Nicotine harms bones, muscles, and joints.

• Position: Smoking - Medical research - Brief Article

Cigarette smoking is not only bad for your heart and lungs. New reports are showing nicotine is bad for your bones, muscles, and joints as well. According to Edwin J. Hanley, chairman, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, N.C., "Nicotine slows fracture healing, estrogen effectiveness, and it counteracts the antioxidant properties of vitamins C and E, predisposing smokers to increased hip fracture risk." In addition, lower back pain and sciatica are more common in smokers, especially those who have smokers' cough. This possibly is due to increased intradiscal pressure, he suggests.

"Cigarette smoking is implicated in several musculoskeletal disease processes, including osteoporosis, low back pain, spinal disc disease, and wound healing," Hanley notes. "Smoking increases the incidence of spinal compression fractures in postmenopausal women because they have less bone mass." In addition, studies show that:

* Cigarette smokers have more-severe disc degeneration than nonsmokers.

* Smoking weakens spinal ligaments and reduces the production of bone cells.

* Postmenopausal women who smoke lose bone faster than their peers.

* Rotator...