There is still no definite reason that could explain what the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is and why does the immune system turn against itself, though the pieces of this puzzle seem to be falling into place after much research has been done on this subject. A possible cause of rheumatoid arthritis could be some genetic factors and scientists are of the opinion that certain genes can play an important role in the immune system and are thus associated with the development of rheumatoid arthritis. Even then, some people with rheumatoid arthritis may not have such genes while others with this gene may not develop rheumatoid arthritis, at all. The inference that one can draw from such contradictory data is that the person's genes may play an important role and be a cause of rheumatoid arthritis but may not be the only determining factor.

Environmental Factors And Hormonal Factors

Another possible cause of rheumatoid arthritis may be environmental factors and a number of scientists are of the opinion that something like this must be a cause by triggering the disease process, more so in the case of people with a genetic makeup that makes them prone to contract rheumatoid arthritis. However, rheumatoid arthritis is not contagious and therefore a person will not be at risk of contracting the disease from coming into contact with a patient of rheumatoid arthritis.

There are other factors that may be thought of being a possible cause of rheumatoid arthritis and these include a number of different hormonal factors such as women being more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as compared with men, breastfeeding may also be a contributing factor to aggravating the disease and contraceptives may change the likelihood of getting the disease.

With the amount of research going into studying the possible cause of rheumatoid arthritis, there is plenty of progress being made in this direction and the results of such research have made it possible to enable people with rheumatoid arthritis to remain functional in their lives and this improvement is far greater than what was known twenty years ago. Stem cell transplantation and other novel techniques are playing an important role in improving the quality of life for people afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis.

Some of the other possible causes of rheumatoid arthritis may be viruses, bacteria as well as fungi though there is no concrete proof to substantiate these claims. Finding the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is the subject of much research, worldwide and it is suspected that some kinds of infection or environmental factors play a major role in contracting rheumatoid arthritis.