Is Arthritis Caused By Your Childhood?

A study published in RMD Open uncovered strange links between certain early-life factors and the risk of developing arthritis.

While osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are better known, ankylosing spondylitis (AS) primarily affects the spine, joints, and tendons, leading to symptoms like pain, stiffness, and fatigue.

Genetics play a crucial role in the onset of AS, but environmental factors, particularly those experienced early in life, are increasingly recognized as significant contributors to the development of this disease during our middle years and later.

A Swedish research team conducted a case-control study, which included 5,612 individuals diagnosed with AS between 2001 and 2022, and 22,042 control subjects without inflammatory arthritis. They explored a range of perinatal and childhood factors, such as birth weight, maternal health during pregnancy, and early-life infections.

The researchers expected to find an association between AS and factors that were present just before and just after birth. But that’s not quite how it turned out.

Take a look at their findings:

1. There was no association between AS risk and various fetal growth-related and other factors from just before and after birth.

2. Having older siblings increased the participants’ risk of AS by 12–15%.

3. There was an association between childhood tonsillectomy and later development of AS, with a 30% higher risk.

4. Being born in the winter increased AS risk in later years.

The scientists did another study to confirm their results and to exclude the environmental factors and shared family environments that might interfere with their findings.

To do this, they conducted a sibling comparison analysis, which included 3,965 AS patients and their 6,070 siblings who did not have a diagnosis of arthritis.

This second study confirmed the findings of the first study.

1. Having one older sibling increased their AS risk by 18%, and having two or more siblings increased the risk by 34%.
2. Tonsil removal increased it by 36%.
3. Being born in the winter increased it by only 4%.

The researchers suggested that the relationship between AS and older siblings could be due to increased exposure to infections in early life for children with older siblings. Obviously, if your older siblings have flu or any respiratory infections, you will catch them from a very young age.

And since tonsil removal might be a treatment for infections, the AS-tonsillectomy relationship seems to confirm that speculation.

While this information is probably too late to save you from this form of inflammatory arthritis, it might still help your children or grandchildren. If you can ensure that older kids who are sick stay away from the very little ones, you might make a difference in their health many decades later.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to reverse all types of arthritis. You can follow these simple, natural steps here…