It's not a life or death disease, my nan had RA and she was 98yrs when she past away. You just have to look after yourself !! X

I think much of it is the individual circumstances. I know a woman who had RA for all the decades I knew her. I think I met her when she was in her 60's and she was already very crippled up but she was a tough lady and kept active and engaged. She died in her 80's. Now I'm in my 60's with RA and not nearly as beat up from the disease as this lady was and I am in more awe than I was before of her trek through everyday. Now that was one tough warrior lady.

We do have more information now though. More meds. More info about diet and exercise so I'm hoping to be around for quite a long time.

I agree with Sylvia, we all know that any auto-immune disease can affect different organs in the body, but with modern treatment our life expectancy is much longer than in the past when treatment was either nothing or very basic. Vera

Sad but true.

An exact life expectancy is almost impossible to predict due to the varying nature of the disease. In general, patients can expect that the rheumatoid arthritis life expectancy could be shortened by roughly 10 years to as many as 15 years.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Life Expectancy - RheumatoidArthritis.org
https://www.rheumatoidarthritis.org/ra/prognosi...

What's the life expectancy for anyone? You could die in a car accident . I'll be 66 in about 6 weeks. As long as we take care of ourselves there's no telling what ripe old age we'll make it to.