Why Millennials Need to Start Worrying About Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis doesn’t just affect grandmas

The unfortunate reality is that the autoimmune disease, which causes often debilitating pain, stiffness, and swelling in joints, doesn’t discriminate. Though rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects two to three times more women than men, men can be and are diagnosed with the condition, according to Grace Wright, MD, rheumatologist and clinical associate professor at Langone Medical Center in New York City and past president of the American Association of Women in Rheumatology. More important, RA develops in people of all ages too. Dr. Wright is seeing an uptick in her patients who are 20 to 40 years old, and a second surge in the over-60 set. But so much is still unknown. “We have no sense for why those peaks occur,” she says.