How Does Rheumatoid Arthritis Affect the Lungs?

At the root of RA is an overactive immune system that is causing an excess of inflammation in your body—primarily, your joints. That inflammation can show up in your lungs, too. “Rheumatoid arthritis can really affect any part of the lung,” says Joyce Lee, a pulmonary disease specialist at UCHealth’s Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic and associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, CO. “It can involve the airways, the lung tissue, the blood vessels, and the pleural surfaces [the membrane lining the lungs].”