Smoking
Smoking is a major risk factor for many health issues, including rheumatoid arthritis. Indeed, tobacco products basically result in a cause-and-effect relationship with this condition. In addition to increasing the risks of developing symptoms, harmful substances from smoke would speed up the progression of related symptoms, such as pain or swelling. Being heavy smokers almost doubles the risk, which can even be amplified when you have the HLA marker. Even when you take some drugs to deal with the illness, direct or indirect exposure to tobacco smoke would interfere with your treatments. Therefore, it is important to quit smoking. [3]
