely spread around the world, which is why there is a lot of research and studies being made to understand the causes and the risk factors of rheumatoid arthritis. Most of the research supports the presence of genes that causes the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis, and it should have some factors to promote disease incidence, including environmental and lifestyle factors.
Here are some factors that may cause rheumatoid arthritis, increase its incidence, stimulate early occurrence, or exacerbate the already occurring symptoms.
Genetics
Some rheumatoid arthritis research supports the hypothesis of genetic factors present in the patient’s DNA. But after a lot of research, science shows that only a small percentage of rheumatoid arthritis can happen because of genetic factors alone. Research that supports the genetics hypothesis shows that many patients of rheumatoid arthritis have the gene, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in their DNA. This research also focuses on environmental and lifestyle factors that work along with the HLA gene for the disease to occur. HLA gene is usually linked to autoimmune diseases, it has many types, and HLA-DR4 is the type that is involved in rheumatoid arthritis.