Gastroesophageal reflux disease, in which stomach contents regularly flow back into the esophagus, is associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis. This has been shown by a study published in the journal. Frontiers in Genetics.
The scientists used genetic data from 129,000 patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease, 602,000 people without GERD, as well as 6,000 people with rheumatoid arthritis and 147,000 people without rheumatoid arthritis. They identified the characteristic genetic variants (point mutations) of these diseases and the connections between them.
It turns out that a genetic predisposition to GERD increases the risk of rheumatoid arthritis by 69% compared to those without a predisposition. However, mutations that predispose to arthritis did not affect the risk of GERD.
The existence of links between genetic traits that increase the risk of certain diseases may indicate that their developmental mechanisms are linked at the molecular level. Using genetic data instead of actual disease rates allowed scientists to rule out a variety of environmental and lifestyle factors that were difficult to account for.
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