<p style="font-weight: 400;">People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis are at 23 per cent higher risk of developing diabetes, a study published by the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) revealed.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">As many as 1,629,854 people participated in the research that was held online. The study said that both diseases – rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes — are linked to the body's inflammatory response.</p>
"The finding supports the notion that inflammatory pathways are involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes," said the authors of the study conducted by Zixing Tian and Adrian Heald of the University of Manchester in Britain and their colleagues.

"Agents that reduce systemic inflammatory marker levels may have a role in preventing type 2 diabetes. This may involve focussing on more than one pathway at a time," the researchers said.

Inflammation has emerged as a key factor in the onset and progression of Type-2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease.
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The research team suggests that the systemic inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis might therefore contribute to the risk of individuals developing diabetes in the future.</p>
The researchers conducted a comprehensive search of a range of medical and scientific databases up to March 10, for cohort studies comparing the incidence of diabetes among people with rheumatoid arthritis to the diabetes risk within the general population.

The authors found that having rheumatoid arthritis was associated with a 23 per cent higher chance of developing Type-2 diabetes, compared to the diabetes risk within the general population.

"We suggest that more intensive screening and management of diabetes risk factors should be considered in people with rheumatoid arthritis," the researcher said..