Lin MC, et al. - A longitudinal cohort study was conducted to distinguish the association between Chinese herbal medicine (CHMs) use and the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Researchers applied the nationwide claim data to include 8,349 newly diagnosed patients with RA and simultaneously free of COPD between 1998 and 2010. Via the Cox proportional hazards regression model, the hazard ratio (HR) of COPD with regard to CHMs use was estimated. The study found a significant relationship of CHMs use with a lower risk of COPD onset in RA patients, indicated that CHMs could be integrated into conventional therapy to decrease COPD risk.